Woodine: Bear It's Time, Niigon's Touch back on Polytrack for Eternal Search

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Two fillies who disappointed on the grass in the Wonder Where Stakes, Bear It’s Time and Niigon’s Touch, will both go back to the Polytrack on Saturday at Woodbine in the $125,000 Eternal Search Stakes.

Bear It’s Time should be favored in the 11/16-mile event for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies. She aired in the seven-furlong Lady Angela Stakes in her season opener May 23, but was ineffective 13 days later in the Woodbine Oaks, in which she pressed a slow pace before fading to sixth.

Bear It’s Time went on to capture the second leg of the Canadian triple tiara, the Bison City Stakes, by a head over Niigon’s Touch. She finished a distant fourth in the final race of the series for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies July 31, the 1 1/4-mile Wonder Where.

Emma Wilson, who rode Bear It’s Time in the Oaks for trainer Reade Baker, inherits the mount from Luis Contreras, who’s at Saratoga on Saturday to ride Inglorious in the Grade 1 Alabama.

“She’s an impressive filly,” said Wilson. “I think she was inexperienced going into the Oaks, and you could see the [improvement] in the Bison City, when she had the time and the experience. She could be a very nice horse in the future. I appreciate the opportunity to ride her back again. I’m looking forward to giving her a good steer.”

Niigon’s Touch won her first two starts in Ontario-sired company convincingly, including a 1 1/16-mile allowance. After losing a heartbreaker in the 1 1/16- mile Bison City, she was a non-threatening fifth in the Wonder Where, showing trainer Paul Attard her aversion for the turf.

“She ran spotty,” said Attard. “She broke okay and was close early, then dropped back on her own. I think she just wasn’t that comfortable on the turf. She’s much better on the Poly. We had to try it, and now we know she doesn’t like it. I think a mile and a sixteenth on the Poly is her best trip, and I think she’ll run better in this race.”

Sinister Quill and Medabuck are both competing around two turns for the first time after ending up second and third, respectively, in the seven-furlong Passing Mood Stakes on the grass.

Sinister Quill, the Lady Angela runner-up, was a troubled third against the boys two starts ago in the Bold Ruckus Stakes.