Wise Dan bids to give trainer Charles Lopresti his second straight Woodbine
After capturing last
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Making just his third career start on the grass in the Grade 2 Fourstardave
Handicap August 11, Wise Dan burst through along the inside to rout the field by
five lengths. His previous two turf attempts came last season, with a sharp
score in the Grade 2 Firecracker Handicap and a somewhat flat fourth to Gio
Ponti in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland. John Velazquez, his
regular rider ever since the Clark, will guide him from post 3.
“I’m glad we didn’t get the 1-hole and I wouldn’t want to be all the way on
the outside either — I’m happy with it,” Lopresti said of the post position.
“I’ll let John Velazquez tell me what he wants to do,” the trainer added. “He
knows him better than anybody. Johnny said to me when you get that horse covered
up, he’s a lot better and he relaxes. He did a good job with him the last time.
I’ll talk to Johnny and he’ll know what to do. He’s ridden him enough.”
Cityscape sets the standard of international class, against which Wise Dan
will be tested. Trained by Roger Charlton, the Juddmonte Farms homebred recorded
admirable efforts in defeat in a trio of Group 1s last campaign — a third to
Canford Cliffs and Goldikova in the 2011 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, and
photo-finish losses in last fall’s Premio Vittorio di Capua and Hong Kong Mile.
“We thought if we were in the first six, we’d be delighted,” head lad John Da
“He shipped really good,” Da Costa noted. “He’s really settled in. He’s
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“He’s been doing all his work so far on the Polytrack,” he added. “But we
will be on the grass tomorrow. “The course has dried up. It’s a little on the
quick side now. We’re just going to familiarize him with the track. We’re just
going to breeze, maybe six furlongs.”
“We know Wise Dan is a wonderful horse. We really respect him. It’s going to
be a tough race. But our fellow is good right now.”
Two other Europeans have shipped in with Cityscape — Worthadd and Dance and
Dance. Worthadd, a dual Italian classic winner and highweight at three, was
transferred to English trainer Sir Mark Prescott for 2012. An emphatic winner of
the Group 3 Badener Meile in his debut for the yard, the son of Dubawi has
dropped his three subsequent outings, but was only just denied in the Group 2
Meilen Trophy in his latest at Hannover July 15. Worthadd often races up or on
the pace, and figures to show early foot from the outside post 9 with Luis
Contreras.
The Ed Vaughan-trained Dance and Dance hopes for better luck in this second
trip to Woodbine. One year ago, he was a luckless sixth in the Woodbine Mile,
beaten fewer than two lengths after being stymied in traffic down the stretch.
Dance and Dance has run well occasionally in the interim, notably when runner-up
to the useful Side Glance in the Group 3 Diomed, leaving Worthadd back in
fourth. The Royal Applause gelding has yet to win a stakes, however, and must
put forth a career best for new rider Garrett Gomez.
The remaining five entrants are locally-based. Leading the home defense is
Riding the River, who landed the Grade 2 King Edward over this course and
one-mile distance on Queen’s Plate Day and followed up in the Grade 2 Nijinsky
at about a furlong farther. The David Cotey charge didn’t have a clear passage
in his prep for this race, the Grade 2 Play the King August 26, and had to
settle for second to Big Band Sound. Riding the River was a sneakily-good fifth
at 34-1 in the 2011 Woodbine Mile, and is much improved this year.
Reformed claimer Big Band Sound had been knocking on the door in graded
stakes prior to the Play the King. That seven-furlong trip might have suited the
sprinter better, especially considering that he was outdueled by Riding the
River in the King Edward, his only prior try at a mile.
Hunters Bay was in superb form over the Woodbine Polytrack this summer,
garnering both the Grade 3 Eclipse and Grade 3 Dominion Day, but makes an
audacious turf debut in this spot. The Reade Baker trainee looks to bounce back
from a poor seventh in the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap on the dirt at
Saratoga, where he was beaten more than 13 lengths by Fort Larned.
Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson is eager to see how Hunters Bay fares.
“The report back (aboard Hunters Bay’s gallop over the turf) was excellent,”
Wilson said. “First of all, I break it down into two cases. He’s been put into a
million dollar (race) for one reason…because they think he’s good enough. Reade
wouldn’t put him in here if he didn’t think he was good enough.
“And, two, to see the turf for the first time, all horses will run on grass.
Some horses just like it better than others. I’m confident this horse takes
everything in stride and he’s such a class act. I’m confident he’ll be able to
handle it. It’s just whether he’ll be able to handle it to the same extent as
some of these others.”
“I think in the Whitney, it was a big task to ask him to step up in class the
way we did and ship and handle a different kind of surface than what he’s had
success on. It’s a challenge (the Mile), but that’s what you need to do
with these kind of horses, when they’ve shown you they’re ready to step it up.”
Hollinger, Canada’s champion two-year-old colt of 2009, is a fairly
consistent type who has been chasing Riding the River of late. Back in February,
the Roger Attfield pupil was runner-up to Get Stormy in the Grade 1 Gulfstream
Park Turf.
“He’s stepping up into a tough spot,” Attfield said. “But everybody decided
to give him a go. He’s been running consistently OK but he hasn’t won this year.
“He was Group 1-placed in the winter in Florida, and he ran at Keeneland,
then here, so we gave him a bit of time on the farm. He’s come back. He’s got
his fighting face on. Whether he’s good enough is another thing.”
Rounding out the field is Artic Fern, most recently fourth in the
Play the King.
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