Alnilah, Summer Sunday Renew Rivalry in Ontario Fashion
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Photo: Michael Burns
Summer Sunday wins the Hendrie Stakes at Woodbine in June
After an emphasis on grass racing last week in Canada, headed by the E. P. Taylor Stakes (G1T) and Canadian International (G1T), the stakes focus at Woodbine shifts to the synthetic main track Oct. 19 with the CA$125,000 Ontario Fashion Stakes (G3).
Five of the six competitors exit one of two stakes races: the Sept. 21 Sweet Briar Too Stakes and the Aug. 25 Seaway Stakes (G3). Jean Elizabeth, Special Relativity, and Heavenly Hill ran first, third, and sixth, respectively, in the ungraded Sweet Briar Too, while Alnilah and Summer Sunday finished 1-2 in the Seaway.
Although Alnilah was a romping winner in the Seaway, drawing off by 4 1/2 lengths after a sluggish start, Summer Sunday seems the probable favorite in the Ontario Fashion in light of her overall record. The 4-year-old daughter of Silent Name has won seven of 10 starts and $491,986, tops in the field. Before the Seaway she had never lost on the Woodbine main track, winning six races on the surface, five of them stakes.
She was also successful carrying her speed over the turf, winning the Royal North (G2T) at Woodbine for trainer Stuart Simon and her regular Woodbine jockey, Rafael Hernandez. Only two races at Keeneland in stakes on dirt resulted in lackluster finishes.
Bred in Ontario by Trinity West Stables, Summer Sunday was purchased by owners William and Anne Scott for US$72,485 from the Woodlands consignment to the 2016 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario Division) Canadian-Bred Yearling Sale.
A cutback in distance from the seven-furlong Seaway to the six furlongs of the Ontario Fashion may assist the quick Summer Sunday, as should the distance benefit Sweet Briar Too winner Jean Elizabeth, who has compiled a four-for-five record at the trip.
Heavenly Hill, outrun by 10 lengths in the Sweet Briar Too, and Sanity, a mare stepping up in class after an optional claiming victory Sept. 28, are the race outsiders.
Woodbine, Saturday, October 19, 2019, Race 3Entries: Ontario Fashion S. (G3)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Heavenly Hill (KY)
Luis Contreras
117
Josie Carroll
15/1
2
2Special Relativity (KY)
David Cohen
117
Norman McKnight
9/2
3
3Summer Sunday (ON)
Rafael Manuel Hernandez
124
Stuart C. Simon
8/5
4
4Alnilah (ON)
Patrick Husbands
119
Terry Jordan
9/5
5
5Sanity (KY)
Kazushi Kimura
117
Steven Chircop
15/1
6
6Jean Elizabeth (IL)
Eurico Rosa Da Silva
119
Larry Rivelli
4/1
