Filly heads to Carotene Stakes on a mission

​TORONTO, October 20 – Sam-Son Farm’s homebred three-year-old filly Mythical Mission has been a contender in stakes action all season long and will be looking to break through for the first win of her sophomore campaign in Sunday’s $125,000 Carotene Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack.

After winning her first two career starts last year, Mythical Mission stepped up to compete among stakes company and has been a player in her next six races despite coming up winless. This summer, the Giant’s Causeway-Misty Mission filly was a runner-up in the first two Canadian Triple Tiara stakes behind Woodbine Oaks champion Holy Helena and Bison City winner Enstone before hitting the board in the final turf event behind Wonder Where victress Inflexibility.

 “It’s been a little disappointing,” said trainer Malcolm Pierce. “She looked at one point that she was going to win the Oaks until Holy Helena ran by her at about the eighth pole. She’s run hard and run against top horses all year, but we just haven’t been able to get to the wire first. Hopefully we can change the results on Sunday.”

A fourth-place finisher in the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen last time out on August 27, Mythical Mission returns to the races fresh off a mini vacation and pair of turf training sessions with a new jockey in Patrick Husbands.

“We gave her a pretty good break. She actually went out to a farm for two or three weeks after her last race and we brought her back and Patrick is going to ride her, which is a change,” said Pierce. “She had a really good work two works ago and then we came back with a pretty easy work last weekend there. Anyways, we’re just hoping that it’s our turn. It looks like the weather is going to be okay so the turf should be good for the weekend so that’s on our side anyways.”

Mythical Mission will face Inflexibility again on Sunday along with another familiar rival in Ghostly Presence.

Inflexibility set a track record time of 1:58.88 for 1-1/4 miles on the turf winning the Wonder Where two starts ago for trainer Chad Brown and owners Klaravich Stables & William H. Lawrence. The Scat Daddy-Halo’s Verse filly enters the Carotene off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Sands Point Stakes at Belmont Park where she earned a career-best 101 Beyer’s Speed Figure. Luis Contreras will pick up the mount for the Carotene.

Meanwhile, Ghostly Presence earned the field’s top 103 Beyer’s Speed Figure in a neck loss to Let It Ride Mom in the La Lorgnette Stakes over 1-1/16 miles on the Woodbine main at the end of September. Rafael Hernandez retains the mount aboard the homebred Ghost Zapper-Five N  Forty filly, who is trained by Roger Attfield for Chiefswood Stables.

The field also includes La Prevoyante Stakes winner Silent Sonet and top three finishers Red Cabernet and Deesse Nike. Crumlin Queen and supplemental entry Brighter Ideas complete the lineup.

Sunday’s program kicks off at 1 p.m. with the Carotene Stakes scheduled as the eighth race.
 
$125,000 Carotene Stakes
Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer
1. Ghostly Presence – Rafael Hernandez – Roger Attfield
2. Inflexibility – Luis Contreras – Chad Brown
3. Silent Sonet – Eurico Rosa Da Silva – Nicholas Gonzalez
4. Crumlin Queen – David Moran – Michael Doyle
5. Deesse Nike – Jeffrey Alderson –  Julie Belhumeur
6. Mythical Mission – Patrick Husbands – Malcolm Pierce
7. Red Cabernet – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Ian Black
8. Brighter Ideas (S) – Gary Boulanger – Denyse McClachrie
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