Summer Sunday Defends Title in Royal North

Summer Sunday, trained by Stuart Simon, is back to defend her crown in the co-featured $175,000 Royal North Stakes (G2T) July 18 at Woodbine. 

Bred in Ontario by Trinity West Stables and owned by Anne and William Scott, 5-year-old Summer Sunday will look to make a return to the winner's circle for the first time since her 2019 Royal North victory.

Stablemate Sister Peacock, a multiple stakes winner, will also go postward in the six-furlong turf event, part of a card that includes the $125,000 Trillium Stakes (G3), a 1 1/16-mile race on the Tapeta main track surface for fillies and mares 3 and up.

A daughter of Silent Name , Summer Sunday enters off a third-place effort in the six-furlong Whimsical Stakes (G3) June 21 at Woodbine.

Simon is hoping the bay mare, Canada's champion female sprinter in 2019, builds off that first start in 2020.

"I think she was pretty ready the first time," Simon said. "She hooked a really tough horse (Jean Elizabeth). The way the race unfolded, with nobody else going with that filly, I thought she ran a pretty adequate race for her first time this year."   

Debuting in July 2017, Summer Sunday wowed in winning a 5 1/2-furlong Tapeta race by five lengths. She then stepped up to the stakes ranks, notching victories in the Nandi Stakes and Muskoka Stakes to finish her 2-year-old campaign 3-for-3.

After a ninth-place finish in the Beaumont Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select (G3) at Keeneland in April 2018 to begin her 3-year-old season, Summer Sunday rattled off wins in four of her next five starts.

Summer Sunday, 7-1-1 in 12 starts, capped her 2019 season with a runner-up finish in the Seaway Stakes (G3) and a fourth in the Ontario Fashion Stakes (G3).

"She's coming into this race in really good shape," Simon said. "She seems to be herself. She didn't run badly the first time. I think she'll run that much better this time. With her turf form—she's run once and won this race last year—she should run well on Saturday. I always thought she'd like the turf—I just never had the chance to fit a race in until last year, and after the Royal North, I never had a chance to run her on it again until now."

A 4-year-old daughter of Real Solution , Sister Peacock, co-owned by Simon along with Brent and Russell McLellan, comes into the Royal North off a sharp score June 13 at the Toronto oval. The Kentucky-bred took a seven-furlong main track race by three-quarters of a length.

The win was the fifth in 11 starts for the bay filly, who won last year's Star Shoot Stakes and William D. Graham Memorial Stakes.

Bred by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, Sister Peacock has a record of 1-2-2 in five turf tries.

"I think she'll run well, too," Simon said. "She's really strong on the turf and won on it here last year. She just got beat on the turf at Saratoga (third, a neck back of winner Eyeinthesky, in the Galway Stakes) last year. She's going into the race in really good shape as well." 

Expect Summer Sunday and Sister Peacock to be prominent early.

"Both of the horses don't need the lead, but they're usually both up close," Simon said. "They have similar running styles that way, but they are both good, honest fillies."  

Other Royal North entrants include Gary Barber's 4-year-old Eyeinthesky, who is trained by Mark Casse, and Barbara Minshall trainee Another Time (cross-entered in the Trillium), who finished second, a neck behind Elizabeth Way, in the Nassau Stakes (G2T) June 27. 

The Trillium Stakes has attracted eight starters, including multiple Sovereign Award finalist Amalfi Coast; multiple graded stakes-placed Painting, who rallied impressively to finish second to Jean Elizabeth in the Whimsical Stakes (G3); and Live Oak Plantation's multiple stakes-winning homebred Souper Escape. 

The Trillium is race 8 and the Royal North is race 9 on Saturday's 10-race program.

Entries: Royal North S. (G2T)

Woodbine, Saturday, July 18, 2020, Race 9

• Grade IIT
• 6f
• Turf
• $175,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 5:28 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Foxxy Belle (ON)	Justin Stein	118	Norman McKnight	8/1
2	2Bohemian Bourbon (KY)	Leo Salles	118	Ian R. Wilkes	15/1
3	3Summer Sunday (ON)	Rafael Manuel Hernandez	125	Stuart C. Simon	3/1
4	4Another Time (KY)	Jerome Lermyte	118	Barbara J. Minshall	5/2
5	5Sister Peacock (KY)	Emma-Jayne Wilson	122	Stuart C. Simon	7/2
6	6Eyeinthesky (FL)	Patrick Husbands	122	Mark E. Casse	20/1
7	7Gamble's Candy (ON)	Luis Contreras	120	Josie Carroll	20/1
8	8Lady Grace (FL)	Kazushi Kimura	118	Mark E. Casse	6/1
9	9Charmaine's Mia (KY)	Steven Ronald Bahen	118	Michael K. McDonald	10/1

Entries: Trillium S. (G3)

Woodbine, Saturday, July 18, 2020, Race 8

• Grade III
• 1 1/16m
• All Weather Track
• $125,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 4:55 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Souper Escape (FL)	Luis Contreras	119	Michael J. Trombetta	10/1
2	2Amalfi Coast (ON)	Justin Stein	121	Kevin Attard	8/1
3	3Art of Almost (KY)	Emma-Jayne Wilson	117	Roger L. Attfield	5/2
4	4Theodora B. (KY)	Patrick Husbands	117	Michael W. Dickinson	7/2
5	5Nantucket Red (KY)	Steven Ronald Bahen	117	Ashlee Brnjas	20/1
6	6Painting (KY)	Kazushi Kimura	117	Josie Carroll	6/1
7	7Another Time (KY)	Jerome Lermyte	117	Barbara J. Minshall	2/1
8	8Wings of Dawn (KY)	Rafael Manuel Hernandez	117	Mark E. Casse	20/1