ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Souper Diva showed up big-time when taking the $200,000 Muskoka Stakes with ease Aug. 24. She’ll try to double up in another 6 1/2-furlong restricted stakes for 2-year-old fillies on Sunday at Woodbine, the $100,000 Victorian Queen. Souper Diva led all the way in the Muskoka for graduates of Canadian yearling sales, scoring by 4 1/4 lengths, much to the delight of trainer Steve Chircop. “I wasn’t positive [she’d go] six and a half furlongs, but I was sure she was going to run good because she was working so good,” Chircop said. Chircop said the daughter of Souper Speedy had excuses when trailing in her penultimate start, the open My Dear Stakes. “She had an inside post,” Chircop recalled. “She was harboring a little bit of a shin, and I had trained her a little bit too light. Her workout was messed up going into that race. She worked really slow, and being on the inside, she was taking a lot of Tapeta in her face that she didn’t like.” Souper Diva breezed three-eighths in 36 seconds last Sunday and will break from post 3 under Jose Campos. “She worked really good,” Chircop said. “She worked in 36, but the way [the rider] was holding her, it looked like she was going in 38 and change. She was just doing it so easily. It was a very slow track.” Trainer Jamie Begg sends out contenders Pageant Queen and Sipping History in the seven-horse field. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Pageant Queen was second in the Muskoka. Sipping History was scratched after acting up at the gate. “They are both chestnuts, so that’s the one and only similarity,” Begg said. “Sipping History is a pistol around the barn and, as we saw in the gate ahead of the Muskoka, she doesn’t have a lot of patience. It’s about harnessing her speed, and with Pageant Queen, it’s about keeping after her to unlock her potential. She is very laid-back.” Cayenne Kiss was a nonthreatening seventh at 2-1 with an excuse in the Muskoka, according to trainer Bill Tharrenos. “She was a little bit sick that I wasn’t aware of,” Tharrenos said. “Her last breeze was really good. We’re hoping for a big rebound.” Bull Page Stakes Tharrenos entered three of the six runners in the male version of the Victorian Queen, the $100,000 Bull Page. All three ran in the male version of the Muskoka, the $201,000 Simcoe Stakes. Big Bold and First went coast-to-coast at 29-1 in the Simcoe, his first start after a slow maiden win. Silver Is Best faded to sixth in the Simcoe in his first race after a fast second-out maiden score. “I did a little work on him, and I think he’s a little bit of a different horse,” Tharrenos said. Tharrenos was perturbed that Bank On Big Winner was rated well off the pace before tiring to finish a well-beaten ninth in the Simcoe. The blinkers go on him Sunday. “I think he’s going to run extremely well with blinkers on,” Tharrenos predicted. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.