Revved Up favored in $700K stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Revved Up, an 8-year-old gelding who has earned more than $1 million, has been established as the 2-1 morning-line choice for the first running of the $700,000 Northern Dancer Breeders' Cup Turf here at Woodbine on Sunday.

The Northern Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile race for 3-year-olds and upward, drew a field of seven on Thursday and will be the centerpiece of Woodbine's 50th anniversary party, which is being celebrated on Sunday. Woodbine opened on June 12, 1956.

Revved Up will be making his fourth appearance at Woodbine, with a win and a pair of seconds to show for his previous visits, all in Grade 2 turf stakes.

Trained by Christophe Clement and ridden by Brice Blanc, Revved Up is 2 for 2 this season.

Jambalaya, based here with trainer Catherine Day Phillips, is morning-line oddsmaker Jennifer Morrison's second choice at 3-1.

Jambalaya, a 4-year-old gelding who will be ridden by Jono Jones, is coming off a game win in the Singspiel, his second success in three tries over 1 1/2 miles on turf.

Porfido, a 4-year-old colt who was a multiple Group 1 winner in his native Chile, finished fifth behind Revved Up in an allowance race over 1 1/4 miles on turf at Belmont on June 23. That race was Porfido's North American debut and his first start for trainer Bobby Frankel and jockey Garrett Gomez, who retains the mount.

The 4-1 third choice, Porfido is the 124-pound highweight under the allowance conditions of the Northern Dancer.

Sky Conqueror, who will open at 9-2 in the Northern Dancer, registered his first stakes victory in the Grade 2 King Edward over 1 1/8 miles of turf here last time out.

The red-hot Todd Kabel will be back aboard Sky Conqueror, a 4-year-old homebred colt who races for Bill Sorokolit and is trained by Darwin Banach.

Pellegrino is the only North American Grade 1 winner in the field. He captured the 1 1/2-mile Hollywood Turf Cup in 2004.

A 7-year-old horse who moved into trainer Roger Attfield's stable last winter, Pellegrino was a badly beaten fourth as the even-money Singspiel favorite. He wore blinkers in that race but will take them off Sunday. Jim McAleney will ride Pellegrino for the first time.

Rounding out the field are locals Last Answer and Shoal Water. Last Answer was beaten just a neck as the Singspiel runner-up while Shoal Water finished fourth there while making his first start in almost two years.