Tapeta-Loving Souper Escape Heads Seaway Stakes
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Photo: Michael Burns
Souper Escape wins the Trillium Stakes at Woodbine
Homebred Souper Escape is owned by Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Plantation and was raised there in Florida. She has done much of her training in Maryland at Fair Hill Training Center for trainer Mike Trombetta. But her heart apparently lies in Canada.
The 4-year-old Medaglia d'Oro filly is perfect in two starts on the Tapeta main track at Woodbine, capturing the 2019 La Lorgnette Stakes and this year's Trillium Stakes (G3). Now she will seek to extend that main-track record to 3-for-3 when she heads the Aug. 16 Seaway Stakes (G3) at the Toronto oval.
The Trillium was the finest performance of her 15-race career. She opened up an early advantage and after a relatively comfortable opening half-mile, she blasted away from the pack over the second half of the 1 1/16-mile race to win by 4 1/2 lengths. She raced the distance in 1:42.78 under Luis Contreras, who returns aboard her Sunday.
"When I turned for home, I had so much horse and I just kept going and she just kept rolling," he said.
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Although most of her experience has come in longer races than the seven furlongs she races in the CA$125,000 Seaway, she acts speedy enough to adapt. The filly, whose only defeat at Woodbine came when second in a turf allowance in her season debut behind Seaway starter Another Time June 6, is the 2-1 morning-line favorite.
Souper Escape is out of the Street Cry mare Cry and Catch Me, the winner of the 2007 Oak Leaf Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park when it had a synthetic surface.
One of her primary foes is graded stakes winner Amalfi Coast, who looks to reverse two losses at the current meet. The 4-year-old daughter of Tapizar went 4-2-1 from eight starts last year, winning three straight stakes, including a season-ending score in the Bessarabian Stakes (G2) Nov. 24. She was a finalist in three Sovereign Award categories.
Owned by Terra Racing Stable and trained by Kevin Attard, Amalfi Coast finished fourth in Nassau Stakes (G2) June 27 after running sixth in the June 6 allowance in which Another Time and Souper Escape were 1-2.
When Amalfi Coast races Sunday, she'll do so about four hours after her 2-year-old half sister, Amalfi Sky (by Sky Mesa ), makes her debut for these same connections in a five-furlong maiden race that goes as the day's opener.
Justin Stein rides the two siblings.
The Seaway also includes Painting and Another Time, second and third, respectively, in the Trillium. Both are local synthetic winners when sprinting.
Painting is the 5-2 choice on the morning line and will look to go one better after three straight second-place finishes.
The 4-year-old daughter of Distorted Humor trained by Josie Carroll closed her 2019 season with a runner-up effort in the Bessarabian before runner-up finishes in the Whimsical Stakes (G3) and Trillium.
Patrick Husbands, aboard for her most recent victory in an allowance at Woodbine in November, picks up the mount.
She races for Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings, Glenn Sikura, and Windsor Boys Racing. Hill 'n' Dale bred the filly, whose dam, Handpainted (by A. P. Indy), was a four-time stakes winner trained by Carroll for owners John and Glenn Sikura.
Woodbine, Sunday, August 16, 2020, Race 8Entries: Seaway S. (G3)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Gamble's Candy (ON)
Kazushi Kimura
121
Josie Carroll
20/1
2
2Souper Escape (FL)
Luis Contreras
123
Michael J. Trombetta
2/1
3
3Miss Mosaic (KY)
David Moran
121
Ben Colebrook
20/1
4
4Another Time (KY)
Rafael Manuel Hernandez
122
Barbara J. Minshall
8/1
5
5Painting (KY)
Patrick Husbands
121
Josie Carroll
5/2
6
6Sister Peacock (KY)
Emma-Jayne Wilson
122
Stuart C. Simon
6/1
7
7Charmaine's Mia (KY)
Steven Ronald Bahen
122
Michael K. McDonald
15/1
8
8Amalfi Coast (ON)
Justin Stein
121
Kevin Attard
7/2
