Woodbine: Euro Platinum cuts back in optional claimer

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stakes winner Euro Platinum shouldn’t mind a rollback to seven furlongs in Wednesday’s Woodbine headliner, a third-level optional $80,000 claimer. Five other fillies and mares were entered in the second race on the card, several of whom also have stakes credentials.

Euro Platinum lit up the tote board like a Christmas tree last November, when she came from off the pace to take the Jammed Lovely Stakes at 40-1. She won a seven-furlong sprint for Ontario-breds by a nose under Jono Jones.

Euro Platinum was mired in a slump for the first half of this meet, while competing on turf and Polytrack. She woke up Sept. 5 in the 1 1/16-mile Algoma, a stakes for graduates of local yearling sales that she won from off the pace on Polytrack.

Euro Platinum earned her highest Beyer Speed Figure, an 83, in the Jammed Lovely. Her owner/trainer, Audre Cappuccitti, has had some success with turnbacks.

In a field without much speed, True Religion figures to lead the way under Jose Contreras, the younger brother of leading rider Luis Contreras.

True Religion set a dawdling pace before coasting home on top two starts ago in a seven-furlong optional claimer. She failed to flash any early foot last time after missing the break and wound up fourth after making a bid early in the stretch.

Luis Contreras retains the mount on the late-running Rashnaa, who was compromised by a speed bias when she finished second while beating True Religion on Sept. 22.

Rashnaa was along for third in each of her two previous excursions in a pair of seven-furlong stakes, the Grade 3 Seaway and Sweet Briar Too. In the Sweet Briar Too, she finished just a half-length back while getting nosed out of second.

Oil Painting has been idle since her three-race spring campaign, during which she won a two-turn optional claimer and checked in fourth in the Trillium Stakes. She ran third in two stakes last year.

Retraceable, victorious in the 2008 Princess Elizabeth Stakes, has struggled this year and has been freshened since a sixth behind Moonlit Beauty on the grass in the Aug. 21 Belle Geste Stakes. Her most recent score came last fall in a Polytrack sprint.

Miss Lola found the mark twice from five starts at the meet, but she’s coming off a substandard performance behind Rashnaa, during which she raced wide while behind a slow pace.