Velocitor turns stalking trip into 7-1 upset in Prince of Wales

Velocitor came through with a 7-1 upset in Tuesday’s $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie for connections who are no strangers to success in the middle leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

Over a sloppy track, King’s Plate winner Paramount Prince set fast fractions of 22.80 seconds, 45.99, and 1:10.19 while being pressed by maiden Ottawa. Velocitor stalked along the inside in third under Justin Stein, and Stanley House, who was hammered down to 3-2 favoritism late, raced wide in fourth.

Ottawa and Stanley House both faded on the far turn, and Velocitor joined Paramount Prince on the lead early in the lane. They dueled until deep stretch, and Velocitor prevailed by a length over a closing Kaukokaipuu, who edged out Paramount Prince by a neck for second.

Cool Kiss finished fourth, and Tiburon wound up fifth as Stanley House checked in seventh in the 11-horse field of Canadian-bred 3-year-olds. The final time was 1:55.24.

“It’s like déjà vu,” said Stein, who won last year’s Prince of Wales on Duke of Love. “I had a great trip. The plan was to be forwardly positioned, where we were sitting. We kind of let Ottawa do the hard work and put the pressure on Paramount Prince. We sat in behind Paramount Prince. I had a lot of horse and just waited for a chance to pull the trigger when we had some running room. He gave me everything he had down the lane.”

It was the third Prince of Wales score for trainer Kevin Attard and the second win for owners Al and Bill Ulwelling, who also bred Velocitor.

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“Justin gave the horse a perfect ride,” Attard said. “You couldn’t have asked for anything better. The owner told me not long before the race that his dam relished the off track. That was obviously a boost of confidence.

“He won the Coronation [Futurity] and had a very strong 2-year-old campaign. His sophomore season started off on the wrong foot. We ended up castrating him. He had a little incident in the gate, bled in that race, and then we put him on Lasix. He just seems to be putting it together at the right time.”

Velocitor ($17.70) earned $240,000. He had finished fourth in the King’s Plate on the Tapeta at Woodbine and the Prince of Wales was his dirt debut.

* Favored Fashionably Fab ($5.60) nailed front-running Foolish Games on the wire to take the $100,000 Rondeau Bay Stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies, with Patrick Husbands riding for Kevin Attard.

* One Bay Hemingway ($3.20) prevailed by a head after a stretch-long battle with One More Brew in the $100,000 Lake Erie Stakes for Ontario-sired male sophomores. Luis Contreras got a leg up on the winner from trainer Sid Attard, Kevin Attard’s uncle.

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