Embur's Song burns up the Woodbine Poly

When Bill Tallon filed the following report regarding the speedy Resentless for the Daily Racing Form it looked as though the speed might be gone from the Woodbine Oaks:

Resentless, an impressive winner of the seven-furlong Fury in her seasonal bow here May 1, is ailing and may be hard-pressed to make the June 13 Woodbine Oaks.

"She's spiked a fever, on and off, since last Tuesday," said Ian Howard, who trains Resentless for owner Donald Ross. "It's a virus, and there's really nothing you can do except wait and hope there's not too much damage to her airways."

Resentless had been slated to use either next Sunday's La Lorgnette or Monday's Lady Angela as her final stepping-stone to the 1 1/8-mile Woodbine Oaks.

"She won't be running in either of those races," Howard said. "That's not a possibility. In fact, there's no way we're going to get a race into her before the Oaks.

"It's certainly going to make things more difficult. But she has such a good basic fitness. She raced at the end of November, had only a month off, and spent the winter in Florida."

However, after the impressive debut of Fares Farm Inc's Embur's Song at Keeneland and her follow-up performance on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine, it's safe to say that speed will not be an issue. With Chantal Sutherland in the irons, and track announcer Dan Loiselle providing an in-race script, Embur's Song led wire-to-wire demonstrating enough legs late to suggest that the Oaks distance will not be an issue.

Embur's Song takes to the poly at Woodbine


Embur's Song burst from the gate impressively and as she moved to the first turn it was Loiselle who announced, "Sutherland's job is to relax her on the front end."

Hitting fractions of 23:4 and 48, the filly held a comfortable lead over Clear Lake who stalked patiently down the backstretch. As Embur's Song turned into the stretch, Clear Lake tried in vain to head the filly but could not keep up as Sutherland allowed her charge a little more rein. Midway through the stretch, Sutherland shuffled her filly forward and put away Clear Lake for good as Loiselle cracked, "Embur's Song had a little left, twenty-two days away from the Oaks now two-for-two lifetime, wins it by three."

Impressive stuff from the Todd Pletcher trained filly who raced 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.44 narrowly missing the track record and earning a 98 Beyer. Zoom!

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The headline race of the card was the Ballade Stakes won by Impossible Time for owner Charles Fipke and trainer Roger Attfield.

Impossible Time sprints to victory in the Ballade Stakes


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One of Triple Dead Heat's most photographed runners of 2009 won the American 1000 Guineas at Arlington Park on Saturday.

Bay to Bay, a Woodbine winner in 2009, gets off to a good start in 2010 at Arlington


Bay to Bay, winner of the Natalma Stakes at Woodbine for trainer Brian Lynch, fought between horses at the top of the stretch and chased down the front-running Go Ask Alex to win impressively under jockey Robbie Albarado. The daughter of Sligo Bay is owned by Rob Smithen.

Bay to Bay gets it down in the American 1000 Guineas


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In the Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh, Canford Cliffs and Richard Hughes combined for a thrilling victory. The Telegraph reports:

The margin of victory was not particularly impressive, but the manner of it was. A furlong out, the rest of the field were all hard at work while Richard Hughes had angled out for a run without twitching a muscle on Canford Cliffs.
At that point there was only ever going to be one result and, for the second week running, there was an emotional Hannon in the winner's enclosure, this time Richard Hannon Junior.
"We wanted to get him settled and he settled better than at Newmarket," he said. "He won as he liked and he'll go for the St James's Palace Stakes next."

Canford Cliffs stands tall in the Irish 2000 Guineas


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This afternoon I will be in attendance at Woodbine to watch Mobilizer take on a field full of Queen's Plate contenders in an allowance event and enjoy the La Lorgnette Stakes which features the speedy Biofuel.

LA LORGNETTE S., $150,000, 3yo f, 1 1/16m (AWT)
PP HORSE JOCKEY TRAINER ML
1 Biofuel Da Silva Baker 9-5
2 Moment of Majesty Landry Leslie 10-1
3 Ernfold McAleney Attfield 2-1
4 Tee Game Callaghan Doyle 8-1
5 Empire Spring Husbands Clement 6-1
6 Redverse Ramsammy Carroll 4-1
7 Witch’s Coven Wilson Bell 15-1

Photos and recaps to be posted tomorrow.