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Top-flight race shapes up Sunday in Canada

By BRANT JAMES

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 21, 2001

While American horse racing enters a brief lull between the Triple Crown season and a summer highlighted by the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, Canadian and English racing are enjoying the heart of their year.

At Woodbine Race Course in Ontario, the Queen's Plate, a 1 1/4-mile stakes for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, is expected to shape into a match race Sunday between Win City and Dancethruthedawn, horses whose histories are as different as their gender.

Win City, a gelding, cost Frank Di Giulio Jr. $5,000 when Slew City was bred to his dam Winsfordan. Win City has made his way to Woodbine by winning three consecutive stakes, including the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial on June 2.

It cost Sam-Son Farm a $250,000 Mr. Prospector stud fee to produce Dancethruthedawn, but she came equipped with strong connections to the Queen's Plate. Her dam, Dance Smartly, was undefeated in 1991, winning the Canadian Triple Crown and Molson Million. Later that year she became Canada's first Breeders' Cup winner in the Distaff.

Dancethruthedawn prepped for the Plate, the oldest annual stakes in North America, by winning the 1 1/8-mile Labatt Woodbine Oaks on June 9.

At Ascot, England, Fantastic Light handed Godolphin Stables another victory in the Prince of Wales Stakes, the most prestigious race of the 24-event Royal Ascot meet, beating 2000 turf champion Kalanisi.

In covering the 1 1/4 miles in 2 minutes, 4 and 40 one-hundredths seconds, Fantastic Light followed stablemate Dubai Millennium in winning the Prince of Wales for Godolphin.

The meet concludes today.

In more ceremonious Ascot news, the horse-drawn procession that parades the British royal family before the stands had to be canceled for the second straight day.

The coaches and horses were needed in Westminster, where Queen (Elizabeth) opened Parliament. The royals, including the 100-year-old queen mother, were ferried to the royal enclosure by car.

HIGHER STAKES: The Thoroughbred Owners of California have pledged to raise the purse for the July 15 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park from $1-million to $5-million if either Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos or Preakness and Belmont winner Point Given participates.

Point Given, trained by Bob Baffert, is perhaps the more likely to enter because Baffert is based in Santa Anita. Monarchos is based on the East Coast.

NTRA POLL: Captain Steve's beaten-favorite performance in the Stephen Foster allowed Point Given to wrest the top spot in the weekly National Thoroughbred Racing Association poll.

Point Given, Baffert's third colt since 1997 to win two-thirds of the Triple Crown, swapped places with the 4-year-old Captain Steve, also trained by Baffert.

Tiznow, the 2000 Eclipse winner as horse of the year, was third.

Captain Steve could make history if Baffert decides to run him in the $750,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on July 1. Captain Steve won the Hollywood Futurity as a 2-year-old and the Swaps Stakes as a 3-year-old. No horse has swept the three races.

OCALA BREEDERS' SALES: Hip No. 284, a filly by Mr. Greeley, sold for $110,000 Wednesday to lead the final session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of Two-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age. At the session, 118 2-year-olds sold for a total of $1,780,100, an average of $15,086.

The filly out of Oh Zone, a half-sister to stakes winner Wild Zone, had worked a quarter-mile Sunday in :22.2 at the Under Tack Show session.

At the sale, 226 2-year-olds sold for $3,809,700, an average of $16,857. That was an 11.9 percent increase from 2000.

-- Information from other news sources was used in this report.

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