Woodbine: Dancethruthedawn in Oaks

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Favored Dancethruthedawn overcame a speed bias to capture the $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks, formerly the Canadian Oaks, in workmanlike fashion at Woodbine Saturday.

It was a record-tying sixth Oaks victory for Sam-Son Farm, who also campaigned Oaks winner Dance Smartly, the dam of Dancethruthedawn.

Dancethruthedawn raced five lengths off the early pace in the 1 1/8-mile fixture for 3-year-old fillies. Penny Perfect set slow fractions of 23.88 and 48.26 seconds while being tracked by Turner's Hall and Dancen in the Sun. Gary Boulanger swung Dancethruthedawn wide inside the half-mile pole, where she commenced a four-wide rally.

Dancen in the Sun took control at the head of the stretch, but Dancethruthedawn ran her down at the sixteenth pole en route to a 2 1/4-length tally. Quick Blue rallied to finish another 2 3/4 lengths back in third in the 12-horse field of Canadian-breds. The final time was 1:51.74.

"She didn't get away all that well," said Boulanger. "When I got her in the clear, she geared right up and started coming to 'em. She responded when I called on her at the eighth pole, but when she got to the lead, she perked her ears up and swapped leads. There was a lot left in the tank."

Trained by Mark Frostad, Dancethruthedawn ($3.30) earned $300,000, which boosted her bankroll to $543,691.