Paramount Prince Looks to Reign in Eclipse Stakes

The CA$175,000 Eclipse Stakes (G2), the first big prize on the Woodbine calendar for older horses, lured some of the most talented runners on the 2023 Canadian circuit, topped by 2023 King's Plate Stakes hero Paramount Prince .

One of three entries for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, Paramount Prince rose to the cream of his crop last year with a dominating front-running score in Woodbine's King's Plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown. Running for the colors of Michael Langlois and Gary Barber, the son of Society's Chairman  completed his sophomore campaign with a third-place effort in the Prince of Wales Stakes before failing to take to the turf when unplaced in the Breeders' Stakes.

Paramount Prince was crowned Canada's champion 3-year-old male for 2023 at last month's Sovereign Awards ceremony, which followed the gelding's 2024 return to the races in March. Lining up in a first-level allowance contest over the Gulfstream Park Tapeta track, Paramount Prince rolled gate-to-wire in his 4-year-old debut.

Video: Gulfstream Park, Race 9, AOC

Patrick Husbands gets the mount back on Paramount Prince for the 1 1/16-mile Eclipse. The gelding, leaving from post 6, will break directly inside of another huge speed horse in the race, fellow Casse trainee Get Smokin .

The veteran Get Smokin ships into Woodbine for only the second time in 27 career starts for BlackRidge Stables, Ironhorse Racing Stable, Saratoga Seven Racing Partners, and T-N-T Equine Holdings. Get Smokin has parlayed his brilliant early speed into multiple stakes wins and more than $1.6 million in earnings. His final effort of 2023 resulted in a 1 3/4-length tally in the Sept. 9 Kentucky Turf Cup Stakes (G2T), in which the son of Get Stormy  recorded one of his best-ever speed figures.

Carrying the co-high weight of 124 pounds, four more than Paramount Prince, Get Smokin will not only need to outgun his younger stablemate but overcome a nine-month layoff in the Eclipse.

The last of the Casse trio, Palazzi , is winless in his last five starts but should welcome the return to Woodbine after facing tough competition racing this winter in the United States.

Katerina Vassilieva-trained Rondure  will be looking to thwart the Casse runners in his second start since an eighth-place finish in last year's Eclipse Stakes. The son of Oxbow   triumphed from off the bench in his most recent effort, edging Border Town  by a head to capture a seven-furlong allowance race at Woodbine May 11.

"At 3, (Rondure) won the Marine, which is the same distance as the Eclipse," said Vassilieva. "Since he's won at seven furlongs several times, I considered entering the Jacques Cartier (also Saturday), but I don't think he's a stone-cold, six-furlong type of sprinter."

In other stakes action Saturday at Woodbine:

• Casse pupil Play the Music  will attempt back-to-back Woodbine graded stakes wins in the CA$135,000 Royal North Stakes (G3T) for older fillies and mares sprinting on the turf after a facile victory in the Whimsical Stakes (G3) May 4.
• Last year's Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) victor Flag Of Honour  tries to turn the tables on the speedy Candy Overload  in the six-furlong main track CA$135,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes (G3) after a last-out runner-up finish to that rival.
• Dual graded stakes-winning mare Millie Girl  and the Kevin Attard-trained Fashionably Fab , undefeated in her last four starts, make their 2024 debuts in the CA$135,000 Belle Mahone Stakes (G3) going 1 1/16 miles on the main track.