Trainer Charlie Appleby has found the secret to winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile … Win the Woodbine Mile first.
With that plan in place, the head man of Godolphin Racing’s English-based operation will send Naval Power to Woodbine on Saturday to begin a quest for the same double that Modern Games and Master of the Seas pulled off the past two years.
The $1 million Woodbine Mile is one of three races on the track’s Turf Champions Day that hold a ‘win-and-you’re-in’ ticket to the Breeders’ Cup, Nov. 1-2 at Del Mar. The others, the $500,000 Summer Stakes and $500,000 Natalma Stakes are qualifiers for the Juvenile Turf and Juvenile Fillies Turf respectively. And while the $750,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes is not part of that program. Horses there are looking to sharpen their resumes for a trip to San Diego and the Filly and Mare Turf.
A runner-up in his two most-recent starts in the U.S., Naval Power is a six-time winner in nine starts racing in both England and Dubai. William Buick will fly over for the ride. Among his challengers in the eight-horse field are Big Rock, who was a superstar in England and France last year, and local star Filo di Arianna who is five-for-five on Woodbine’s main turf course. An interesting runner is My Boy Prince, who takes a huge step up after finishing second in the King’s Plate last month.
The final fields for the Summer and Natalma are still in flux as trainer Mark Casse has seven fillies cross-entered in both. Regardless of which race he chooses for each one of them, they will have to contend with a couple of powerful juveniles from Appleby’s barn. Mountain Breeze, a two-time winner, is the morning-line choice in the Natalma. Al Qudra, also a two-time winner in England, is the 3-1 morning-line choice in the Summer Stakes. Winterberry could be Casse’s best hope regardless of which race is chosen for her.
Appleby also has a strong runner in the Taylor in Cinderella’s Dream, who has only lost once in seven starts and has taken the U.S. by storm winning the Belmont Oaks and Saratoga Oaks. Many eyes though will be on arguably the best rivalry at Woodbine between the two most-recent Canadian horses-of-the-year. When they met at Colonial Downs in Virginia last month, Moira out-gamed Fev Rover to win the Beverly D Stakes. That win gave the Kevin Attard-trained mare an automatic Breeders’ Cup berth.
Rounding out the stakes action on Saturday, win machine Patches O’Houlihan will try to move to 10-for-12 overall in the $150,000 Vigil Stakes and the Casse-trained Solo Album will try to add to her Trillium Stakes triumph with a win in the $150,000 Ontario Matron Stakes. Frankie Dettori, arguably among the greatest jockeys ever, will be aboard.
An interesting highlight of the non-stakes races will be the return of 2020 and 2021 Canadian horse of the year Mighty Heart, competing in the eighth race. This will be his first Woodbine start since 2022.