Weekend Wrapup: El Brujo Achieves Favourite Status For Queen's Plate

El Brujo took a big step forward on Saturday easily defeating My Bad and Bucephalus by more than eight lengths to win the Achievement Stakes. Patrick Husbands took El Brujo to the lead from the outset and fought off all comers through fractions of 22.01 and 44.73 before changing gears at the top of the stretch and blasting off to victory in 1:09.21 for six furlongs.

Bucephalus was closing nicely at the end of this race which suggests that the added distance of upcoming prep races will be quite welcome. For now, El Brujo is very much the leading candidate to win the Queen's Plate until we hear more from the Mark Casse trained Active Duty who broke his maiden in the Coronation Futurity to end his 2008 campaign defeating El Brujo in the process.

Active Duty breezed five furlongs in 1:02.20 on Sunday and should be making his 2009 Woodbine debut in the near future. Patrick Husbands is the listed jockey for Active Duty and Woodbine's leading rider may have some tough choices to make as the season moves forward.

Other notable news over the weekend was a track record set by Dublin Lane for five furlongs in Saturday’s seventh race at Woodbine. Trained by Laurie Silvera, Dublin Lane stylishly broke his maiden in a time of 56.41 winning by nearly ten lengths.

In the statistics department, Patrick Husbands leads the pack with eight wins, three better than Eurico Rosa da Silva and Tyler Pizarro. Newcomer Luis Contreras, riding for Steve Asmussen's stable, has been in the money in six of eight mounts with one win while placing three times. Beth Wyard has managed two wins and a third with just eleven mounts and looks capable of bigger and better.

Jockey Standings


Donald MacRae has taken over the lead in the trainer standings with three wins and one place in six starts. Malcolm Pierce has matched the three wins and has a significant lead in the money department thanks to his stakes wins. Nick Gonzalez' barn got rolling this weekend with three entrants in the Achievement Stakes. It was good to see Reade Baker back in the paddock and he is 2-2-2 in 9 starts so far and will combine for another big season with top jock Jimmy Mac.

Trainer Standings


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Patena, owned in part by John Sikura and Glenn Sikura of King City, and Dominic Dilalla of Niagara Falls finished tenth in the Blue Grass stakes which was won by General Quarters. This loss leaves Square Eddie as the only hope of a Canadian connection in the 2009 Kentucky Derby. Square Eddie was bred by Kinghaven Farms and will be making one last start before the Derby in Saturday's Lexington Stakes at Keeneland.


General Quarters Wins The Blue Grass Stakes


The Arkansas Derby was won by Papa Clem which now adds a lot of street cred to the form of Pioneerof The Nile and Friesan Fire who have both beaten that one handily in previous events. Papa Clem's connections will claim that a fast dirt track is an advantage for their horse but it's hard to ignore how easily Pioneerof The Nile (synthetic surface) and Friesan Fire (sloppy surface) dusted that one.

Papa Clem Wins The Arkansas Derby


The Kentucky Derby field will start to take shape over the next two weeks. The field is limited to 20 starters and should more than 20 enter the race, the field is determined by graded earnings. The one exception to the rule is Mafaaz who qualifies automatically having won the Kentucky Derby Challenge Win And You're In event overseas.

The following graded earnings chart was posted by the Thoroughbred Times and shows that popular choice Dunkirk currently sits 21st on the list. His connections will wait patiently for an opening. Three spots are open due to injuries to Stardom Bound, Big Drama and Capt. Candyman Can, however, there are still a few chances for other horses to make some graded money including the Lexington, Withers and Derby Trial. It is expected that Mafaaz will not entertain the Derby.