Pattison Canadian International (Grade 1)- $750.000 Purse
WO- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Half on the Turf
October 4, 2025

Several horses in the Pattison Canadian International took part in the KD Turf Cup last month, setting up an interesting rematch between a few of them. The bettors would make the KD Turf Cup’s winner, Sioux Arrival, a pretty big favorite, but it would be royalty, King Z, that atoned for his fifth place run in that race with a win in the Pattison. Part of this story, too, was the impact of the track condition, as sunny skies greeted horses at WO on Saturday, as opposed to the pouring rain that made KD’s turf soft that day. King Z would rule over the field for his third win of 2025, and gives his trainer, Mb Stables, his second Pattison trophy. Jockey R Santana Jr is a first time winner. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 2:24.30, the quickest since Bronze Sabre was dominating this race over a decade ago. Let’s take a look at it:

(½ Mile- :48.33)- Dangerous Fugitive bursts out of the starting gate for Night Rider Stables and has the field chasing him around the opening turn and into the backstretch. His advantage is about two lengths over our eventual winner from Mb Stables, King Z, who runs along the rail with Diablo Diablo’s State Cavier. Within a length, and running in the third and the fourth lanes, we have Tower Isle and Sioux Arrival, respectively trained by Winning Link Stables and High Voltage. It’s a break of about two more to One Last Punch Line (Saratoga Stud), who leads the rest of the pack, Kegger (Ajm Stables), Bigmikesbluedress (TwinTowersRacing), and Sunflowers (TwinTowersRacing).

(3/4 Mile- 1:12.38)- The field reaches the midway point of the race with not a lot changing. It’s still Dangerous Fugitive out in front by two over King Z and State Cavier. The only thing that looks different here is that Tower Isle and Sioux Arrival have each tucked in behind those two instead of running three and four wide. Not much has changed further back.

(Top of the Stretch, 2F To Go)- Things continued to run in a similar manner for the duration of the backstretch and into the top of the long final turn. At the top of the stretch, the 24/1 longshot Dangerous Fugitive is still the race leader and is still running well. That would not hinder King Z, who would leave State Cavier behind and would slowly gain on the pacesetter. He was now just a length back. State Cavier maintained the same two length distance, but it did not help his cause that King Z was pulling away. A big gap was now opening up behind of him of about 3-4 lengths. That’s where we found Sioux Arrival running side by side with One Last Punch Line, but they each had a lot of work to do, but fortunately for them the race was not over yet. Kegger was a length behind them, Tower Isle called it a night, and TwinTowersRacing could only groan with the effort from his pair.

(Finish- 2:24.30)- King Z gradually gained on Dangerous Fugitive early in the stretch before taking over the top spot with a furlong to go. R Santana Jr was happy to look over his shoulder at that point and see that no one was charging hard from behind. He couldn’t relax, as Dangerous Fugitive was holding his own the best he could. In the end, it’s a win by about a length for King Z over Dangerous Fugitive, with State Cavier running about as uneventful of a third place run as you will see. It was officially two, but really three, lengths to One Last Punch Line, who gets a fourth-place check for that. The rest were hardly noticeable all race long, and it was a little surprising this race was not tighter at the wire. The final order will read, Kegger, Sioux Arrival, Sunflowers, Tower Isle, and Bigmikesbluedress.

About The Winner- King Z, trained by Mb Stables and ridden to victory by R Santana Jr, is a six-year-old gelding by Z Grayte One and is out of Ete Queen. He was bred by Gdp Inc as a yearling in New York and was acquired by Mb Stables, via Spb Racing, with a $16.000 claim in November 2023. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his ninth in 34 starts, and his fifth stake win, all of which are graded. His career earnings are now $1,477.540.

Track: Firm
Time: :48¹  1:12¹  2:00²  2:24¹

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 1 – 8 Paid 182.10
$1 Trifecta: 1 – 8 – 2 Paid 1,558.10

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES