This step up not so big for Bell filly

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Melnyk Racing Stable and trainer David Bell had a good day Sunday at Woodbine, winning an allowance race with Wakefields and running a close second in the Singspiel Stakes with Shop Hill.

Melnyk and Bell will send out Passage Road in Wednesday's feature, an allowance for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.

Passage Road, a 4-year-old by the 1998 Queen's Plate winner, Archers Bay, graduated in her second start at 2, going a mile and 70 yards. She was absent for over a year and a half when she reappeared in a $40,000 conditioned claimer on the grass here June 9, in which she finished a wide third in her first start for Bell.

Bell has solid statistics second time off a long layoff, and had Passage Road work five-eighths in 1:02.20 last week. The step up in class to this weak allowance isn't very significant, so she should make an impact.

Also entered in the 1 1/16-mile headliner are Diamon Su, Step Aside Please, Wishbone Kid, Archie's Gal, and Whisky Swish.

Wishbone Kid, who won her maiden against Ontario-sired opposition in her final 2004 outing, has run three decent races in four starts this meeting. She wound up third, a length behind the winner, in a six-furlong Ontario sire allowance on May 13 and was a late-closing fourth at seven furlongs most recently.

In her lone two-turn attempt, Wishbone Kid was softened up in a speed duel and finished a distant fourth over a muddy track in November. She has a route pedigree and certainly deserves another chance going long.

Archie's Gal trailed in the 10-horse field on June 12 in the $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks, which came five weeks after she ran second in an open 1 1/16-mile allowance won by the talented Between the Clouds. Last fall, Archie's Gal checked in second in the restricted South Ocean Stakes, and was a well-beaten fourth in the Ontario Lassie Stakes.

Whiskey Swish has finished on the fringes in three consecutive Ontario sire allowances. She defeated $32,000 maidens in her season opener. Her trainer, Joe Walls, won Sunday's final race with longshot Laughing Moon.

Step Aside Please, who was mired in a slump last fall, rallied from 10 lengths back to secure fourth in her only appearance this year, going a mile on the grass.