TORONTO, May 18 – It’s time for the fillies to shine as a field of 10 step forward in Sunday’s Grade 3 $125,000 Selene Stakes, at Woodbine. Queen’s Plate nominated fillies in the Selene, a 1 1/16-mile route over Woodbine’s Tapeta (Race 8, 4:55PM), include Enstone and Financial Recovery who will reignite a rivalry that saw Enstone take the Fury Stakes last time out by 2 3/4-lengths. Financial Recovery, a 16-1 Fury longshot, rallied from last of nine to be second in that seven furlong event. Ghostly Presence, who is not Queen’s Plate nominated, finished fourth in the Fury and should relish the added distance of the Selene. The Chiefswood Stable homebred captured the prestigious $250,000 Princess Elizabeth at this distance to close out her juvenile campaign. * The promising Time to Travel, a full brother to multiple graded stakes winning mare Hard Not to Like, is listed as the 7-2 second choice in Saturday’s Sir Barton Stakes (Race 11, 4:43PM ET) on the Preakness Stakes undercard at Pimlico Racecourse. Time to Travel romped to a 4 3/4-length maiden win at Gulfstream before finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland after pressing a hot pace. John Velazquez will ride Time to Travel for the first time on Saturday. * Chiefswood Stable homebred Major Eclipse will make his second career start on Saturday at Woodbine (Race 6, 3:51PM ET) when leaving from Post 4 in a 6 1/2-furlong turf sprint. Alan Garcia has the call. Key results from potential Plate contenders last week included a front-running score by Yorkton (not currently Plate nominated) in the seven furlong Queenston Stakes. The Queenston included a number of Plate nominated foes including Sailing Home (3rd), Marten River (4th), Woodbridge (5th), Rock You (6th), Colton’s Corner (7th) and Jurojin (8th). Holy Helena, a Ghostapper filly trained by James Jerkens for Stronach Stables, graduated in a 1 1/16-mile main track event at Belmont Park on on May 12. Avie’s Mesa finished a strong second in a 1 1/16-mile allowance event on Saturday (Race 7) when taking on older rivals. Silent Jimmie, owned and trained by Paul Buttigieg, finished a determined second in a seven furlong maiden allowance event (Race 10) on May 13. * Tiz a Slam continues to work well… A number of key contenders popped up on the work tab last week including: Escondera breezed five furlongs in 1:01 flat on May 16 on the Woodbine Tapeta. Rank 5/11 Tiz a Slam breezed five furlongs in 1:02 flat on May 16 on the Woodbine Tapeta. Rank 7/11 Channel Maker breezed four furlongs in :50.48 on May 16 on the Saratoga dirt training track. Rank 43/50. Glencairn worked five furlongs in :59.60 handily over the Woodbine Tapeta on May 14. Rank 4/65. Financial Recovery breezed five furlongs in 1:01 flat on May 13 over the Woodbine main. Rank 16/53. * Updated Top 5 Queen’s Plate Contenders as selected by @TripleDeadHeat Horse / Trainer / Owner 1. Tiz a Slam / Roger Attfield / Chiefswood Stable 2. State of Honor / Mark Casse / Conrad Farms 3. Channel Maker / Dan Vella / Joey Gee Thoroughbreds and Wachtel Stable 4. Inflexibility / Chad Brown / Klaravich Stables, Inc. William H. Lawrence 5. King and His Court / Mark Casse / Gary Barber and Wachtel Stable The 158th running of The Queen’s Plate, the 1 1/4-mile classic which carries a $1 million purse, is set for Sunday, July 2. For more information on North America’s oldest continuously-run stakes event and first jewel in Canada’s Triple Crown of Racing, visit QueensPlate.com. Share This:Share
