Woodbine: Laughing Falcon back to best game in Inglorious Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Laughing Falcon turns back off a disappointing route try Monday at Woodbine in the inaugural running of the $100,000 Inglorious, a six-furlong overnight stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

Laughing Falcon won her first three starts on the lead, all in sprints, most notably the seven-furlong Passing Mood Stakes for Ontario-sired fillies on the grass.

Laughing Falcon switched to the Polytrack on Aug. 5 for the restricted Eternal Search Stakes, in which she set moderate fractions going 1 1/16 miles before tiring to finish a distant fourth.

“She didn’t want to go long,” trainer Bob Tiller said. “When you don’t want to go long, and then when you run long on the Polytrack, you’re not going to go long at all, period. Ninety percent of the time, they just don’t go wire to wire on the Polytrack, unless you’ve got a really good horse.”

Tiller said Laughing Falcon is none the worse for wear heading into the Inglorious.

“She’s had issues all along, but she’s doing good right now,” Tiller explained. “She’s just got a big heart. I think she’s a sprinter.”

Rootham Triple E’s notched her first stakes, the six-furlong Star Shoot, in her April 20 season opener. Since ending up sixth in the May 4 Fury Stakes, she has been second in three straight outings, including two restricted stakes.

Trainer Sam DiPasquale said he felt that Rootham Triple E’s acquitted herself well last time against older opposition in a second-level optional claimer.

“She had a bad post, the one-hole, but she ran a good race,” DiPasquale recalled. “She was squeezed on the rail the whole way. She came out of it very good.”

DiPasquale was thrilled with her five-furlong breeze in 59.80 seconds on the Polytrack last Monday, which was the fastest of 16 works at the distance.

“That was incredible,” DiPasquale said. “We had to try to take the edge off of her, because she was so sharp. She did that easily.”

Cryptic Message was the leading Ontario-sired 2-year-old filly sprinter in 2012, during which she won three stakes in five starts. She is winless in just two appearances this year, however, and was beaten in double digits in the Passing Mood. Trainer Ralph Biamonte is putting blinkers on her.

Goldstryke Glory had a productive juvenile campaign here before going to Hastings, where she placed in two dirt stakes in the spring. She led throughout an allowance sprint on the grass in her second start back on the local scene Aug. 18.