EYE ON LIVE

Will Hidden Grace avenge her only lifetime loss?
Rematch with Miss Imperial set for Wednesday

Will Hidden Grace (head at left) catch Miss Imperial who beat her in the Canada Day Stakes? (Jason Halstead photo)

Call it the most anticipated rematch of the season. It’s the Escape Clause Stakes next Wednesday when Hidden Grace will get a chance to get even with Miss Imperial who ruined her perfect nine-for-nine record by beating her in the Canada Day Stakes.

The pair is among 10 horses nominated for the race; entries will be drawn tomorrow.

One thing seems certain: Hidden Grace is better seasoned for this race than she was for the Canada Day Stakes which was her first race since October. By contrast, Miss Imperial had already won five races at three different tracks.

It’s a classic match-up: Miss Imperial, claimed at Oaklawn Park by Murray Duncan to dominate local females, taking on the Manitoba-bred filly whose connections are hoping will follow in the hoofprints of ASD’s greatest horse, Escape Clause.

It seems rather fitting they are meeting in the race named for Escape Clause who now is baby-making in Japan after being sold at auction last fall.

HOTTIES OF THE WEEK (Mon-Wed)

Hottest jockey: Antonio Whitehall, Rafael Zenteno Jr., Shannon Beauregard, Neville Stephenson (3 wins)
Hottest trainer: Jerry Gourneau (5 wins)
Biggest longshot: Tom Not Shy $17.10 (Race 4 Wednesday)
Stakes champions: Real Grace (Derby Trial), Dazzling Gold (R. C. Anderson)
Upcoming stakes: Escape Clause (Wednesday)
Carryovers: $104,368 in the Jackpot pick-5; $127,492 in the Super Hi-5

A BIG SHOUT-OUT to ASD trainer Tiffany Husbands who broke into the stakes ranks in just her third year of training, winning both the Hazel Wright Sire Stakes ($28.40) and R.C. Anderson for Manitoba-bred 3-year-old fillies ($4.60) with Dazzling Gold.

Carl Anderson comes out of retirement to win first race Tuesday

A SHOUT-OUT to ASD trainer Carl Anderson who won his first race Tuesday since returning from a four-year retirement. He won with Marselan ($5.40), a horse bred and owned by longtime breeder Dr. Ross A. McKague. Anderson’s other horse, McKague, interestingly is not connected to Dr. McKague.

Anderson’s two horses have finished in the money in all seven starts. Anderson began training in 1964 and had his best year in 2005 when his horses earned $445,000. His best local horse was Brinello who won the Agassiz Stakes four years in a row.

THE (LONG, BUMPY) ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY (SEPT. 5)

Haskell Invitational--new Derby prep race--goes tomorrow
Baffert's Authentic favoured after finishing second in Santa Anita Derby

Will Authentic rebound from runner-up finish in Santa Anita Derby? (Benoit photo)

The latest new Kentucky Derby prep race, the Haskell Invitational, goes tomorrow at Monmouth with Bob Baffert’s Authentic the likely favourite. Authentic suffered his only loss in three races to Honor A. P. in the Santa Anita Derby.

Second choice will likely be Dr Post who finished second in the Belmont Stakes which, for the first time, was also a Kentucky Derby prep race. Seven have entered the Haskell which offers a point scale of 100-40-20-10 to the top four finishers. The top 20 point-gatherers will qualify to run in the Derby.

Four prep races remain after tomorrow’s Haskell: The Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar (Aug. 1), Travers Stakes at Saratoga (Aug. 8), Ellis Park Derby at Ellis (Aug. 9) and the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth (Aug. 15).

IN HARNESS

Manitoba harness racing opens in Miami . . .
. . . with "ditchjumper" show wager

Road to Saturday harness racing

Let’s call it a “ditchjumper” show wager since it happened in rural Manitoba. Weekly harness racing opened in Miami, Man. Saturday with a 10-race card with someone betting $6,000 to show on Trevor Williams’ “sure thing” So Beautiful who won as expected.

Provincial COVID guidelines allowed 200 spectators to be present. A harness racing aficionado said in the ASD Race Book Saturday night that he was happy to discover he could bet Manitoba harness racing online and did so.

“It will take awhile to gain traction on HPI, especially with a choppy internet feed and being green to the whole thing,” said Williams, president of the Manitoba Harness Racing Industry. “ASD has been very helpful in getting us off the ground and running and I hope it pays off for us going forward.”

THE WEEK THAT WAS

Cole Bennett’s trainees have won 4 of 12 races at Woodbine

FORMER MANITOBAN HITS HIS STRIDE AT WOODBINE: Cole Bennett who, as a teenager, left behind two successful years of training at ASD for the big leagues of Woodbine, is hitting his stride at that Toronto track this season after several trying years. After just four weeks of racing his record is 12-4-3-0 compared to the past three full years of racing in which his record was 47-4-4-10, 9-0-0-0 and 32-3-1-1. His ambition, he had told The Insider when he left his native Manitoba, is to become leading trainer at Woodbine. This year’s numbers are heading in the right direction.

LEAN TIMES FOR “I WON BIGGER” BETTING GROUP BUT . . . : So close yet so far is probably the best way to describe the “I won bigger” betting group’s play. Tens of thousands of dollars were at stake in Belmont’s pick-6 last Sunday if a key horse--the best closer on the turf--won but, inexplicably, the horse just didn’t fire when he was given a clear path in the drive to the wire. If there’s a positive it’s that pick-3s using group plays have been paying in the hundreds--if group players choose to make those plays themselves. At any rate, group play returns to Woodbine this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on the Clubhouse plaza.