Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby will send out the morning-line favorites in Saturday’s C$500,000 Summer (G1) and Natalma (G1), which are “Win and You’re In” events for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) and Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1), respectively. But Mark Casse counters with a veritable army, cross-entering seven fillies at Woodbine.
Appleby’s Natalma contender, Mountain Breeze, is listed at 5-2, and stablemate Al Qudra ranks as the 3-1 favorite in the Summer. Casse’s cross-entrants are all longshots, but recent Irish recruit Latin Fever adds international intrigue to his contingent.
The Summer has lured an overflow field of 17. Other notables in the main body include First Resort, a Godolphin runner based stateside with Eoin Harty, as well as a second British shipper in Andrew Balding’s New Century.
Similarly, the Natalma can’t be reduced to an Appleby versus Casse dynamic. Christophe Clement has a promising type in Saratoga winner Annascaul, the 3-1 second choice.
Natalma (G1): Race 5, 3:25 p.m. ET
Mountain Breeze arrives in similar form to Appleby’s past winners, La Pelosa (2018) and Wild Beauty (2021). All three were coming off runner-up efforts in the Sweet Solera (G3) at Newmarket.
A half-sister to Godolphin’s smashing European champion juvenile Pinatubo, Mountain Breeze raised early hopes by winning her first two starts impressively in May. Since stepping up to Group company, however, she has yet to emulate her half-brother. The Lope de Vega filly placed fourth in the Albany (G3) at Royal Ascot before better seconds in the Duchess of Cambridge (G2) and Sweet Solera. In the latter, Mountain Breeze beat all but Ballydoyle’s Lake Victoria.
Mountain Breeze has drawn the far outside in post 13 with Appleby’s main rider, William Buick. But her position figures to improve a bit, depending upon how many Casse fillies choose to scratch from this spot in favor of the Summer.
Casse has won the Natalma seven times, but it’s been eight years since his latest score with Victory to Victory (2016). The dual Hall of Famer has a grand total of eight fillies in the 13-horse field on Saturday.
One Casse runner is entered solely in the Natalma, Live Oak Plantation’s And One More Time. The $750,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga purchase romped in an off-the-turf maiden at Saratoga. By Omaha Beach and out of the prolific Complicated, And One More Time is a half-sister to current Grade 2 winners Honor D Lady and Simply in Front, who just captured last Saturday’s Music City (G2).
The rest of Casse’s posse have the Summer option, although Latin Fever and Nitrogen are currently on the also-eligible list against the boys.
Latin Fever sprang an 80-1 shock in her July 25 debut at Leopardstown, where the Equiano filly overcame a tough passage from post 19 to prevail. Privately purchased in the aftermath, Latin Fever will make her North American premiere for her new ownership group led by Medallion Racing and Rancho Temescal.
D. J. Stable owns three of the Casse cross-entrants. Vixen was a troubled third in a key Ellis Park maiden won by Kilwin, the next-out heroine of the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies. Stretching out to a mile back at Ellis, Vixen rolled to a 4 3/4-length victory. Winterberry dominated her 6 1/2-furlong debut on the Woodbine Tapeta. Nitrogen just missed by a neck in a maiden over this turf course and one-mile trip.
Will Reign and Ready to Battle are both by freshman sire War of Will, who was likewise trained by Casse for the same owner, Gary Barber.
Although Will Reign is still a maiden, she has performed at a respectable level. A close second sprinting at Saratoga, she was fourth in the Catch a Glimpse S. last time out. The addition of blinkers could galvanize Will Reign, who will get a rematch with Catch a Glimpse runner-up Ready for Candy, herself a maiden from the Michael De Paulo barn.
Ready to Battle exits a maiden win on the local Tapeta, beating stablemate Thread, who came back to break her maiden resoundingly over the same surface.
Among those looking to defy the might of Godolphin and Casse are Annascaul and Italian Soiree, who are drawn on the inside in posts 1 and 2, respectively.
Annauscal wired a 5 1/2-furlong turf maiden for New York-breds at the Spa. As a daughter of American Pharoah, she figures to handle the added distance, and Frankie Dettori stays aboard.
Italian Soiree switches to turf after a distant second in the Adirondack (G3) for John Terranova. The experiment’s worth trying with an Uncle Mo filly.
Rounding out the field is the 50-1 Arctic Velocity, who showed little behind Winterberry on debut.
Summer (G1), Race 9: 5:41 p.m. ET
Appleby has won the Summer twice with battle-hardened types in Albahr (2021) and Mysterious Night (2022), and Al Qudra presents a similar profile. The nearly $540,000 Tattersalls October yearling took three tries to break his maiden, but he’s been on an upward curve since.
Beaten only one length when fifth in Royal Ascot’s Coventry (G2), Al Qudra came back to wire the seven-furlong Pat Eddery S. over the same course. The No Nay Never colt reunites with Buick in post 9.
New Century, second to Al Qudra in the Pat Eddery, has a case to turn the tables. His freshman sire Kameko was a progressive juvenile for the same Qatar Racing connections, trainer Balding, and jockey Oisin Murphy. New Century could be in that mold, considering that he’s since won the Stonehenge S. at Salisbury over the well-regarded Luther and Aidan O’Brien’s The Parthenon.
First Resort was cross-entered to Saturday’s Iroquois (G3) on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. That Churchill Downs feature appeared logical for the Uncle Mo colt, who was most recently second in the Saratoga Special (G2). But according to Godolphin.com, he’ll head north to Woodbine.
“Eoin (Harty) believes that he will stay,” Michael Banahan of Godolphin USA told the team’s website, “and this will give him an opportunity to see if he can stretch his speed. If he can, it will open up many more options down the road.
“We feel that he should handle the grass given his pedigree, and he trains beautifully over the Tapeta surface, but he will return to the dirt once the distance question gets answered. He certainly appears to fit talent-wise with the domestic horses, although the unknown is the challengers from Europe. We expect him to be very competitive and go close.”
The local hopes include the top three from the Soaring Free S. — the Nathan Squires-trained Cairo Caper, Casse’s Dream On, and Coolcollected from the Patrick Dixon barn.
Dream On, yet another for D. J. Stable, is one of two Casse colts in the Summer. He is joined by stablemate Special Session, a Tracy Farmer homebred who missed by a neck in a Tapeta maiden to the Josie Carroll-trained Forty N Five. The step up to a mile could help Special Session, a half-brother (by Constitution) to 2019 Belmont (G1) hero Sir Winston.
Casse is a four-time winner of the Summer, beginning with the filly My Conquestadory (2013). He’s looking to his dynamic females to increase his chances here.
“We have a really strong group of fillies,” Casse told Woodbine publicity. “We’ll be spreading them pretty evenly between the two races.”
Kevin Attard has two entrants, maiden/optional claiming winner Dewolf and Groot, third to Forty N Five and Special Session in his latest. Groot is second on the also-eligible list, splitting Casse fillies Latin Fever and Nitrogen.
