Woodbine: Tu Endie Wei looks formidable in Ruling Angel

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Trainer Reade Baker will be represented in both Woodbine stakes on Saturday, when he runs Tu Endie Wei in the $100,000 Ruling Angel and Missy Bear in the $150,000 Fanfreluche.

Tu Endie Wei, last year’s Canadian champion 2-year-old filly, should be favored in the Ruling Angel, a 6 1/2-furlong overnight race for 3-year-old fillies.

Tu Endie Wei won two stakes this year, the six-furlong Star Shoot in April and the seven-furlong Seaway on Sept. 1. In the Grade 3 Seaway, she defeated older opposition, most notably Roxy Gap.

“She showed her old stuff,” said Baker, regarding the Seaway. “When she gets to play her game — sprinting on the Poly – she’s pretty tough. That was a pretty good mare she beat.”

Baker said Tu Endie Wei had several excuses for coming up empty in the Grade 1 Prioress at Saratoga in August.

“The main thing she did was hit her hind leg with her front leg,” Baker recalled. “She had a pretty big cut right across her ankle at the bone.”

Missy Bear is one of three maidens in the Fanfreluche. The six-furlong dash for Ontario-bred 2-year-old fillies came up light.

Missy Bear raced wide en route to a fourth-place finish when she debuted in a six-furlong sprint for $62,500 maidens Sept. 8. The runner-up, Tiny Bear, who happens to be her stablemate, subsequently finished a close second in the $100,000 Presque Isle Debutante.

“Tiny Bear got into serious trouble, and just got beat,” said Baker, regarding her Debutante. “She was the best horse in the race.”

Baker said he called an audible with Missy Bear and bypassed a maiden special in favor of the Fanfreluche.

“It’s a pretty weak race, to put it mildly,” said Baker. “For that much money, in this kind of field, she deserves a chance. You have to seize these opportunities.”

Trainer Mike Keogh entered Sure Would, who was second in her seven-furlong debut on the grass behind Spring Venture, who subsequently won the Grade 2 Natalma and Grade 3 Mazarine. Sure Would wound up 13th in her only other outing in the one-mile Natalma.

“She got into a ton of trouble in her first race, and ran very well,” Keogh recalled. “The second race, she was pretty bad in the post parade. She’s a bit of a handful, and we’ve been schooling her a lot, but the main thing is she just didn’t get the trip. I don’t think she wants to go that far.”

Keogh said the Polytrack should be a suitable surface for Sure Would.

“She’s worked well enough on it,” said Keogh. “I just went to the turf with her because she worked nicely on it, and she’s by Wando.”