Summer Sunday cuts back in Sweet Briar Too

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Following a successful two-turn experiment, Summer Sunday, last year’s Canadian champion female sprinter, will go back to sprinting in Friday’s $100,000 Sweet Briar Too Stakes for fillies and mares at Woodbine.

The speedy Summer Sunday had a slow start to her season, before winning a second-level allowance Sept. 5. Trainer Stuart Simon felt that the Sept. 26 Belle Mahone Stakes was an appropriate spot in which to try her over 1 1/16 miles, and she led all the way while earning her second straight 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

“We always thought she’d run two turns, and it was our one chance where things came together to try it,” Simon said. “We were happy to see she did what we expected her to do. We know for next year that we’ve got lots of options.”

Summer Sunday has been competing without Lasix. Simon said the 5-year-old daughter of Silent Name is at her best during cooler weather because she’s susceptible to getting the thumps due to an electrolyte imbalance.

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“In this cooler weather, she’s back to herself,” Simon said. “She’s in good order. I expect her to run well again. It looks like it’s going to be a tough race.”

Painting enhanced her value greatly when notching her first stakes in the Grade 3 Ontario Fashion and will try to double up in the 6 1/2-furlong Sweet Briar Too.

A 4-year-old by top broodmare sire Distorted Humor, Painting had finished second in four consecutive graded stakes over different distances on Tapeta leading up to the Sept. 26 Ontario Fashion. Sent off as the favorite, she rallied from nearly five lengths off a hot pace to nail Victory Kingdom on the wire, earning a career-high 95 Beyer in the six-furlong event.

Trainer Josie Carroll had cross-entered Painting in the Belle Mahone on the same card, but thought the Ontario Fashion was the best option for her.

“We were cross-entered, but winning this race was much more important because it’s graded against more significant company,” Carroll said. “I had her siblings and her mother. I go a long way back with this family. That always makes it special.”

Kentucky-based Victory Kingdom lost a heartbreaker in the Ontario Fashion after out-footing the other speed. The Australian import was previously fourth in a listed stakes over a muddy track at Saratoga in her first North American outing.

Souper Escape won a pair of Grade 3 stakes here on Tapeta in the summer, the 1 1/16-mile Trillium and the seven-furlong Seaway. She was a flat third most recently while beaten three-quarters of a length in the Belle Mahone.