Prince of Wales S. — Race 10 (5:35 p.m. ET)
The second leg of Canada’s Triple Crown, the C$400,000 Prince of Wales S. at Fort Erie on Tuesday, will be without Safe Conduct and Riptide Rock, the respective one-two finishers in last month’s Queen’s Plate. However, Queen’s Plate third H C Holiday is among six participants of that classic in the Prince of Wales, which is run over 1 3/16 miles on the dirt.
A 29-1 chance in the Queen’s Plate after running third in the Plate Trial, H C Holiday rallied from near the back to finish one length behind Safe Conduct. One of three Prince of Wales contenders trained by Kevin Attard, H C Holiday is by Ami’s Holiday, who placed in the Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales in 2014 before taking the Triple Crown’s third jewel, the Breeders’ S., on turf.
“He came out of the race in great shape,” Attard said. “I thought he looked really good on the dirt training track at Woodbine.
“We brought him on Tuesday (to Fort Erie) as well and he went (five furlongs in 1:01:20) by himself and seemed to be striding out really nice. He looked pretty smooth going over Fort Erie’s course.
“Obviously if he runs back to that kind of race like last time in Plate, he will be tough to beat.”
Also returning from the Plate are Keep Grinding (fifth), Avoman (sixth), Harlan Estate (seventh), Haddassah (eighth), and Tidal Forces (ninth). None have ever competed on dirt.
Among the other two Prince of Wales entrants is Curlin’s Catch, the only filly in the field and the only horse in the field with prior dirt experience. The Mark Casse trainee broke her maiden over the main track at Gulfstream Park in January and followed up with a 4 1/2-length score in the Suncoast S. at Tampa Bay Downs.
Curlin’s Catch has run fifth in three of her last four starts, the Aug. 1 Woodbine Oaks being the most recent.
