Ready to Repeat tries to stretch speed in Soaring Free Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Ready to Repeat will try to extend his speed out to 6 1/2 furlongs in the $100,000 Soaring Free, and the promising Dreaming of Drew will try to do the same in the $100,000 Catch a Glimpse for fillies in a pair of 2-year-old stakes on turf Sunday at Woodbine.

Ready to Repeat came close to breaking the five-furlong inner-turf record when graduating second time out July 12. After breaking a bit slowly in the 5 1/2-furlong Victoria Stakes on the Tapeta on Aug. 2, he went to the lead and never looked back to win comfortably with a 74 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I didn’t really intend to run him in the Victoria,” trainer Gail Cox said. “I didn’t like the three weeks [back], but it looked like it was coming up light and it seemed silly to not go in there.”

Trainer Mark Casse runs Gretzky the Great, who was second to Ready to Repeat at first asking July 12. A son of freshman sire Nyquist, Gretzky the Great won a six-furlong maiden special on the Tapeta easily Aug. 2, earning a 72 Beyer.

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“He’s a great-moving horse,” Casse said. “We’ve been high on him all along.”

Trainer Wesley Ward sends out Into the Sunrise, a second-out maiden special winner on the grass at Ellis Park. He breezed five-eighths in company with Catch a Glimpse entrant Illegal Smile in 1:04 around the cones on the main turf here last Sunday.

Gospel Way is experimenting on the grass off a closing third in the Victoria.

Rounding out the field is Exceed, who won a five-furlong hybrid sprint for Ontario-sired and $40,000 maidens on the Tapeta on July 26.

Catch a Glimpse

Dreaming of Drew should be favored off a fast second-out maiden win on the Tapeta. She galloped out strongly after scoring by six lengths, receiving an 81 Beyer in the 5 1/2-furlong maiden special.

“I was high on her from the get-go,” trainer Barb Minshall said. “She’s a really nice horse. I think she’ll go two turns. If she runs well, we’ll be looking at the Natalma Stakes with her.”

Dreaming of Drew is from the first crop of the Grade 3 winner Speightster, a sprinter/miler on dirt. She’s out of the Polytrack stakes winner Dreaming of Liz, who was second in a one-mile optional claimer in her final career start, which came on the grass at Churchill.

Casse entered the debuting Ostracize and the talented maiden Ready to Romance, who’s coming off a second to Joy’s Rocket in the My Dear Stakes. Joy’s Rocket returned to finish a bang-up second in the Bolton Landing Stakes at Saratoga.

Illegal Smile improved dramatically in her second start July 9 at Belmont, when she was a prominent second in a six-furlong maiden special on the turf.