On Rainbow Bridge Heads Duchess Stakes

With the major spring Canadian classics behind us, it’s time for the 3-year-old filly sprinters to take center stage in the $125,000 Duchess Stakes at Woodbine July 20.

Sharing top weight of 121 pounds under the allowance conditions will be On Rainbow Bridge, owned by Triple K Stables and trained by Dave Cotey. Although there are others in the seven-furlong race who have run faster speed figures, On Rainbow Bridge has class, experience, and consistency going for her. She is also entered in the July 19 Ontario Damsel Stakes at one mile on the grass, a surface on which she has never competed and a distance at which she has never competed.

In six career starts, the Ontario-bred daughter of Bold Executive—Miss Deputy, by War Deputy has registered three victories, a second, and two thirds. Her second-place finish resulted from a disqualification from first in the Muskoka Stakes last year at Woodbine. Her three victories have all come in Woodbine stakes: the Shady Well and Nandi last year and the Lady Angela in her only start this year. All her wins have come in restricted stakes. She will break from post 6 in the nine-horse field

Also carrying 121 pounds is Gary Barber’s Zensational Bunny, trained by Mark Casse, who is coming off a half-length defeat in the non-restricted Alywow Stakes. A winner of three of her seven career starts, the daughter of Zensational   has taken her act on the road on several occasions, finishing fourth in the Old Hat Stakes (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park in January and fifth in the Inaugural Stakes at Presque Isle Downs. Patrick Husbands has the mount and will break from the far outside in post 9.

This race actually is pretty wide-open, unless, of course Pirate's Trove, breaking from the rail for trainer Michael Stidham, is something special. The daughter of Speightstown   has made only one career start, but that was a 12 1/4-length laugher at Arlington International Racecourse, in which she earned a sensational speed figure, well above anyone else in the field.

Of the others, Hillhouse High ships in from New York for Chad Brown after winning a seven-furlong allowance/optional claimer on grass at Belmont Park; Cactus Kris enters off two straight scores in allowance company for trainer Ryan Walsh; Lacarolina, a group III winner in France last year, looks to be rounding into form in North America, coming off a solid fifth in the Alywow; and another Casse-trained filly, Appreciating, is coming off an even fourth-place finish in the Alywow.