Sunday, July 15th, is the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie Race Track. This event brings thousands of people to the border oval and the top three-year-old racehorses in Canada. Ron Turcotte was on hand for the draw on Wednesday and the post positions for the race were determined as follows:
Post / Horse / Trainer / Jockey M/L / Odds
1 Classic Bryce, Darwin Banach, Todd Kabel 12-1
2 Ultimate Destiny, Mike Keogh, Steven Bahen 8-1
3 Dead On, Malcolm Pierce, Emma-Jayne Wilson 10-1
4 Dixie Strike, Mark Casse, Patrick Husbands 3-1
5 Menlo Castle, Ralph Biamonte, Omar Moreno 15-1
6 Irish Mission, Mark Frostad, Alex Solis 5-2
7 Run in Aruba, Ralph Biamonte, Jermaine Bridgmohan 20-1
8 Quaesitor, Ian Howard, Slade Callaghan 8-1
9 Colleen’s Sailor, Roger Attfield, Corey Nakatani 4-1
This year’s POW has a new look to it – from the fillies’ view! Dance Smartly won this race en route to the triple crown in 1991, but never to the best of my memory has the top-two choices both been girls. Irish Mission and Dixie Strike top the morning line choices in this year’s POW and both are fillies.
With the Queen’s Plate winner, Strait of Dover, choosing not to make the trip back to the dirt course, which is probably smart seeing as he has had zero success so far, leaves a wide-open race. Inconsistent horses and the two favorites being fillies lead me to believe that we could have a good payout.
My long-shot pick in here is going to be dead on – I hope. Conveniently the horse I am going with is the aptly-named Dead On. Seems fitting, no? Dead On, trained by Malcolm Pierce, wintered in Florida where he ran a nice second in an Allowance race, which was obviously not for Ontario-breds. The Fairgrounds is a dirt racecourse similar to Fort Erie that has very stiff competition for American Bred horses, which makes me believe he is able to run against the tougher competition on the dirt than the Polytrack.
Rounding out my top three picks are Irish Mission, who has been blazing a storm on the dirt training track in the morning, and Quaesitor, which I’m hoping Stein comes down to ride.
It will be an exciting day at the races with fancy hats, lots of people, big purses, and as always that dream of hitting big at the mutuals. Best of luck to those who decide to make the races “interesting”.
