Strut the Course to defend crown in Canadian Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Strut the Course, the 2014 Canadian champion older female, is on track to defend her title from last year’s Grade 2, $200,000 Canadian Stakes when the race is run Sept. 17 at 1 1/8 miles on the E.P. Taylor turf course as part of the Woodbine Mile card.

Strut the Course has made three starts this year. She won her seasonal debut in an allowance race over 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta on April 30 but finished behind Lexie Lou in two graded turf stakes when she was third in the Grade 2 Nassau Stakes over a mile May 29 and second in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on July 3.

Trainer Barb Minshall said Strut the Course got sick after the Dance Smartly and has missed some time.

“After the last race, she got really anemic,” she said. “That’s why we missed a couple of races that we might have liked to have gone in. Her blood got really low, and she just got sick, and I couldn’t really breeze her like that. It took her a while to come around. She’s back on track now.”

Strut the Course recorded her first breeze since the Dance Smartly on Aug. 7 and recorded a bullet work Aug. 14, when she covered five furlongs in 1:00.00 on the Tapeta. Minshall said if she had more time, she may have entered Strut the Course in last Sunday’s Grade 2 Sky Classic Stakes at Woodbine, but she will wait for the Canadian at this point.

“I gave her an easy breeze a couple of weeks ago to get her started, and then last week it was really good,” she said. “If I had gotten one more into her, I probably would have gone into the Sky Classic.”

Stacked Deck back in training

Strut the Course isn’t the only horse in Minshall’s barn who has been affected by illness this season. Last year’s Canadian champion sprinter, Stacked Deck, is working his way back to full training after getting sick.

“I’ve had several sick horses,” Minshall said. “It was odd because it was a bunch of older horses. He had a fairly good breeze, and then he breezed back, and he just seemed to get sick after that, too. To be honest, I can’t really pinpoint why they got sick. We’ve just had low blood in the barn. I had a five- or six-week period there where I had a lot of sick horses, but things seem to be turning around.”

Stacked Deck has made just two starts this season, most recently running fifth in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup on June 5. He had previously run second to Passion for Action in the Grade 3 Vigil Stakes on May 7 and was scratched at the gate in the Jacques Cartier Stakes on the meet’s opening day, April 9.

Minshall said she does not have a next start picked out for Stacked Deck and added that he’d let the horse decide when he’s ready to run.

“I didn’t really want to push him and come back for the Play the King, so we’ll just have to wait for something to come up and hopefully get him back on track,” she said. “I’ll let him tell me, but he’s coming around good.”

Tiz Imaginary to remain sprinting

Tiz Imaginary recorded her second stakes win of the season over seven furlongs in the Duchess Stakes on Aug. 7, holding off a troubled Moonlit Promise to win by 1 1/2 lengths under jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson.

Trainer Mike Doyle has nominated Tiz Imaginary to the $125,000 La Lorgnette Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on Sept. 3 and the $150,000 Jammed Lovely Stakes over seven furlongs on Sept. 4 but said it made more sense to keep Tiz Imaginary sprinting for her next start. The Jammed Lovely is also restricted to Ontario-bred 3-year-old fillies.

“We’re going to the Jammed Lovely with everything being the way it is,” Doyle said. “She’s won two at the distance, and the race is restricted to Ontario-breds, so why change?”

Tiz Imaginary overcame trouble to win the Fury Stakes on May 22 but didn’t hit the board in two starts going long, the Woodbine Oaks on June 12 and the Bison City Stakes on July 10.

Doyle said Tiz Imaginary came out of the Duchess Stakes in good order and likely would breeze this weekend for the Jammed Lovely.