Umneyaat comfortable on inner turf course
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ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Umneyaat will team up with leading Woodbine apprentice Sofia Vives in Friday’s feature, a nonwinners-of-three event combining Ontario-sired allowance types and $40,000 claimers going 7 1/2 furlongs on the inner turf.
Umneyaat ran the majority of her best races around the tight turns of the inner course. The Street Boss mare finished second on the inner layout twice last year, including a heart-breaking nose loss against $25,000 nonwinners-of-two claimers in October.
Umneyaat finally cleared the nonwinners-of-two condition in her second start off the bench June 10, when she overcame a wide trip to score by a neck going a mile. She missed the board in her last two outings, in a first-level allowance and a starter handicap, and is dropping to a more appropriate spot on Friday.
Mike McDonald trains Umneyaat for the partnership of Ricardo Sterling and Jefferson Gill. Heading into this week, Vives ranked sixth in Woodbine’s rider standings, with 27 wins and $1.42 million in earnings.
Among the others entered in the seventh race are Halaga, Jab, Emerald Lake, and Remembering Rhoda.
Halaga wintered at Turfway Park before using her fitness advantage to go gate to wire in a hybrid Tapeta sprint for nonwinners-of-two allowance types and $50,000 3-year-olds here May 5. When returning from a two-month break July 7, she closed for third in a seven-furlong main-turf sprint at this level.
Leading rider Kazushi Kimura inherits the mount from Vives on Halaga, who is trained by Catherine Day Phillips for Rick Howard and Rags Racing Stable.
Jab has only run one clunker in five starts at the meet, which was when she was in too deep in allowance company. She took to the inner turf like a duck to water most recently when beating $25,000 nonwinners-of-two opposition after mounting a five-wide rally from a trailing eighth.
Skye Chernetz will ride Jab again for trainer Dave Cotey. They’re a combined 7 for 61 at the meet, with a positive return on investment.
Emerald Lake ships in from Southern California, where she got her head handed to her in a key California-bred allowance on the dirt July 1 at Los Alamitos. She did all of her damage as a turf miler in the California-bred ranks.
Ryan Munger rides Emerald Lake for trainer Julia Carey, who was 2 for 10 with new acquisitions during the past five years, with an ROI of $2.83.
Remembering Rhoda is the lone entrant in the eight-horse field who isn’t competing with the claiming tag.
Trained by Bev Chubb, Remembering Rhoda came from off the pace to beat $25,000 nonwinners-of-two females in a five-furlong inner-turf dash June 1. She was a slow-starting fifth most recently in a seven-furlong main-turf sprint at this level. Juan Crawford has the mount on the daughter of Big Screen.
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