Upwardly mobile Gray's Fable tests speed in Connaught Cup

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The upstart Gray’s Fable makes his stakes debut and Silent Poet gets a new rider Saturday at Woodbine in the Grade 2, $175,000 Connaught Cup, a seven-furlong sprint on the main turf that attracted eight horses.

A speedy 5-year-old trained by Roger Attfield, Gray’s Fable blossomed during the spring at Gulfstream, graduating at a mile before running a close second in a one-mile optional claimer, both on turf.

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Gray’s Fable was able to make the pace when cutting back to 6 1/2 furlongs most recently in a first-level allowance on turf here June 14. He prevailed in 1:13.16, which wasn’t far off the course record.

That Attfield bypassed the second allowance condition to go right into a stakes with Gray’s Fable is quite telling.

“He’s doing really well,” Attfield said. “I think he’ll stack up pretty well in there. He’s a determined little horse that just loves to run.”

Silent Poet is a much more accomplished front-runner. He lowered the seven-furlong course record when taking the Grade 2 Play the King last August, but then ran a clunker in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile. His 2020 opener in a 7 1/2-furlong allowance on June 11 was his first trip around the inner turf, and he led virtually all the way.

Silent Poet’s regular rider, Gary Boulanger, is sidelined with a knee injury. Trainer Nick Gonzalez booked Justin Stein for the mount on the Stronach Stable homebred.

Admiralty Pier also possesses early foot, which he used to win the Grade 3 Tampa Bay going 1 1/16 miles by a nose Feb. 8. He has been idle since a fade job there on the dirt in the Grade 3 Challenger on March 7. Barb Minshall trains the 5-year-old Admiralty Pier, who was a closer during his formative years.

City Boy is coming off an eight-month absence, having wintered in South Carolina with trainer Mike Keogh. After running competitively in second-level optional-claiming company last summer, City Boy sprang a 24-1 upset over yielding ground in the Grade 2 Nearctic here Oct 12.

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Keogh said seven furlongs is probably farther than City Boy wants to go.

“It’s not really his ideal distance, but we can get a race into him,” Keogh said. “We can’t keep working him.”

The Christophe Clement-trained White Flag shipped into Attfield’s barn off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Jaipur at Belmont. He wound up third in both of his Woodbine starts, including in last year’s Grade 1 Highlander.

Trainer Mark Casse entered Blind Ambition and Olympic Runner, who rallied for second behind Silent Poet on June 11 in his first outing in nearly nine months.