Turf course opens at Woodbine with three competitive races
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Turf racing debuts at the Woodbine meet on Saturday with a trio of allowance/optional claimers on the main course.
Pioneer’s Edge deserves top billing in the featured eighth race traveling 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares. After landing her debut last May, she gave future Woodbine Oaks and Queen’s Plate winner Moira a run for her money when second in the June 11 Fury Stakes.
Pioneer’s Edge went on to finish fifth in both the Grade 3 Selene and Oaks, before ending up third in the Aug. 12 Bison City Stakes. She could only manage to finish seventh when closing out her 2022 campaign in a Nov. 12 allowance.
Pioneer’s Edge wintered in Florida and made her turf debut off a five-month layoff in a one-mile allowance at Keeneland in April. After breaking from post 10, she had an extremely wide trip while closing from 12th to finish a respectable fifth. The 10th-place finisher subsequently won an allowance at Presque Isle.
Kazushi Kimura will get a leg up from trainer Josie Carroll on the Chiefswood Stables homebred by Pioneerof the Nile. Kimura and Carroll have combined to win at an impressive 40-percent clip, with a positive return on investment.
Carroll also sends out Boudica, who graduated around two turns here on the inner turf in October. This year, Boudica finished fifth behind the future stakes winner Aspray in an allowance at Tampa Bay Downs and ninth in a Keeneland allowance.
Carroll’s third entrant is the fast-working Now Is a Breeze, who has been idle since romping in a Dec. 10 allowance here on the Tapeta. She was shareless in three grass starts last year.
Perhaps Tonight is seeking her third victory in a row following a layoff. In her first try for trainer Marty Drexler in February at Gulfstream Park, she beat $20,000 conditioned claimers and then doubled up there in a starter/optional claimer in March.
Perhaps Tonight competes with a $32,000 claiming tag under Eswan Flores. Over the past five years, Drexler won at a 17 percent rate with 61-180 day layoff runners who were coming off a win, with an ROI of $1.68, numbers which are below par by his standards.
She Makes a Point is changing surfaces for her second start off the shelf after finishing fifth in her season opener. Several of her best races last year were in routes on the main course, and the daughter of Point of Entry is bred to be a late bloomer.
◗ Run for the Hills should be favored in the fourth, a non-winners of two sprint with a $50,000 claiming option for 3-year-olds. She graduated following a sabbatical in her lone outing this year in a March 3 maiden special weight dash at Gulfstream.
The other turf event on the nine-race card is the sixth. Contenders Totally in Charge and Trizzel Trazzel are both starting for the first time this year in the sprint combining non-winners of two Ontario-sired types with $40,000 claimers.
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