Vice Regent gives City Boy a chance to escape the division heavyweights

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – City Boy will take a substantial class drop Sunday at Woodbine when he goes from graded stakes company to an Ontario-bred stakes in the $100,000 Vice Regent, a five-furlong inner-turf dash.

City Boy faded from third to fifth when returning from an eight-month layoff in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup going seven-eighths on the grass July 11. He didn’t start again until Sept. 5, when he wound up third behind the tough duo of Pink Lloyd and Olympic Runner in the Grade 3 Vigil over six furlongs on the Tapeta.

Trainer Mike Keogh said City Boy has started only twice at the meet because he had a setback heading into an allowance race.

“We’ve been very unlucky with him,” Keogh said. “There was a money allowance three weeks after the Connaught Cup, six furlongs on the turf, a perfect spot. Two days before the race, he stood on a rock and got a foot bruise. I had to scratch him, and I think he would have galloped in there.”

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Keogh said he has no qualms with cutting back City Boy back to five furlongs, a distance over which the son of City Zip has never won.

“I don’t think it will be too much of a problem,” Keogh said. “It’s a matter of getting a good break with him. He can be a little funny in the gate. We load him first now. He settles down better that way.”

Keogh said he plans on running City Boy back on Oct. 18 in the $250,000 Nearctic, a Grade 2 turf sprint that he won last year at 24-1.

“He runs well with back-to-back races,” Keogh said.

Among the others in the 10-horse Vice Regent field are Forester’s Turn, Sable Island, and Not So Quiet.

The Robert Tiller-trained Forester’s Turn is one of the leading Ontario-sired 3-year-old sprinters on the grounds. He’s 5 for 8 lifetime, including a victory over Forester’s Fortune in the $150,000 Greenwood Stakes, for Ontario-bred 3-year-olds on the grass on Aug. 1.

Forester’s Turn was a prominent third against open company most recently over this course and distance in the King Corrie Stakes.

Sable Island is returning from a one-year layoff after posting a series of quick drills on the Tapeta. He was competitive in graded stakes company last year, most notably a second to Silent Poet in the Grade 2 Play the King going seven-eighths on the main turf.

Not So Quiet chased Pink Lloyd home when third in the June 25 Jacques Cartier Stakes and when fourth in the July 23 Shepperton Stakes. This is his first grass outing, and the 5-year-old is a son Canada’s top turf sire, Silent Name.