Charles Fipke’s homebred colt PERFECT SHOWER (Perfect Soul [Ire]) entered
Sunday’s third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the $467,020
Breeders’ S. at
Woodbine, off a $25,000 maiden claiming score on Polytrack, but ran to his roots
in the 1 1/2-mile turf classic while blowing up the tote board at 46-1. Perfect
Shower became the longest-priced winner of the race since the inception of the
three-race series for Canadian-breds — which also includes the Queen’s Plate S.
and Prince of Wales S. — took hold 50 years ago.
Under Jono Jones, Perfect Shower rated near the back of the 13-horse field
early before advancing to midpack after a half-mile. Up front, Genius Kinshasa
(Kinshasa) led the way through splits of :24 4/5, :49 4/5, 1:14 4/5 and 1:39
2/5. Approaching the turn for home, the long time leader was headed by the
pace-pressing Full Throttle (Dixie Union), who got 10 furlongs in 2:04 1/5, but
that pair was soon overtaken by Perfect Shower and a host of others. Perfect
Shower made the front and opened up two lengths, but was getting out a bit
throughout the stretch, leaving a wide gap for a rival to come through if it was
good enough. Guipago, a 29-1 chance, gave the longshot winner a momentary scare
when moving best of those closer to the inside rival, but Perfect Shower
maintained his edge to the wire to prevail by three parts of a length. The final
time over firm ground was 2:29 1/5.
For trainer Roger Attfield, who conditioned Triple Crown winners Izvestia
(1990) and Peteski (1993), it was his eighth victory in the Breeders’ but his
first since 2001.
“Obviously, we took a big shot here,” Attfield said. These Perfect Souls,
they want to be three and four-year-olds anyway. This horse is just starting to
come around. We ran him for $25,000 because I knew nobody would take him anyway
off his past form. A win picks a horse up big time.
“He’s still a big green, gangly horse. He’s still learning. I was sitting in
the stands with a cold beer watching the race and I thought he was coming over
to get some of it at one point. He’s still a learning horse. He just got lost, I
think.”
Perfect Shower returned $95.30, $34.80 and $13.60, while Guipago gave back
$23 and $11.90. Reservoir (Sky Classic), the 5-1 second choice, rallied from
near the back to be third, 2 1/4 lengths behind the runner-up, and paid $5.90 to
show. The exacta paid $2,170.50, the trifecta $32,715.50, and the superfecta
(12-6-13-11) with 7-1 chance Mr. Foricios Two U (Porto Foricos) returned a
whopping $260,959.70 in a $2 increment, though far less than that was actually
bet into the pool.
The Breeders’ field was completed by Keino West (Kissin Kris), Prince of
Wales winner Gallant (Aptitude), Parabola (Trajectory), Full Throttle, Genuis
Kinshasa, Flip for the Coin (Compadre), Queen’s Plate winner Eye of the Leopard
(A.P. Indy), Mensch (Compadre) and Hisaki (Compadre). Eye of the Leopard was
made the 4-5 favorite off a close third in the Prince of Wales, but failed to
handle the footing in his turf debut.
“You know what, I knew going into the first turn, he was trying to run off,”
said Eurico da Silva, the rider of Eye of the Leopard. “He was not handling the
surface.”
By the Canadian champion turf male Perfect Soul, also campaigned by Fipke and
trained by Attfield, Perfect Shower was destined to like the turf, but often
didn’t show it in five starts as a juvenile. Unplaced in his first two outings,
the dark bay finally ran a good one when second by less than a length in his
third start. He reverted to subpar form in his next two starts, finishing far
behind in the Summer S. (Can-G3) and Cup and Saucer S. He again fared poorly in
a maiden over the Keeneland Polytrack in his seasonal reappearance, but woke up
on the class drop in graduating by 4 1/4 lengths last time. His record now
stands at 8-2-1-0, $312,665.
The Ontario-bred was produced by the stakes-winning Showering (Miswaki), who
is also the dam of the stakes-placed Cool Rain Falling (Capote) and an unnamed
2009 filly by Badge of Silver. Showering is a half-sister to the multiple stakes
winner Skatingonthinice (Icecapade), the dam of multiple Grade 1-placed juvenile
and sire Chief Seattle (Seattle Slew).