Woodbine Mile win puts Oscar Performance back on track for Breeders' Cup

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Oscar Performance punched his ticket to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile with a gutsy front-running score under Jose Ortiz in Saturday’s $832,000 Woodbine Mile.

La Sardane was scratched from the Grade 1 event, enabling Oscar Performance to secure an easy lead along the backstretch, through soft fractions.

The local hero, 8-1 shot Mr Havercamp, joined Oscar Performance up front early in the stretch, but Oscar Performance turned back that challenge in the final furlong to prevail by 1 1/2 lengths in a time of 1:33.12.

Mr Havercamp held off the surging European longshot Stormy Antarctic by a neck for second. The favored Delta Prince finished fourth, and was followed by Divisidero, Lord Glitters, Good Samaritan, and Vanish.

Oscar Performance was none the worse for wear after getting pulled up when taking a bad step as the favorite in his previous race in the Grade 1 Arlington Million.

“I’m just happy that he’s back,” Ortiz said. “He’s one of the best horses in the barn. When the filly scratched earlier, we were the only speed in the race, so I went ahead. He broke a bit slow. I know his best race is on the lead, anyway. At the quarter pole, I saw somebody getting close to me, and when I asked him to go, he really accelerated. He has a great turn of foot. When I hit the eighth pole, I hit him left-handed and he kept going. He gained another gear, and I knew that he was home.”

Assistant trainer Erin Lynch, the wife of trainer Brian Lynch, said Oscar Performance will start next in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill in early November. The Woodbine Mile is a BC Win and You’re In qualifier for that race.

“He’ll just train into the Breeders’ Cup,” Lynch said. “He’s a barn favorite. He’s a ham to be around. Everybody loves him. We’re all very thrilled.”

A 4-year-old son of Kitten’s Joy, Oscar Performance paid $7.70 as the second choice, and earned $480,000 for Amerman Racing LLC.