Winter-raced horses had edge in Jacques Cartier Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Horses who wintered in Ontario held their own during Woodbine’s opening weekend, but winter-raced horses swept the top four positions in the only stakes race of the weekend, Sunday’s $125,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes.

Dan the Tin Man, who wintered in Florida with trainer Ricky Griffith, closed into a quick early pace and held off two other winter-raced horses, Victory Exchange and Really Sharp, to win his third career stakes race by a neck.

“They ran a lot quicker than I thought they would, and the race set up decently for him,” Griffith said. “I told [jockey] David [Garcia] that if everybody wants to be in a hurry, just to sit off of the pace and hopefully they come back, and it worked out pretty good.”

Dan the Tin Man trained at Griffith’s winter base at the Classic Mile Training Center in Ocala, Fla., and recorded workouts at Gulfstream Park before making his first start of the 2014 season on dirt at Tampa Bay Downs over one mile and 40 yards in late February.

“He trained not bad over the Gulfstream dirt,” Griffith said. “He trains kind of ordinary on the dirt. I ran him just to do something at Tampa going two turns, and he ran third. It wasn’t horrible, but he doesn’t want to go that far, and he certainly enjoys the Polytrack over the dirt.”

Griffith said he has no long-term target for Dan the Tin Man after Sunday’s victory and will wait to see how the 4-year-old gelding comes out of the race before planning his next steps.

“We’ll just take it one step at a time with Dan and see what races come up,” he said.