Simon's pair look tough in Royal North

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Stu Simon has two speedy runners in Saturday’s Grade 2 Royal North at Woodbine, last year’s Canadian champion female sprinter Summer Sunday and Sister Peacock.

Summer Sunday won last year’s Royal North as part of a three-race win streak in stakes. Under high weight of 125 pounds, she wired an excellent group that included the talented Oleksandra, covering six furlongs on firm turf in 1:08.26.

Off an eight-month layoff in her June 21 season opener in the Grade 3 Whimsical on the Tapeta, Summer Sunday tracked the imposing favorite Jean Elizabeth before tailing off late to finish third in a tough 10-horse field.

“I thought it was decent,” Simon said. “Her number came back in line. She was the victim of a really hot horse there. To be in a position to try to win, she had to chase after that horse. If she had run for second money, she probably would have been second. I’m not faulting the rider for doing that.”

Summer Sunday breezed five-eighths in a bullet 1:00.20 on the Tapeta on July 9.

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She’s doing really good,” Simon said. “She’s run on the turf just once, when she won this race last year. The turf doesn’t hurt her.”

Sister Peacock won the Star Shoot Stakes on the Tapeta and the William D. Graham Memorial Stakes on the turf in the spring of 2019. One of her best races was a neck loss when third in the Galway Stakes at Saratoga.

Sister Peacock led throughout a second-level optional claimer June 13, beating Sav going seven-eighths on the main track in her return from an eight-month absence.

“It was a good comeback race,” Simon said. “Sav chased her pretty hard and is a nice filly in her own right.”

Will the similar aggressive styles of Summer Sunday and Sister Peacock be to their detriment Saturday?

“Summer Sunday is more of a tracking speed type than” Sister Peacock, Simon said. “But Sister Peacock doesn’t necessarily need the lead, either. They just have to run their own races.”

A field of nine was drawn for the $175,000 Royal North.

Trillium Stakes

The Grade 3, $125,000 Trillium, the supporting feature on Saturday’s 10-race card, attracted eight entries. Another Time was cross-entered in the Royal North and in this 1 1/16-mile route on the Tapeta, over which she scored twice in 2018 before evolving into a turf specialist. She’s coming off a heart-breaking loss in the Grade 2 Nassau.

Maryland invader Souper Escape took the La Lorgnette Stakes over this synthetic surface and distance last year.

Theodora B. shipped in from her Maryland base to finish third in last year’s Grade 3 Maple Leaf.

Painting is stretching out off a closing second in the Whimsical, and is bred for the task at hand.