Vives has a number of live mounts on Friday card

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sofia Vives led the Woodbine jockey standings after the first four days of the meet with eight wins. She has a chance to sweep the early double on the Friday card with a pair of Robert Tiller-trained runners, So Called Vacation and Firebolt.

Vives, who was voted the 2023 Sovereign Award for outstanding apprentice, has her weight allowance until Aug. 25. She has seven mounts on the first Friday of the meet, an eight-race card with a 1:10 p.m. post time.

So Called Vacation is returning from a five-month break in the first race, a $25,000 maiden claimer going 6 1/2 furlongs. The reluctant 4-year-old placed in 4 of 10 starts and should be forwardly placed, like most of Vives’s mounts.

Firebolt debuts in the second race after posting two above-average half-mile breezes in April. She gets Lasix for the $10,000 maiden claimer and is by the 10 percent first-out sire Society’s Chairman, the sire of Canadian champions Paramount Prince and Caren. Her dam won eight sprints while earning $106,037 and produced five winners.

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Vives should be sailing along up front in the third race on the rapid Tavaline, who has been idle since her Oct. 21 fade job in allowance company. The lightly raced 5-year-old is descending to $25,000 nonwinners-of-two company. Both of her fresh races were good, and she’s sent out by trainer Tony Gattellaro, who teamed up with Vives to score with the speedy favorite Summer Snow on opening day of the meet.

Vives also rides the live dropper Fascination Street for Tiller in the fifth race; Now Is a Breeze in the sixth; Yacht Boy, who’s making his first start for Tiller in the seventh; and Twisting Pistons in the eighth.

Three-time leading Woodbine rider and Sovereign Award winner Kazushi Kimura returns from a suspension on Friday with five mounts, including Perseverate in the second and Great Kate in the sixth.

Perseverate was hard-ridden on the outside and got bumped at the top of the stretch before checking in third at first asking on the dirt March 31 at Gulfstream. Dropping to $25,000 here last Sunday on the Tapeta, she was bet down to 4-5 but was never in contention after getting away slowly and awaiting room on the turn. Going back five years, her trainer, Bill Tharrenos, won at a 16 percent rate with 1- to 7-day comebackers, with a return on investment of $1.45.

Great Kate is making her seasonal bow for trainer John Mattine. She won a maiden race in her 2023 opener going long and went on to contest a series of restricted stakes without much success. The closer has ample speed to run at in the seven-furlong nonwinners-of-two tilt on Friday, breaking from the rail.

Kimura also has the call on Dyna’s Flatter in the third, Pontiac in the seventh, and Gather for Gattellaro in the eighth.

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