Red-hot Moran teams with Spirited, looking to win maiden
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Apprentice sensation Pietro Moran won Saturday’s $1 million King’s Plate in front-running style on longshot Mansetti. The meet’s leading rider, Moran should again be tough to catch in Thursday’s fourth race at Woodbine aboard Spirited in the 4-year-old’s third career start in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight event on Tapeta.
To accommodate a year-long renovation project on the main turf, racing on Thursdays has been pushed back to a 5:30 p.m. post time, with seven-race cards planned.
Spirited debuted with trainer Bill Mott in February 2024 at Gulfstream Park, finishing a well-beaten fourth in a sloppy maiden special. The daughter of the late Arrogate then went to the sidelines for over a year and began working up a storm here on the Tapeta early this summer for trainer Josie Carroll.
Spirited was bet down to favoritism in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special on the Tapeta on July 12. With Moran aboard, she dueled for the lead before giving way grudgingly to her closing stablemate Talbot’s Riplyn. With that tightener under her girth, she should prove tough to catch on Thursday in a nine-horse field without much other speed.
D’aurum and R Canadian Apple both competed in the July 20 Woodbine Oaks.
D’aurum was a creditable fourth at nearly 50-1, closing from left field in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks. Victorious No Time returned to disappoint as the favorite in the Plate, but third-place finisher Winterberry subsequently won the Bison City Stakes over Shifty.
D’aurum was previously a minor player against maiden special company on turf and Tapeta. Daisuke Fukumoto retains the mount for the Plate-winning connections of trainer Kevin Attard and owners Al and Bill Ulwelling.
R Canadian Apple trailed in 12th at 48-1 in the Oaks. The giant daughter of Street Sense rallied to finish a close third in her seven-furlong opener in May before a slow-starting fifth in another maiden special over 1 1/16 miles June 21.
Trainer Mike DePaulo sends out R Canadian Apple and Orient Beach, who came off an eight-month layoff to finish fourth in a one-mile maiden special on the main turf Aug. 2.
Ginger Zip rallied for second behind the favored Biles when debuting in a seven-furlong maiden special July 26. The daughter of outstanding synthetic route sire Ghostzapper is a half-sister to Riptide Rock, who was a fast-closing second in the 2021 Queen’s Plate on Tapeta. Trainer Harold Ladouceur has been shut out with 17 maiden second-time starters during the past five years.
Mew N Me is a question mark in her first synthetic track excursion. She has made both of her starts in main turf sprints, finishing third ahead of two next-out winners with the addition of Lasix on July 5. Her sire, champion sprinter Mitole, has gotten 10 percent winners in synthetic routes. There is no synthetic breeding in her immediate female family.
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