Summer Sunday to Take on Oleksandra in Royal North
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Photo: Michael Burns
Summer Sunday wins the Hendrie Stakes at Woodbine
Morning-line favorite Summer Sunday will have her work cut out for her in the $175,000 Royal North Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine as she faces Australian-bred Oleksandra for the first time in the six-furlong sprint.
The Stuart Simon trainee—unbeaten in six starts over the synthetic at the Toronto track—will try turf for the first time. Her only two losses came on the dirt when she shipped to Keeneland for the 2018 and 2019 spring meets.
The 4-year-old Silent Name filly comes into the Royal North off back-to-back victories in the June 9 Hendrie Stakes (G3) at 6 1/2 furlongs and the May 11 Ballade Stakes at six furlongs.
As the second choice at odds of 2-1, Team Valor's Oleksandra will look to make her stakes debut a winning one while racing at Woodbine for the first time. She comes into Sunday's test with three wins out of four starts this year.
A promising 5-year-old from Animal Kingdom 's first crop in Australia, Oleksandra boasts four wins, two seconds, and a third from nine starts. She enters off back-to-back wins—both by a neck in come-from-behind style—May 24 and June 28 over the Royal North distance on the Belmont inner turf.
"We can still improve this mare," trainer Neil Drysdale said after the May 24 race. "She is versatile, too. I still think any one-turn race from six furlongs to eight or eight and a half will work for her."
Drysdale campaigned the mare's South African dam, Alexandra Rose, to win the 2008 Monrovia Handicap (G3T) at Santa Anita Park for Team Valor, which has the mare in Australia. Oleksandra launched her career Down Under two years ago under the care of Bjorn Baker, earning a pair of runner-up finishes and a third from three starts.
She won her North American debut in October. Under Mike Smith, Oleksandra displayed her late-running prowess in a maiden special weight turf race at Santa Anita, accelerating from fifth at the stretch call to win by a neck at odds of 6-1.
The Royal North drew a field of eight fillies and mares.
Graded stakes winner Ruby Notion is winless this year in two starts but won last year's Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint Stakes (G3T) and was fourth to Stormy Liberal in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T). The 6-year-old Great Notion mare will make her Canadian debut.
A West Virginia-bred, Silverton Hill's homebred Ruby Notion arrives at the Royal North off a fourth-place performance in a June 2 allowance race at Churchill Downs.
Woodbine, Sunday, July 21, 2019, Race 9Entries: Royal North S. (G2T)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Patton's Girl (FL)
Jesse M. Campbell
118
Ross Armata, Jr.
20/1
2
2Ruby Notion (WV)
Eurico Rosa Da Silva
122
Darrin Miller
5/1
3
3Oleksandra (AUS)
Luis Contreras
118
Neil D. Drysdale
2/1
4
4Summer Sunday (ON)
Rafael Manuel Hernandez
125
Stuart C. Simon
8/5
5
5Double Medal (FL)
Justin Stein
113
Michael P. De Paulo
20/1
6
6Magic Spell (KY)
Patrick Husbands
118
Gail Cox
15/1
7
7Veil (KY)
Kazushi Kimura
118
Martin Drexler
10/1
8
8Misericordia (GB)
Alan Garcia
118
Jorge Duarte, Jr.
6/1
