Souper Escape tough to trip up on Tapeta in Seaway

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The synthetic freak Souper Escape will try to keep her unbeaten Tapeta record at Woodbine intact in Sunday’s Grade 3, $125,000 Seaway Stakes for fillies and mares.

Souper Escape won her first local appearance in the 1 1/16-mile La Lorgnette Stakes on the Tapeta last September. She was winless in her next five starts, all on turf, before taking the Grade 3 Trillium in front-running style with a 96 Beyer Speed Figure going long on the Tapeta here July 18.

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Trained by Mike Trombetta, Souper Escape is normally based at Fair Hill in Maryland, but she remained here after the Trillium and posted two half-mile works, including a bullet 46.80-second work on Aug. 8. Trombetta said her super showing in the Trillium exceeded his expectations.

“I was a little concerned,” Trombetta admitted. “I brought her back on close rest off a short turf race, but she likes the synthetic so much that I couldn’t not do it. She didn’t give me a reason not to do it. To go up there and run the way she did, I was very happy. She’s won on all three surfaces, but especially off of that race, it’s starting to appear that’s the one she likes most.”

Trombetta said he has no qualms with cutting her back to seven furlongs in the Seaway. Although Souper Escape led all the way in the Trillium, Trombetta said he doesn’t think she’s a need-the-lead type.

“I think she’s good from seven-eighths to a mile and a sixteenth,” Trombetta said.

Luis Contreras will ride Souper Escape, who is owned by Live Oak Plantation.

After a rough start to the meet on the grass, Amalfi Coast will be looking to turn her fortunes around with a surface switch. She won the Grade 2 Bessarabian convincingly going seven-eighths on the Tapeta in her final 2019 outing. In her two starts this year, she finished sixth in a 7 1/2-furlong allowance race and fourth, beaten 2 1/4 lengths, in the Grade 2 Nassau on June 27.

“I’m a little disappointed with the way her season has started off,” trainer Kevin Attard said. “First time out, she had a horrible trip. Second time, she got caught behind a slow pace and there wasn’t much movement in the race. We’re regrouping coming back to the synthetic. She had a very sharp work last week with Justin Stein up. We’re hoping for a similar effort as the Bessarabian.”

Trainer Josie Carroll entered Painting and Gamble’s Candy.

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The stretch-runner Painting finished a bang-up second in last year’s Bessarabian. Following a seven-month layoff, she wound up second to the favored Jean Elizabeth in the six-furlong Whimsical Stakes on June 21, and then came from last for second in the Trillium.

Gamble’s Candy has struggled since taking the Ruling Angel Stakes in October.

Another Time faded to third after tracking Souper Escape in the Trillium. She was previously in solid turf form.

Sister Peacock is coming off a front-running fifth, beaten just 1 1/4 lengths, in the Grade 2 Royal North on turf.