Unspurned goes all the way in Bison City

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Unspurned bounced back from her fifth-place finish in the Woodbine Oaks with a front-running score in Sunday’s $250,000 Bison City Stakes at Woodbine to give trainer Roger Attfield his first stakes win of the year.

“She’s a very competitive filly,” Attfield said. “We talked about how the race might come up, and it virtually came up the way we worked it out. When [Hot and Spicy] came to her, she just dug back in again.”

Unspurned won a seven-furlong allowance to open her 2014 campaign and was working well heading into the Oaks. But Attfield noticed that she didn’t appear to be at her best in the paddock before the race.

“She just didn’t really feel comfortable,” he said. “She wasn’t shaky, she was just hot.”

Unspurned likely will skip the final jewel of the Canadian Triple Tiara, the $250,000 Wonder Where Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on turf Aug. 10.
“She might be suspect at a mile and a quarter,” Attfield said. “I have a few to go in there [Hantaloop, who won an allowance Saturday, and Llanarmon]. Llanarmon will definitely get the mile and a quarter.”

Llanarmon is set to start in Saturday’s $150,000 Ontario Damsel Stakes over a mile on turf for Ontario-bred 3-year-old fillies.