Top Canadian horses hit the turf in Nassau, Highlander
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Last year’s popular King’s Plate winner Caitlinhergrtness ran to her name when winning her season debut decisively in the Grade 3 Belle Mahone. The powerful chestnut will try to land her first Grade 2 fixture in Saturday’s $175,000 Nassau, a one-mile main turf route for females.
The Nassau is one of three stakes for older runners on the five-stakes holiday card, along with the Grade 2 Highlander and the Grade 3 Dominion Day. Reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Patches O’Houlihan and 2023 champion male 2-year-old My Boy Prince will lock horns over six furlongs on the main turf in the Highlander.
Caitlinhergrtness cleared the $1 million mark in Canadian earnings when taking the 1 1/16-mile Belle Mahone by five lengths with a career-high 95 Beyer Speed Figure. The daughter of Omaha Beach has worked twice on the training track since that May 31 engagement.
“She’s been working well on the dirt,” trainer Kevin Attard said. “We were mulling over the possibility of running her on dirt, but this race is here at home in our backyard, a flat mile. She hasn’t been on the outer turf here either. I think the distance will suit her well. I’m excited to see her go.”
Caitlinhergrtness faded to third behind the unstoppable She Feels Pretty after setting the pace in her last turf outing in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Turf Cup at Keeneland in October.
“We weren’t looking to be on the lead. That wasn’t the plan, but she got it and was pretty comfortable up there,” Attard recalled. “Nobody was beating the winner that day. If we had the chance to get her to settle, maybe she would have run second. I thought she ran pretty creditably. I was quite pleased with the performance.”
Trainer Brendan Walsh, who captured last year’s Nassau with Implicated, entered the Turfway-based Austere, who rallied for second last time out in the Grade 3 Gallorette at Pimlico.
“She ran very well in the Gallorette,” Walsh recalled. “The winner got out on the lead and nobody took her on. We were best of the rest, but she’s done well since. She should enjoy the one-turn mile. She’s been working well. She’s in good form.”
The other shippers in the 12-horse field are Mission of Joy, Mixologist, Ocean Club, Sweet Rebecca, and Ms. Tart, who was cross-entered in the Highlander off a victory here in the Grade 3 Royal North.
Highlander
Patches O’Houlihan, who missed the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier due to illness, switches to the grass for his second start of the year in the $200,000 Highlander.
Patches O’Houlihan was a skimpy 1-9 on the morning line when he spiked a fever and had to be scratched from the May 31 Jacques Cartier by trainer Robert Tiller.
“I think he missed six days of training, that’s all,” Tiller recalled.
Patches O’Houlihan has won five of his last six starts, all stakes. His lone loss during that run was a hard-fought second to Nobals in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road in November. Fittingly, the two-time Canadian champion male sprinter lowered the 5 1/2-furlong synthetic track record to 1:02.28 seconds with a four-length score in his May 4 season debut in the Thorncliffe Stakes. The 108 Beyer Speed Figure he got then is easily the highest synthetic Beyer recorded in North America this year.
“It was awesome,” said owner-breeder Frank Di Giulio Jr., who also campaigned five-time Canadian champion sprinter Pink Lloyd with Tiller. “You never expect to break a track record, and that obviously exceeded expectations. We hoped he would win, but to do it the way he did it, he did it pretty easily.”
Normally a fast worker, “Patches” breezed a half-mile in 48.80 seconds under jockey Sofia Vives June 19.
“He went real easy, but didn’t blow the time away,” Tiller said. “I was very impressed. He was very relaxed. He’s doing good.”
Patches O’Houlihan has won two of three turf starts, including the Grade 2 Nearctic in October, during which he drifted out in the stretch before holding sway in a remarkable performance.
My Boy Prince, the favored runner-up to Caitlinhergrtness in the 2024 Plate, has stuck to sprinting on turf this year. The Gary Barber-owned gelding took the Elusive Quality Stakes in his May 3 season opener at Aqueduct and is coming off a gutsy second in the Grade 1 Jaipur at Saratoga. Trainer Mark Casse is putting him back on Lasix, which he used in the majority of his Woodbine races.
“He is such a favorite of everybody,” said assistant trainer Kathryn Sullivan. “He’s coming in off a great second in the Jaipur, where he ran an exceptional race. He had another fantastic effort when he won the Elusive Quality. He’s been training well, and we are just hoping for a good season up here with him.”
The eight-horse Highlander lineup also includes Old Chestnut, who led all the way in the three-horse Jacques Cartier, and the supplemented 2024 Canadian champion Dresden Row, who’s making his first start of the year after being scratched from a conditioned allowance on a sweltering day here last Sunday.
Dominion Day
The $150,000 Dominion Day, a 1 1/8-mile Tapeta event, lured a mixed pack of eight, including Classic Mo Town, Fashionably Fab, Bail Us Out, Essex Serpent, and Stanley House.
The former claimer Classic Mo Town recorded a 9-1 upset while holding off the classy Webslinger to land his first stakes for trainer Marty Drexler in the Grade 2 Eclipse here May 31.
Fashionably Fab did most of her damage on the Tapeta in 2024, during which she won the Belle Mahone, the Grade 3 Ontario Matron, and the restricted La Prevoyante Stakes. After a wide fifth coming off the bench in this year’s Belle Mahone, trainer Kevin Attard opted to run her against the boys instead of in the Nassau.
“She’s handled turf okay, but I think she’s better on the Tapeta,” Attard said. “I also think the [Nassau] will be pretty tough.”
Attard also conditions Bail Us Out, whose career highlight was a runner-up placing to Dresden Row in last year’s Grade 3 Ontario Derby. Bail Us Out wound up second ahead of next-out winner Swift Delivery exiting the sidelines in a June 1 conditioned allowance on the inner turf.
Essex Serpent won the Grade 3 Marine in the spring of last year before flopping in two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. When returning from a 10-month layoff May 10, he led from start to finish to easily win a 1 1/16-mile conditioned allowance.
Stanley House, third in the 2024 King’s Plate, is seeking his first stakes score off a troubled fifth in the Eclipse, during which he stumbled heading into the first turn.
“I think he clipped heels with Cool Kiss,” trainer Mike DePaulo said. “He’s doing okay. Sooner or later, he’ll get it done, I hope.”
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