Amalfi Coast a confident winner in Grade 2 Bessarabian Stakes

TORONTO, November 24, 2019 – Terra Racing Stable’s three-year-old filly Amalfi Coast continued her stakes streak at Woodbine on Sunday while earning graded status in the $175,000 Bessarabian Stakes (Grade 2), contested over seven furlongs on the main track.

Eurico Rosa Da Silva worked out the ground-saving trip aboard the Kevin Attard-trained Tapizar filly, racing mid-field along the rail before angling outside three-wide on the turn and sweeping past the front-running Gamble’s Candy in the stretch. Amalfi Coast earned her third straight stakes victory, winning by 2-1/2 lengths in 1:22.03.

Gamble’s Candy had led the field of a dozen distaffers through panels of :23.18 and :45.99 with 2-1 favourite Special Relativity and 97-1 longshot Zestina closest in pursuit. As Amalfi Coast rallied onto the scene, Painting chased her home to take second in a place photo over Special Relativity while Zestina finished fourth just ahead of Gamble’s Candy.

“The trip was great,” said Da Silva afterwards. “In the paddock, Kevin had so much confidence. I think she sensed that confidence because, I’ll tell you what, she ran with a lot of confidence. And when we turned home, this filly took off. Galloping out, another horse was passing her, and she just wanted to take off again. She ran a brilliant race today.”

Riding a two-race win streak in turf stakes action restricted to Ontario-bred three-year-olds, confidence was key for the Ontario Damsel and Carotene champion as she returned to the same distance and course on which she broke her maiden in early August.

“She’s just a nice filly. She’s trained really well,” said Attard, who is amid a career-best season. “Obviously, the cut back to seven-eighths was a little bit of a challenge for her, but when a horse has some confidence, they can do anything.”

Unraced as a two-year-old, Amalfi Coast improved her record to 4-2-1 from eight starts.

“We always had high hopes for her,” said Attard. “She trained well as a two-year-old, she was really close to running and just needed a little time off so we started her up early in 2019. When she started working, she showed the talent that she was showing last year as a juvenile. Her first race was stellar. It looked like it was just a matter of time before she was going to break her maiden. It took a few more starts and the addition of blinkers seemed to really pick her up.”

Da Silva, who also won Saturday’s Grade 2 Kennedy Road with the Robert Tiller-trained Pink Lloyd, has teamed up with Tiller (7) and Attard (5) to be the leading jockey-trainer combinations in stakes action at the Woodbine meet.

“I’ve been spoiled with good horses, just blessed, and have the trust of these great trainers,” said Da Silva, with his retirement just three weeks away. “I have a lot of support. I have my wife, who supports me every day, I have a great family behind me, great friends. I’m just a lucky man.”

Sent off as the 6-1 fourth choice, Amalfi Coast paid $14, $7.10 and $4.60. She combined with Painting ($10.60, $6.50), Special Relativity ($3.20) and Zestina for the exotic wagers, returning $100.20 for the $2 exacta, $269.45 for the $1 trifecta and $6,048.50 for the $1 superfecta.

Live Thoroughbred racing resumes on Wednesday evening at 6:45 p.m.