Zensational Bunny might have fitness edge in Star Shoot Stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Zensational Bunny, who recently returned to Woodbine racing-fit after a lackluster winter campaign, should be prominent in Saturday’s $125,000 Star Shoot Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

Zensational Bunny was purchased privately by owner Gary Barber after she graduated at first asking Sept. 27. Two months later, she led throughout the seven-furlong Glorious Song Stakes in her debut for trainer Mark Casse. She subsequently ran fourth in the Grade 3 Old Hat Stakes at Gulfstream and then failed to stay a mile when a distant seventh in the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks on March 22 at Turfway Park.

Patrick Husbands, who rode Zensational Bunny in the Glorious Song, said he was pleased with her five-furlong work in 1:02 here April 11.

“When I breezed her last week, she went good,” said Husbands, who will ride her again Saturday.

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Casse also entered last year’s Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes winner, Madly Truly, and Appreciating, a recent allowance winner at Keeneland. Eurico Rosa Da Silva was named on both.

The Star Shoot is the launching pad for the accomplished Ontario-breds Lexie Lou and Paladin Bay, who are being pointed toward the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks on June 15.

Lexie Lou wintered at Payson Park in Florida with owner and trainer John Ross, who said she’s thrived heading into the Star Shoot.

“We gave her a nice holiday,” Ross said. “I started her up, and she’s doing beautifully. She surprises me more and more all the time. I wish her first race was seven furlongs, but she can rate nicely off the pace going six, which she’s done before. It’s a starting point, and if you want to run her a mile and an eighth, you have to get going.”

Lexie Lou breezed five furlongs in a bullet 1:00 here April 10 with stablemate Go Greeley, last year’s Canadian champion 2-year-old male.

“She worked better than Go Greeley,” Ross said. “She galloped out [three-quarters] in 1:14. She was full of run. They went an opening half in 46 [seconds] and change. She was very impressive to me.”

Paladin Bay was a close second to Ria Antonia in the Sovereign Award voting for 2013 Canadian champion 2-year-old filly. She notched two 1 1/16-mile stakes wins in the fall, most notably the $240,645 Princess Elizabeth.

Trainer Harold Ladouceur, the husband of owner Jessie Ladouceur, said Paladin Bay wintered well in Ontario.

“I’m very happy with her,” he said. “I want to get a race under her belt before we run in the next stakes, the mile-and-a-sixteenth Selene [on May 18]. She’s no slouch sprinting.”