TORONTO, September 12, 2026 – Lamirada and Fraser Aebly are taking on a competitive field in the $500,000 Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” Grade 1 Natalma Stakes today for trainer Josie Carroll. The 2-year-old filly, owned by Mark Dodson, has only one start under her belt, a win in a maiden special weight on August 8, where she crossed the finish line first by an extraordinary 11 ¾ lengths. “She jumped well out of the gate and we found ourselves pretty close to the lead, well, on the lead, and I just wanted to let her find her big stride and let her get comfortable, and she did that,” said Aebly. “I just let her out a notch at the head of the lane, and she just took off and she galloped out really well.” For that performance, the filly by Army Mule received an 86 Beyer figure, which is the highest Beyer for any horse in this year’s Natalma Stakes, in fast fractions and a final time of 1:09.84 over six furlongs on Woodbine’s main track. “She was travelling super easy for me, she didn’t have to strain herself to do very much during the race up until that point so she was just travelling real easy for me and she just kept grabbing gears for me.” Now, Ontario-bred Lamirada is facing a stacked field as the favourite at 5-2 odds in the one-mile turf fixture, racing against other promising 2-year-olds, such as invading Voyager by Justify and Embouteillage by Kingman (GB), ridden by John Velazquez. “Since I breezed her very early in the spring, one of her first few breezes, and, I think Josie was still in Florida when she breezed here the first time, and I looked at her assistant, I said, ‘This is a really good horse.’ I knew right away,” recalled Aebly. “We took our time with her and when she ran her first time she proved that she could be one of those horses.” Aebly has also been in the saddle for the filly’s works in the morning leading up to this race. “After her last race, she’s actually kind of quieted down, she’s been going with the pony lots, so she’s kind of settled down quite a bit, and I think that puts her in a good spot for this race. I breezed her and she did it very comfortably and easy for me.” Lamirada received a bullet for her most recent timed work last week with :47.20 as the fastest of 104 horses over four furlongs on Woodbine’s main track. “That was a little faster than what we wanted, but she did it pretty easy so I hope it’s all right.” Aebly, who has already broken two track records at Woodbine this season, has thought about how this race may play out. “The E.P Taylor turf can be a little… it makes you ride a smart race depending on pace. I think pace is gonna be the biggest factor in this race,” said the young jockey who has ridden several of the other horses in the race in the past. I don’t think she’s necessarily a horse that needs the lead. I think we just happened to be up there last time, but I think she’s gonna be close to the pace, because she’s a big, strong filly.” It being Woodbine Mile day, with several Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” races, plenty of American and European jockeys are also throwing their hat in the ring in hopes of securing Breeders’ Cup mounts. “It’s an honour to even sometimes just ride with some of those guys, like Hall of Famers, like Johnny and you know, when you can win some of those photos against them, it feels pretty cool,” said Aebly, who bested Velazquez aboard Piper’s Factor by a nose on Gas Me Up on King’s Plate Day in the Grade 2 King Edward Stakes. “They make you ride a smart race and make you ride a good race if you want to win. They’ve been around there a few times, to say the least.” This jockey/trainer/owner combination has seen great success in the past with horses like Notorious Gangster and Lupa (IRE), both racing today. “We’ve had a great team there over the past couple years and we’ve got so many nice horses,” said Aebly. “We’ve had some very nice wins over the past couple of years and we’re looking to continue that in the Natalma.” Aebly is defending this title after reigning victorious in the Natalma with Corsia Veloce last year, who unfortunately got injured and could not contest the Breeders’ Cup. “This win is obviously huge. I got lucky, got to win it last year, and hopefully we can get lucky again.” The play: $20 on #6 Lamirada to win. -30- Anna Jeffs, for Woodbine Share This:Share
