Al Qudra, Mountain Breeze Top Woodbine's Juvenile Races

Godolphin and British trainer Charlie Appleby have made the Summer Stakes (G1T) and Natalma Stakes (G1T) at Woodbine a point of emphasis over the past half-dozen years, winning each race twice.

As grade 1s worth CA$500,000, they are rewarding, but as part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In, they offer the additional benefit of providing their winners with an automatic, paid Breeders' Cup berth into designated races Nov. 1 at Del Mar. The Summer is a Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) qualifier, and the Natalma propels its winner into the Breeder's Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T).

On Sept. 14, Godolphin and Appleby will look to boost their Woodbine juvenile tallies by running Al Qudra  in the Summer Stakes and Mountain Breeze  in the Natalma. Both races are at a mile, with the Summer open to horses of any sex and the Natalma restricted to fillies. They are contested over Woodbine's sweeping E. P. Taylor Turf Course. The Natalma is up first as race 5, and the Summer is a couple hours later as race 9.

These two stakes support a Saturday program headed by the CA$1 million Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T) and CA$750,000 E. P. Taylor Stakes (G1T), races in which Godolphin and Appleby will also be represented, with stable rider William Buick traveling in for the mounts.

Dry weather is forecast this week.

Al Qudra is 2-fo-5, scoring his initial win at Lingfield in his third start. Then, after a fifth-place finish in the 22-horse Coventry Stakes (G2) June 18 at Royal Ascot, he took the ungraded Pat Eddery Stakes at Ascot July 27. There, he set the pace and drove clear by 2 1/4 lengths over New Century , subsequent winner of the Stonehenge Stakes at Salisbury.

"He did it the hard way from the front, but still found more to draw clear in the last furlong," Appleby said.

Though Al Qudra, a son of No Nay Never , has yet to race in North America, he arrived in the United States last month and has three works on the turf training track at Saratoga Race Course leading up to Saturday's Summer.

"He has been very professional in the mornings, and has settled in well," Appleby said.

Appleby and Godolphin previously won the Summer with Albahr  in 2021 under Frankie Dettori and Mysterious Night  the next year with William Buick in the saddle.

Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, a four-time Summer winner, most recently in 2020 with Gretzky the Great  , has seven of the 14 entries in the body of the field for the overdrawn Summer, plus two of the three horses on the also-eligible list. Five of his fillies in the body of the Summer field are cross-entered in the Natalma, plus his two also-eligibles.

His two male Summer entrants are Dream On  and Special Session .

The Natalma

Mountain Breeze has more graded stakes experience than Al Qudra, having started three times in graded company after two initial wins at Newmarket. She ran fourth in the June 21 Albany Stakes (G3) at Royal Ascot before finishing in the runner-up spot in both the July 12 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes (G2) and Aug. 10 Sweet Solera Stakes (G3), both at Newmarket.

Tracking the leaders in the Sweet Solera Stakes, the homebred daughter of Lope de Vega  moved into second inside the final furlong but was no match for favored Lake Victoria , losing by two lengths.

"She finishes her races well, suggesting that the mile should be no problem for her," Appleby said.

She has also recorded several works at Saratoga on grass leading up to her first start in North America. She breaks from the outside post in the field of 13, though the field could be reduced if some of the cross-entered fillies race in the Summer.

"She has settled into her new training regime well, and she has looked very comfortable in her track work," the trainer said of the half sister to 2017 European champion 2-year-old colt and now stallion Pinatubo . "This will be the first time she has raced on a turn, but she has shown in her work at home that she handles it well."