Sharp, confident Theodora B. sets sights on E.P. Taylor Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Maryland-based Theodora B. will try to add a Grade 1 score to her burgeoning résumé in Sunday’s $600,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes for fillies and mares on the grass at Woodbine.

Trained by Michael Dickinson for Augustin Stable, Theodora B. has been a regular visitor to Woodbine. She is 3 for 4 this year as a 5-year-old. She won a stakes here for the first time two back, going wire to wire on turf in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly at the 1 1/4-mile distance of the Taylor. She employed front-running tactics again most recently when taking the $492,575 TVG Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

“Her confidence is sky-high at the moment,” Dickinson said. “She’s better this year because she’s more relaxed and she’s stronger. We weigh our horses all the time, and she’s carrying more weight. She’s 25 pounds heavier than she was last year. Mentally and physically, she’s grown up.”

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Dickinson stressed that Theodora B. is quite versatile, and her last two races aren’t indicative of a newfound running style.

“We didn’t intend to go to the lead, but we inherited it,” Dickinson said.

Justin Stein, who was aboard for the Dance Smartly, will ride Theodora B. She shipped into the barn of trainer Katerina Vassilieva.

The seven-horse field is devoid of European shippers, although Etoile was a top 3-year-old filly in France last year before joining trainer Chad Brown’s powerful string this year. In her second and most recent start on this side of the pond, Etoile was second as the favorite after making a bid along the rail in Dance Smartly.

Rideforthecause, a 4-year-old Sam-Son Farm runner, blossomed this summer under the guidance of trainer Gail Cox. After clearing the second allowance condition going 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf Aug. 1, she won the Grade 2 Canadian at about 1 1/8 miles on the main turf by four lengths over Grade 1 winner Cambier Parc on Sept. 12.

“Distance is a huge thing,” Cox said. “She wanted to go farther and didn’t get an opportunity.”

Secret Message, based at Fair Hill in Maryland with trainer Graham Motion, won last year’s Grade 2 Nassau over Starship Jubilee before ending up 10th behind that rival in a tough edition of the E.P. Taylor.

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Secret Message has been campaigned as a miler this year. She won her season opener in the Grade 3 Mint Julep at Churchill, and subsequently ran sixth in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland. After ending up third in the $100,000 Perfect Sting Stakes at Saratoga, she was fifth after a wide trip in the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf on Sept. 12.

Elizabeth Way will try to give trainer Roger Attfield his second Taylor tally. She won the Grade 2 Nassau over a mile in her local debut May 30, and then went on to finish third in the Dance Smartly and fourth in the Canadian.

Pretty Point ships in from California off a fifth-place finish going 1 1/4 miles in the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita.

Restricted stakes winner Court Return is coming off a distant third in the Canadian.