Woodbine: Yellow Boat making local debut off strong comeback race

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Yellow Boat makes her Woodbine debut in Friday’s headliner and will likely be a short price in the seven-furlong allowance for fillies and mares.

Yellow Boat, a Robert Evans homebred by Lemon Drop Kid, started twice two years ago at 2. She wound up second in her six-furlong opener at Saratoga and then graduated in a seven-furlong maiden special at Belmont Park.

Yellow Boat missed all of 2012 and had been idle for 19 months when she resurfaced in a seven-furlong allowance on Keeneland’s Polytrack on April 20. Sent off at 7-1, she came wide to end up second behind a rival who returned to finish second in a second-level optional claimer at Churchill, and the seventh horse subsequently notched a restricted allowance at Presque Isle.

Yellow Boat has worked once on the Polytrack and three times on the local training track leading up to Friday’s engagement. Luis Contreras has the mount for trainer Mark Frostad, a combination that is 2 for 7 at the meet.

Starship Sabrina is a wake-up prospect in her second start off the sidelines. She just missed in a Nov. 18 allowance, but her two efforts since then were both dull.

Trained by Bob Tiller, Starship Sabrina worked a fast half-mile in 48 seconds on May 17 and will have leading rider Eurico Da Silva in the saddle.

Bear’s Kitty Kitty has been laid up since finishing a prominent second in a 1 1/16-mile allowance Dec. 8. Trainer Sid Attard is putting blinkers on the steady 4-year-old.

Brew Blessings could contend for a minor award in her second start off the $20,000 claim by trainer Marty Drexler. She rallied wide over a rail-biased track when she was fourth behind future stakes winner Bear’s Gem in her most recent excursion Dec. 16.

Rounding out the third-race field are Lemon Splash, Clementis, and Mekong Delta.

Friday’s fourth race is the first conditioned-claiming race in Woodbine history, with the newly created clause that allows for the inclusion of Ontario-sired horses with any number of wins. There is no shortage of Ontario-sired runners in the $40,000 turf sprint. Trainer Ralph Biamonte entered Valid’s Best and the classy Citius, who took the Bold Ruckus Stakes in 2011 and the Frost King Stakes in 2010. Citius was beaten a nose in a recent $20,000 claimer.

There are two Ontario-sired comebackers in the fourth, Ten Lakes and Forestador.

Ten Lakes is a 6-year-old with just six lifetime starts, but three of them were lucrative victories in Ontario-sired company.

The versatile Forestador has a history of winning off a layoff and could be the sleeper.