Moira

The Jockey Club of Canada has announced the finalists for the 2022 Sovereign Awards recognizing Canada's outstanding achievements in Canadian Thoroughbred Racing and Breeding. The winner of each category, along with Canada's Horse of the Year for 2022, will be announced during the 48th Annual Sovereign Award ceremony held Thursday, April 13 at Universal Eventspace in Vaughan, Ontario. The finalists in each of the following categories are listed in alphabetical order. Champion Two-Year-Old Female: Cairo Consort (Cairo Prince), Last Call (English Channel), Renegade Rebel (Nyquist). Champion Two-Year-Old Male: Philip My...

I called the elite bloodstock agent Donato Lanni last Wednesday only to tell him I'd call him again Sunday and to expect my call. I was fortunate he picked up, because he was on a golf course enjoying a rare day off following a busy Keeneland September sale where he'd purchased a number of million-dollar yearlings among many others. When we made plans to speak again, neither of us mentioned why I'd be calling. I didn't want to jinx him, with Cave Rock (Arrogate), War Like Goddess (English Channel), and...

There were three Grade I races on the grass for fillies and mares in North America Saturday; to the surprise of no one, Chad Brown-trained and Peter Brant-owned mares took center stage, following up In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire})'s win in Keeneland's GI First Lady S. with a mild upset by Rougir (Fr) (Territories {Ire}) in the GI E. P. Taylor S. at Woodbine. Michael Tabor partners with Brant in Rougir, a Group 1 winner in France and a GSW in the U.S. Heavy even-money favorite Moira (Ghostzapper), winner of...

With Breeders' Cup weekend at Keeneland right around the corner, 15 graded stakes--including seven 'Win and You're In' events--will take place throughout North America on an absolutely loaded day of racing Saturday. Five of those graded races will go down in Lexington, including a stacked renewal of the 'Win and You're In' GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity. The overflow field of 14 (plus two AE's)'s lone graded winner, GI Hopeful S. hero and 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), bypassed last weekend's GI Champagne S. in favor of this first attempt around...

Moira (Ghostzapper), the dominant winner of this year's Queen's Plate over males, will start Saturday at Woodbine in the GI E.P. Taylor S. It will be her first try against older horses and her first on the turf. Trainer Kevin Attard had also been considering the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S., a turf race at Keeneland restricted to 3-year-old fillies. "The race is at home and at a distance of a mile and a quarter," Attard said. "She had a work over the turf course [five furlongs in...

ETOBICOKE, ON--Heading into the 163rd Queen's Plate, most of the pre-race talk swirled around X-Men Racing, Madaket Stables and SF Racing's Moira (Ghostzapper), and her pre-Woodbine Oaks antics that led to her ultimately running, and romping, without hind shoes. Keeping her shoes--if not entirely her composure--firmly intact prior to Sunday's Classic fixture at Woodbine, the filly appeared to sprout wings in the stretch, cruising to an eye-catching seven-length victory over the Mark Casse-trained pair of Hall of Dreams (Lemon Drop Kid) and Sir For Sure (Sligo Bay {Ire}). "There are...

Woodbine is a track of two tales: history and innovation. The home of the historic Queen's Plate--which will be run for the 163rd time Sunday thus making it the longest continuously run race in North America--has been undergoing renovations that on a conceptual level, might border on the fantastical. That is, until it is seen in person. At the forefront of structural renewal, Woodbine, which covers 684-acres of prime real estate in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, currently stands against a backdrop of development that would make most other racing...

X-Men Racing, Madaket Stables LLC, and SF Racing LLC's Moira (Ghostzapper) was listed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite during Wednesday morning's post position Queen's Plate draw, held at Woodbine's newly-opened Stella Artois Terrace. In addition to the Woodbine Oaks winner, who will exit gate 8 with regular pilot Rafael Hernandez aboard, a total of 10 colts have signed on for Sunday's $1-million 10-furlong Classic, the first jewel in the Canadian Triple Crown. "Typically, when you win the Oaks, depending on how impressive they are doing it, you always have to...

Moira looped the field impressively en route to a dominant score in Sunday's Woodbine Oaks, providing trainer Kevin Attard with a second-straight win in this event and adding to a long list of accomplishments for her ownership group. And she did it all without her hind shoes, having acted up in the paddock and been unable to be adequately re-shod in time. An impressive debut graduate from out of the clouds in the C$250,000 Princess Elizabeth S. here last October, the bay settled for second as the favorite in the...

Multiple Sovereign Award winner Mark Casse sends out four of the nine runners in Sunday's GIII Mazarine S. at Woodbine. Leading the quartet is Conrad Farms homebred Aubrieta (Speightster). A debut winner sprinting at this oval Sept. 11, the bay was second in the state-bred Shady Well S. Oct. 8 and returned to winning ways in the Glorious Song S. here 22 days later. Live Oak's $550,000 OBSMAR buy Souper Hoity Toity (Uncle Mo) graduated at second asking on the grass here Oct. 1 and won an optional claimer on...