Woodbine Mile a Chance for New Star to Shine

Update: Grand Arch and Za Approval were scratched Sept. 13

The $1 million Ricoh Woodbine Mile (Can-IT) won't include Wise Dan after the two-time winner's retirement, but runners who dwelt in his shadow will have a chance to shine Sept. 13 at Woodbine.

Grade I winners Lea and Obviously, along with recent grade II winner Grand Arch, head a field of 11 for the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" event, which grants the victor a spot in the gate for the Oct. 31 Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT) at Keeneland.

Adele B. Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm's homebred Lea, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and to be ridden by Joel Rosario from post 10, enters as the field's leading money winner with over $2 million. The 5-2 morning line choice is a 6-year-old son of First Samurai   who won the Donn Handicap (gr. I) in February of 2014. This year, he took the Hal's Hope (gr. III), was runner-up in the Donn, finished third to Prince Bishop and California Chrome in the $10 million Dubai World Cup (UAE-I), and was second to Noble Bird in the Stephen Foster (gr. I).

BOSSERT: Lea Makes Impressive Hal's Hope Comeback

After a disappointing sixth to Honor Code in the Aug. 8 Whitney (gr. I) at Saratoga Race Course, Lea will race on turf for the first time in over two years. He broke his maiden on the grass in 2012 at Saratoga, won the Commonwealth Turf Cup (gr. IIIT) later that year on turf, and the following season finished second and third to Wise Dan in the Firecracker (gr. IIT) and Fourstardave (gr. IIT).

"He kind of ran up close to a fast pace. I don't think that helped," Mott recalled about the Whitney. "By the same token, I don't think he handled the ground that well. I'm giving him that excuse."

Since then, Lea has worked four times, including two good blowouts over the Saratoga training turf.

"We were pleased enough with the way he worked on (the turf) that we thought he deserved another chance," Mott said. "We know he's a grade I horse."

Mott won the inaugural Woodbine Mile in 1997 with Geri and also just missed winning the 2011 edition with Courageous Cat   when second by a neck to Turallure. Six-year-olds have won this race a leading seven times.

Dual grade I winner and 3-1 second choice Obviously, trained by Phil D'Amato for owners Anthony Fanticola and Joseph Scardino, makes his seasonal debut in the Woodbine Mile, the first horse to do so in the race's history. The speedy 7-year-old Irish-bred gelded son of Choisir, who would become the oldest horse to win the race, has earned more than $1.4 million while taking 11 of 22 starts, highlighted by back-to-back victories in the Shoemaker Mile (gr. IT) in 2013 and 2014. To be ridden by Joe Talamo from the rail, Obviously also finished fifth in the last two editions of the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT).

"He loves to run four or five races a year and just gives you everything he's got," D'Amato said. "He runs great fresh and if he wasn't training as well as he ever has—if not better—I wouldn't even consider this off the bench. But he is training like a horse possessed, so we're going to take a shot in a $1 million race and a chance at a 'Win and You're In.'"

Jim and Susan Hill's Grand Arch, trained by Brian Lynch, comes into the Mile off a neck win in the mile Fourstardave (gr. IIT) at Saratoga. The horse he beat that day, Ironicus, came back to capture the Bernard Baruch (gr. IIT).

LEWYN: Grand Arch Pulls the Upset in Fourstardave

"That performance sums him up," Lynch said. "He's going to fight every inch of the way, and that's precisely what he did that day. This guy just keeps getting better with age."

Last year, Grand Arch won the King Edward at Woodbine and was the 7-2 second choice in the Woodbine Mile when finishing fifth to Trade Storm. The 6-year-old gelded son of Arch   boasts career earnings of just over $1 million and will be ridden by Luis Saez from the 2 hole.

The usual European invasion for the Woodbine Mile comes this year in the form of Mondialiste and 3-year-old Mr. Owen.

Mondialiste, owned by Geoff and Sandra Turnbull and trained by David O'Meara, has won three of 12 starts while campaigning in France and England, including the Strensall Stakes at York, a race which Trade Storm used as a stepping stone to his Woodbine Mile win last year.

Mr. Owen is owned by Qatar Racing, who won last year's Woodbine Mile with Trade Storm. The Pennsylvania-bred son of Invincible Spirit is trained by Francois Rohaut and so far has competed only in France, winning three of six starts this year after being unraced at 2.

The only sophomore in the race (no 3-year-old has ever won the Woodbine Mile), Mr. Owen enters off a minor stakes win at Deauville, but earlier in the year was third to Make Believe and New Bay in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains (Fra-I) over a mile at Longchamp. He carries lightest weight in the field at 112 pounds, and will run without Lasix. His dam, Mrs. Lindsay, earned over $1 million and won two group/grade I events—the Prix Vermeille at Longchamp and the E.P. Taylor at Woodbine in 2007.

Tower of Texas, trained by Hall of Famer Roger Attfield, has won three of his five outings this year, including the June 21 King Edward (Can-IIT). The 4-year-old son of Street Sense  , owned by Thomas Van Meter II and Scott Dilworth, enters off a runner-up finish in the Aug. 23 Play the King (gr. IIT) and will be ridden by Eurico Rosa da Silva in search of Attfield's first Woodbine Mile win.

Copper Water Thoroughbred Company's Reporting Star pulled off a shocker in the Play the King, finishing a nose in front of Tower of Texas at odds of 15-1 in the turf prep for the Woodbine Mile.

BALAN: Reporting Star Upsets Play the King Stakes

Tower of Texas is one of three Ontario-breds in the race, along with Kaigun and Platinum Glory. Four Ontario-breds have won before, the latest being Rahy's Attorney in 2008.

Kaigun, a 5-year-old gelded son of Northern Afleet  , had a busy 2014 campaign. He finished second to Wise Dan in the Maker's 46 Mile (gr. IT) at Keeneland, came close to winning three other grade I events, and then took the Play the King Stakes. He subsequently went postward in the Woodbine Mile as the third choice and finished second, a half-length behind Trade Storm.

To be ridden from post 9 by Patrick Husbands, who won the 2001 Mile aboard Numerous Times, Kaigun is winless in three starts this year for trainer Mark Casse but is rounding into form, most recently finishing third to Mile rivals Reporting Star and Tower of Texas in the Play the King.

Casse's other hopeful is Live Oak Plantation's Za Approval, a 7-year-old gelded son of Ghostzapper   who finished second to Wise Dan in both the 2013 Woodbine Mile and Breeders' Cup Mile. David Moran has been named to ride Za Approval, a multiple grade III winner, from post 4.

Completing the field is Irish Wisky Racing's Turncoat, who makes his stakes debut.

The stakes record time for the Woodbine Mile is 1:31.75, set by Wise Dan in 2013, eclipsing the former mark of 1:32.04 by Ventura in 2009, when she became the first and only female to win the race. Leroidesanimaux established the largest margin of victory, 7 3/4 lengths, in 2005.

Four horses who raced in the Woodbine Mile have won the Breeders' Cup Mile. However, Wise Dan is the only one to win both grade I races in the same year—and he did it twice—in 2012 and 2013. The others are 2007 Woodbine runner-up Kip Deville and 1999 fifth place finisher Silic, who both went on to win the Breeders' Cup Mile the same year. Court Vision  , who won the 2010 Woodbine Mile, captured the 2011 Breeders' Cup Mile.

The Woodbine Mile will be televised live across Canada on TSN2 in high definition from 4:30-6 p.m. ET, while FOX Sports 1 will provide coverage to the United States at the same time.