Wet Your Whistle at top of game for Highlander Stakes
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wet Your Whistle and El Tormenta were both nominated to Saturday’s Grade 1 Highlander and Grade 2 King Edward on the Queen’s Plate undercard at Woodbine. Both are running in the $300,000 Highlander, a six-furlong turf sprint that lured seven other 3-year-olds and up.
Based in Maryland with trainer Mike Trombetta, Wet Your Whistle came to life here Dec. 16 when he romped in a six-furlong allowance on the Tapeta. Following a winter layoff, he won two straight 5 ½-furlong turf dashes with ease, including a stakes at Monmouth.
“It took me a while to figure him out,” Trombetta said. “He’s one turn, turf or synthetic. The one-turn aspect is very important. He’s a really forward kind of horse.”
El Tormenta notched his first stakes victory on June 1, taking Grade 2 Connaught Cup at seven furlongs. The Gail Cox-trained 4-year-old is at his best when he relaxes while covered up, which makes the shorter Highlander more suitable for him than the one-mile King Edward, which should have a slower pace.
King Edward Stakes
Trainer Mark Casse made his first visit back to Woodbine this week since capturing the last two legs of the American Triple Crown. He said he likes the progress made by Curlin’s Honor, who will try to win his first turf stakes in the $175,000 King Edward, with Flavien Prat aboard.
Curlin’s Honor, by Curlin, rallied for third in each of his starts at the meet, in the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier on Tapeta and the Connaught Cup on turf.
“We gave him some time to develop, and he seems to be going in the right direction,” Casse said. “The Curlins seem to get better as they get older.”
Other contenders include the Maryland-based Synchrony, who is exiting a neck loss in the Grade 2 Monmouth; Mr Ritz, who dropped his season opener on Tapeta in the Grade 2 Eclipse by a nose; and first-time Lasix user Emmaus.
Charlie Barley Stakes
Trombetta sends out Grade 3 Marine victor Global Asset in the $100,000 Charlie Barley, an overnight stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf, the surface over which he won a stakes at Tampa. At jockey Patrick Husbands’s urging, Trombetta said he removed the blinkers from Global Asset last time for the Marine, and he upset Queen’s Plate contender Skywire.
“He relaxed better for him, and he was able to manage him a little better,” Trombetta said of the team of Husbands and Global Asset.
Seven will line up in the Charlie Barley.
◗ Off a fading fifth in the Grade 3 Hendrie, Silent Sonet will try to win the $100,000 Zadracarta for the second year in a row. Red Cabernet is dropping off a fourth in the Grade 2 Nassau, and could go favored in the seven-furlong overnight turf stakes, which attracted six other Ontario-bred females.