Strut the Course to Open Season in Nassau

Last year's Canadian champion older female Strut the Course is expected to make her 5-year-old debut May 23 at Woodbine in the Nassau Stakes (Can-II), a mile turf race for fillies and mares age 3 or older.

John Unger's Strut the Course drew the rail for Saturday's race, which features a field of 12. The Nassau will be the first start for the daughter of Strut the Stage since she closed out 2014 with an off-the-board finish in the Falls City Handicap (gr. II) at Churchill Downs, a rare start on dirt.

Trained by Barbara Minshall, Strut the Course won last year's Classy 'n Smart Stakes and the Maple Leaf Stakes (Can-III) on the Woodbine Polytrack. She has a win and two close runner-up finishes in three career starts on turf, with those two second-place finishes coming in stakes at Woodbine.

The race favorite could be French group III winner Stellar Path, who enters off a half-length victory in the Plenty of Grace Stakes April 17 at Aqueduct Racetrack, which marked her U.S. debut for trainer Christophe Clement. Trevor Stewart's Stellar Path, a 4-year-old daughter of Astronomer Royal, will try to secure the fifth stakes win of her career.

Trainer Mark Casse figures to challenge with both John Oxley's Sky Treasure and Mike Rutherford's Resistivity. Sky Treasure placed in two graded stakes last year and the 5-year-old Sky Mesa   mare will try to secure her first stakes win. Resistivity, third in last year's Forward Gal Stakes (gr. III) on the Gulfstream Park dirt, enters off a clear victory in a March 6 allowance-optional claiming race on the Gulfstream turf.