Rhaenyra has easy time with Georgian Bay Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Rhaenyra put away the heavily favored Executive Success up front en route to a comfortable score under Pietro Moran in Sunday’s $100,000 Georgian Bay, one of two five-furlong inner-turf stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds on the Woodbine card.

Executive Success and Rhaenyra vied for the lead through a quick opening quarter before the latter assumed command at the head of the stretch. Rhaenyra then drew off to prevail by three lengths, in a time of :56.82 seconds over the firm ground.

Su Legado Vive edged out a closing Zippy Gamble for second in the five-horse field of fillies. Executive Success faded to fourth, which created some lucrative show payoff due to some bridge-jumping action on her.

All five entrants were trying the turf for the first time and Rhaenyra obviously handled it best.

“She broke a step slow, but once she got going, she was really good,” Moran said. “Around the turn, she was just cruising, so I knew we had a good shot. She had a really good work over the training turf last week, so I was pretty confident.”

Winning trainer Kevin Attard was relieved to see the daughter of Reload rebound off a dull effort in her second outing of the season.

“We were very disappointed in her previous start,” Attard said. “We thought of this filly in high regard. She breezed like she had some talent, so it was nice to see her put it all together today.”

Rhaenyra ($18.20) earned $60,000 in her stakes debut for owner-breeders Al and Bill Ulwelling.

*** Go Kart Mozart ($4.20) showed some grit when winning his third in a row in the $100,000 Lake Huron for colts and geldings.

Go Kart Mozart broke on top under Sofia Vives before dueling two-wide for the lead with Dark Screen, who opened up a half-length lead entering the lane.

Go Kart Mozart battled back through the final furlong to score by a half-length, in a time of :56.92 seconds. My Boy Bruce rallied belatedly for third in the six-horse field.

“This horse has shown us really good speed figures this year, and he’s been breaking really sharp,” Vives said. “I was actually kind of glad to see another horse come up next to him and actually challenge him this time. He showed that he could dig in. He was much the best today.”

A son of the late Souper Speedy, Go Kart Mazart banked $60,000 in his stakes debut for owner-breeder Frank DiGiulio Jr.

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