Town Cruise heading to Breeders' Cup Mile, trainer says
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Owner-trainer Brandon Greer has called an audible with Woodbine Mile winner Town Cruise and is planning on sending the speedy 6-year-old to Del Mar for the Nov. 6 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Right after wiring the field in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, a BC Win and You’re In qualifier, Greer said he wanted to put Town Cruise away for the year, but the gelding’s recent robust demeanor swayed him to change his mind. He nominated Town Cruise to Sunday’s Grade 2 Nearctic here, but said he’s heading to the BC Mile, to which he will have to be supplemented for $100,000.
“I’ve been wracking my brains for two weeks, and I’ve run out of excuses not to go,” Greer said.
Town Cruise breezed a half-mile in :47.20 on the Tapeta last Friday, his first work since the Sept. 18 Woodbine Mile, in which he earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I breezed him the other day, and tried to keep him as slow as possible,” Greer said. “He was a little up that day. You remember when I won the Mile, I’d said I’d have to ask the horse. I stopped asking because two days later he said: ‘Let’s go again’. I was hoping he’d tell me: ‘No I’m good, let’s go home for the season’, but he was anything but that.”
Greer said he’s still in the preliminary stages of planning the trip to Del Mar.
“The Breeders’ Cup has been very helpful in taking me through the steps in getting it all done,” Greer explained. “We’re still in the process of doing that.”
Town Cruise has won three of four starts this year. His career earnings total just over $1 million Canadian.
*** Summer Stakes runner-up Grafton Street won his prep for the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar in a maiden special on the Tapeta here last Sunday. The powerful son of War Front helped to set a rapid pace before scoring by 1 3/4 lengths, in a time of 1:44.60.
Trained by Mark Casse, Grafton Street earned six points in the Grade 1 Summer towards the Grade 1 BC Juvenile Turf, which should be good enough to get him into the race.
*** Casse said Souper Stonehenge missed the Grade 3 Bold Venture here Sept. 25 due to a foot problem, but is on target for the Grade 2, $175,000 Kennedy Road here Nov. 27. Pink Lloyd won the Bold Venture, but Souper Stonehenge defeated that perennial Canadian champion sprinter in both the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier in June and the Grade 3 Vigil on Aug. 1.
“He had an abscess in his foot and couldn’t make the race,” Casse said. “Our plan is to meet Pink Lloyd in the Kennedy Road and decide who is the best sprinter in Canada.”