Summer Sunday Keeps Woodbine Record Intact

Despite drifting out to the middle of the track in the lane, Anne and William Scott's Summer Sunday remained undefeated at Woodbine, scoring by 1 3/4 lengths in the $125,000 Fury Stakes April 29.

"I was a little nervous about the weight—124 pounds is a lot of weight this time of year in my estimation, but she handled it with ease," William Scott said.

The daughter of Silent Name  went straight to the lead after beating the field of five other 3-year-old fillies to the break. After running the first quarter-mile in :23.37 with Queen's Fate about a length back in second, the field moved up on the leader and shuffled for position. 

Queen's Fate had a short lead as the half went in :45.82. At the top of the turn, Summer Sunday was being conserved and Glamanation moved up into contention on the outside. Rounding the turn, Avie's Mineshaft and Jamaica Me Home took advantage of space at the rail and gained ground.

As the field straightened for the stretch run, Summer Sunday drifted out clear of Glamanation, and it appeared as though the others would take advantage of a narrowing lead. But they were unable to get in front of the leader, who finished the seven furlongs in the center of the synthetic track in a final time of 1:24.17.

"She just broke right on top, and there was no way I was going to take her back," said jockey Rafael Manuel Hernandez, who rode his second stakes winner of the meet. "She was doing her job, and you can see how she stuck it out, how wide she goes, still winning. If she goes straight, we should have won easy. She made me work hard."

Off as the even-money favorite, the winner paid $4.20, $2.60, and $2.10. Glamanation finished second to return $4.50 and $2.70, with Avie's Mineshaft a neck behind in third, paying $2.20 to show.

Trained by Stuart Simon, Summer Sunday has only one loss on her five-race résumé: a ninth-place finish in the Beaumont Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select (G3), her only graded effort. The Fury win bumped her earnings to $257,795.

"She had trained OK over the dirt," Simon said about the loss at Keeneland. "We had no other real options. We really felt we had her away for the winter for a reason—to get one start in her anyway, and so we thought we would give it a try. But it just wasn't her preferred surface, and it was a tough bunch, too."

Bred in Ontario by Trinity West Stables, Summer Sunday is out of the graded stakes-winning mare Dancing Allstar, by Millennium Allstar. The mare has produced two stakes winners and one winner from three foals to race.