Social Code hopes to avoid traffic in Alywow
?q=100)
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The stars could be aligning for Social Code to run a big race in Saturday’s $100,000 Alywow Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Woodbine.
A huge dark bay trained by Steve Flint for CamHaven Farms, Social Code is taking a quality turf pedigree and improving form into her first turf start in the 6 1/2-furlong main course sprint. A daughter of 13 percent turf-sprint sire Constitution, she’s out of an unraced Animal Kingdom mare who is a half-sister to turf champion Bricks and Mortar, a Grade 1 winner who banked $7 million, and the Grade 3-winning grass router Emerald Beech.
After landing her debut in late September, Social Code missed the board in both the Grade 3 Mazarine at Woodbine and a dirt allowance at Fair Grounds. Following a winter layoff, she wound up third in the six-furlong Star Shoot Stakes. A slow start and pace hindered her chances most recently when she emerged from traffic to finish a close third behind Star Shoot winner Brindi in the seven-furlong Ruling Angel Stakes.
“It was a tough defeat, but it was a great effort,” Flint said. “She has had some major-league traffic problems in pretty much all her races at Woodbine.”
Flint loved the way Social Code breezed a half-mile in 48 seconds twice over the turf training course earlier this month.
“I’m expecting a really good effort,” Flint said. “Obviously, working on the turf training track isn’t the same as running on the [main] course, but she did it effortlessly. We just want the opportunity to run on the grass. That’s where we think her future is. She’s a big, rangy filly – 17 hands – and I think she absolutely wants to go two turns. We’re looking at the Ontario Colleen at one mile as the next start after this.”
Two of the shippers in the nine-horse field, It Ain’t Two and Love Cervere, are both first-time Lasix users.
It Ain’t Two notched a stakes win in November at Newmarket in England. She resurfaced in Kentucky this year with trainer Riley Mott, who sent her out to finish fourth in the Limestone Stakes at Keeneland and a troubled seventh in the Grade 3 Mamzelle at Churchill.
Love Cervere is coming off a hard-fought, off-the-pace score in the six-furlong Take The A Train Stakes at Aqueduct. Miguel Clement is her new trainer, taking over from his late father, Christophe.
Flaunt got an 81 Beyer Speed Figure when a front-running debut winner in a maiden special weight on the Tapeta here May 25. She has since breezed a half-mile in 46.80 seconds over the turf training course for trainer Barbara Minshall.
Trainer Mark Casse, who has won the Alywow five times, sends out the unbeaten comebacker Personify and War Signal.
American Woman, another daughter of Constitution trying the grass for the first time, has just a maiden score to her credit from four dirt starts in Kentucky.
Completing the lineup are rank outsider Arctic Velocity and the fast-working Bound to Be True, who could be construed as a live longshot.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.