Wonder Where Stakes- $225.000 Purse
WO- For Fillies Three Years Old Foaled In Canada
One Mile and One Quarter on the Turf
July 30, 2017

There’s plenty of money to be won on Sunday for a group of four fillies that has not seen even one of them yet reach $100.000 in earnings. This is the power of statebred races, and a reason why these type of races should always be filling within our game. It’s the tenth time that this race has been held in our virtual world, and Canadian Racing has made his home country proud by being the most successful in it, with three wins. He will not have an entry in this field, leaving Mb Stables a chance to tie him with three wins. Mb will start two of the four runners in this event, giving him a strong opportunity to achieve that. This is catapult race for bigger things for all of our four participants, as it would be the biggest achievement on their resume to this point. Let’s meet them!

#1- Nothing Given (Our Athletes, ridden by Alan Garcia)- This is the only horse in the field that has attempted to run at the graded level so far, as she participated in the Grade 3 Regret, but did not hit the board. That race was a jump up from the allowance ranks. Overall, she’s won three of six and has neatly rotated her wins and non-wins so far. If that trend continues, then this is her race to win. I really like how she ran in late May at a mile at CD in an open allowance, and am not sure about her going longer then that. Maybe, maybe not. The two attempts at longer were also on off tracks.

#2- Bird Of Prey (Mb Stables, ridden by G Boulanger)- Like Nothing Given, Bird Of Prey is also a winner in three out of six starts in her career thus far. She has attempted a couple of ungraded stakes, and one performance was clearly a lot better then the other, but she did not win either of them. This bird came off a good looking win at GG carrying a feather (112 pounds) in an allowance, but will have to deal with eleven more pounds on her today. In our game, that is very noteworthy. This is her longest race of her career, but I am comfortable with her running this distance.

#3- Say Aim And Fire (Emerald Racing Inc, ridden by L Contreras)- This filly has won three of nine career races, and has only recently been running on the grass. After the first race on the turf did not go her way, she was impressive in coming from off the pace in the stretch at FE to a modest optional claimer out there. This is her second attempt at elevating her game to the stakes level, and will need to be better then she was the first time around. That last race was great, and this is a theme for these first three horses (and is for Belle Esprit as well), they all have that one race that tells you that they could win this race without a problem. Wide open race, she can be there if she follows it up.

#4- Belle Esprit (Mb Stables, ridden by D Moran)- She will make her debut for Mb Stables in this race, having been purchased from Australia Wide on Tuesday for $120.000. While they have not had a lot of time together, all the trainer probably has to do is have Belle Esprit so exactly what she did in her last race. That was a victory in the $125.000 ONT Damsel Stakes right here at WO, making her the only stake winner in the field. She’s just getting the started, with just four races so far, and she’s won half of them. In a balanced field of horses looking for that big career jolt, this is always the type of horse I put my money on. So, I will virtually do that here.

Prediction: 4-1-2-3

— NS

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded