Woodbine: Awfully Sinful looks solid in feature

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – An overnight stakes for Sunday at Woodbine failed to fill, leaving a first-level allowance race for fillies and mares as the nominal feature. Awfully Sinful could rule the roost in the 1 1/16-mile event, which is carded as race eight on a 10-race card.

Awfully Sinful went on a mini-roll in the spring, when she romped in both a $20,000 conditioned claimer and an open $25,000 claiming contest, both at 1 1/16 miles. Following a break of nearly two months, she rallied five wide from seventh Aug. 11 to finish second in an allowance race on a speed-favoring track.

Awfully Sinful finished third in last year’s Algoma, so trainer Mike Doyle tried her again in that 1 1/16-mile stakes for graduates of local yearling sales on Aug. 28, but a slow pace and a speed bias ruined her chances that day, and she finished a well-beaten ninth, her most recent start.

Leading jockey Luis Contreras returns after a one-race absence to ride Awfully Sinful, a 4-year-old filly owned by Doyle and Dura Racing.

Checkered Past earned her diploma in a slow 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight race on Polytrack on May 11, and then narrowly lost a one-mile allowance on grass June 21. She has worked extensively since her last outing July 20, which was another runner-up placing in an allowance race on turf.

Eurico Rosa Da Silva retains the mount on Checkered Past, a Sam-Son Farms homebred trained by Malcolm Pierce.

Peche Mobilee’s recent form is much more appealing if you ignore her poor performances in a pair of turf stakes. She polished off Ontario-sired allowance opponents June 1, and was third in an open first-level allowance two starts back on Polytrack.

Calibration was not all that far back in fifth when she returned from a nine-month vacation in a $40,000 conditioned claiming race at a mile on grass Aug. 11. She has since worked quickly for trainer David Bell, who sports solid numbers with starters second-time off a long layoff.

Gleaming Sunrise defeated $50,000 maidens going long on turf after lacking room on the turn three weeks ago. Her route form on Polytrack is decent, and she could have a say in the outcome.

We’llseeaboutthat is competing around two turns for the first time, with ample stamina in her pedigree. She had a wide journey when fourth in a seven-furlong allowance race Aug. 4.

Sotique, making her first start off a $12,500 claim, looks a little better than her entrymate, the win-shy Galloping d’Amour.