Moira won’t run in rest of Canadian triple crown

Article content

Moira is all ready for her big run on the turf. But that won’t come Sunday.

Article content

The Queen’s Plate-winning three-year-old filly will be resting in her stall while many of the horses she beat on Aug. 21 will take their shot on the grass in the $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes.

Article content

On Saturday, Moira put in a five-furlong workout, finishing in a comfortable 1:01.20. Trainer Kevin Attard announced just after her dominant win in the Plate that she would be skipping the remainder of the Canadian triple crown to seek a Grade 1 stakes victory. That first shot could come next Saturday in the $750,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes at Woodbine or she may be shipped to Keeneland for the $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. She would be facing older runners if she stays home and only fellow three-year-olds if she goes to Kentucky.

Article content

Her absence from the Breeders’ means nine runners will have a shot at the final leg of the triple crown. Duke of Love is the 2-1 morning-line favorite off her score in the Prince of Wales Stakes. The victim of a troubled trip in the Plate where he finished eighth, the Josie Carroll-trained son of Cupid had a much cleaner run on the dirt at Fort Erie and will be looking to get to the top of the local three-year-old colt division here.

His main rivals will be the two horses who filled out the Plate triactor behind Moira. Hall of Dreams returns after his second-place finish. Sir for Sure finished third in the Plate but in the Prince of Wales, lost jockey Declan Carroll around the first turn. Trainer Mark Casse is confident about his runners, both of whom should like the turf.
“Both Sir for Sure and Hall of Dreams will relish the mile-and-a-half,” he told Woodbine Entertainment. “That’s a big factor as far as turf goes.”

Article content

“Both their breeding says turf but what the breeding says and what they so are two different things.”

Dancin in Da’nile, fifth in the Plate, will try to give owner Sam Son Farms its seventh Breeders’ Stakes win. Lac Macaza only lost by a half-length in a four-horse photo in the Toronto Cup and might be that up-and-comer that surprises here for trainer Julia Carey.

While he waits for Moira’s run, Attard will send out Gaston, who broke his maiden on his fourth try during the Queen’s Plate undercard. Shamateur is getting another chance after finishing last of the 11 starters in the Plate. He finished fifth on turf in his last start.

Ice Road, who surprised in the Prince of Wales with a third-place finish at 40-1, and Collaborative, a non-threatening fifth in that race, round out the field.

HIGH CLASS: Early-bird horseplayers will have their eyes on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday morning. The French classic is led by Irish Champion Stakes winner Luxembourg, currently the 7-2 favorite. But look at English star Alpinista (5-1) and Titleholder, the leader of the Japanese contingent who is currently 8-1.