We Miss Artie scores as favorite in Plate Trial

ETOBICOKE, Ontario—We Miss Artie, the Queen’s Plate winter book favorite, was a comfortable winner of Sunday’s $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes, a key nine-furlong prep for the July 6 Plate at Woodbine.

We Miss Artie ($2.70) saved ground in midpack until the stretch, and then ran down the front-running maiden Majestic Sunset in the stretch to prevail by three-quarters of a length, under a hand ride from Javier Castellano. Tower of Texas finished a distant third in the seven-horse field of Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

“I think I was on the best horse in the race, and I rode him with a lot of patience,” Castellano said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t break that sharp, but I took my time, and schooled him a little bit behind horses and let him settle. My target is the Queen’s Plate, and I wanted to give him a good education today. Turning for home, when I asked him, he gave me a good kick, a good acceleration.”

The Todd Pletcher-trained We Miss Artie covered the distance in 1:50.78, and earned $90,000 for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

Cristina’s Halo ($69) outran seven Mark Casse-trained 3-year-old fillies and four others to earn her first stakes victory in the $138,000 Alywow, under Chantal Sutherland-Kruse. Trained by Vito Armata, Cristina’s Halo ran down Zensational Bunny in the final strides and won by a half-length while covering 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.18 over firm turf.