Souper Stonehenge working bullets for season opener in Jacques Cartier Stakes
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Souper Stonehenge won’t have the retired champion Pink Lloyd to kick around in Sunday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Jacques Cartier at Woodbine, which was the case when he won last year’s edition of the six-furlong stakes.
Souper Stonehenge also took last year’s Grade 3 Vigil over a troubled Pink Lloyd, during which he got away with setting moderate fractions before holding on for a three-quarter-length tally.
Souper Stonehenge should be among the choices to win the Jacques Cartier in his first start since Nov. 27, when he bombed as the favorite in Pink Lloyd’s successful retirement race, the Grade 2 Kennedy Road. Patrick Husbands will ride the quirky 6-year-old again for trainer Mark Casse, who sent him out to breeze a series of bullet works here on the Tapeta, including five-eighths from the gate in 59 seconds on April 27.
“He’s very moody, but he tells you most of the time when he’s going to run well,” Casse said.
Casse also sends out 2020 Canadian champion male 2-year-old Gretzky the Great and Tap It to Win, the fourth-place finisher in the 2021 Kennedy Road, who was second in a Tampa dirt stakes in his March 27 season opener.
Arzak came from Maryland to romp here April 17 in the 5 1/2-furlong Thorncliffe Stakes with a big 99 Beyer Speed Figure. The 4-year-old has since worked two easy half-miles on the Tapeta at his Fair Hill base for trainer Mike Trombetta. It will be interesting to see if he exceeds, regresses, or duplicates that impressive comeback performance.
Leading rider Kazushi Kimura has the return call on Arzak, who drew well in post 6 in the 10-horse field.
The unbeaten upstart Striker is making his stakes debut following a winter layoff. The handsome gray won his debut with a 95 Beyer here Nov. 7 before doubling up in a Dec. 4 allowance. He has worked nicely since scratching from an April allowance at Keeneland where he had a wide draw.
Silent Poet has been the leading local turf sprinter since 2019, but the hard-trying 7-year-old is no slouch on the Tapeta when he’s on his game. He went to the sidelines after taking the Grade 1 Highlander last August, and was a stalking second off an extended layoff in the Thorncliffe. One could argue that he’s a bounce candidate.
The turf expert White Flag was unplaced in two synthetic track starts, including a flat fourth in his first start off the bench in the Thorncliffe.
Lenny K rallied wide for third in the Thorncliffe, his first outing since a slow-starting seventh in the Kennedy Road. He has three wins from four races at six furlongs.
Trainer Kevin Attard will saddle Lenny K and minor stakes winner Red River Rebel, who was a troubled fifth in his last outing in the Kennedy Road.