Desert Encounter (No. 4) , winning the Pattison Canadian International for the second time in 2019
Woodbine racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, has put together a blockbuster weekend of racing on Saturday and Sunday with four Grade 1 stakes and one Grade 2 event comprising the Woodbine Turf Racing Festival. Three of the races – Saturday’s Woodbine Mile and Sunday’s Natalma and Summer Stakes are Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series events. The Mile is a Win and You’re in for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on turf and the Natalma and Summer are for the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Juvenile Turf, respectively.
North American trainers like Mark Casse, Roger Attfield, Shug McGaughey, Josie Carroll, Christophe Clement, Chad Brown and Brad Cox are represented in Turf Racing Festival races, along with Charles Appleby with several Godolphin horses from England. Coming back from Europe in an attempt to win the G1 Canadian International for a third time is the David Simcock-trained 9-year-old Irish-bred veteran, Desert Encounter. Legendary rider Frankie Dettori will also be on hand for the weekend races.
To help sort through it all, racing analyst and handicapper Jennifer Morrison – @jensblog on Twitter and a regular contributor to OntarioRacing.com and CanadianThoroughbred.com – joins publisher Ray Paulick and bloodstock editor Joe Nevills in this week’s edition of the Friday Show.
Jen also offers her post-race analysis of Tuesday’s Fort of Erie Stakes – middle leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
This week’s Woodbine Star of the Week is Tap It to Win, a Tapit 4-year-old colt who rebounded from three consecutive defeats to win his first graded stakes last weekend in the G3 Seagram Cup.
Watch this week’s show, presented by Monmouth Park, below:
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