TORONTO, October 3, 2024 – Fev Rover (IRE), through no lack of trying, has failed to fetch the top prize in four starts this season. Now, in what looms as her final career appearance, the reigning Canadian Horse of the Year will look to go out a winner in Saturday’s bet365 Dance Smartly (G2T), a $200,00 race for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles over the E.P. Taylor course, which has lured a solid field of 12. Fev Rover, a 6-year-old who races for Tracy Farmer, is catalogued for the Fasig-Tipton November Sale in Kentucky and could head into that auction on a high note with a victory in the Dance Smartly, a race in which she finished second in 2022. Her appearances this season have included a close second behind the redoubtable Moira in the Aug. 11 Beverly D. (G2T) at Colonial Downs, the race in which she had become a Grade 1 stakes winner when it offered that status the previous year. In her latest outing, here on Sep. 14, Fev Rover was the defending champion in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor, a 1 ¼ mile turf race in which she ended a well-beaten third behind runner-up Moira and that one’s stablemate Full Count Felicia, who had opened a lead which at one point measured 19 lengths through walking-horse fractions. “It was weird,” said Casse, who had watched Fev Rover settle behind the runaway leader and eventually give up the pace in the closing stages. “I don’t know what to think. Maybe the ground was a little too hard for her?” Sahin Civaci takes over aboard Fev Rover for the Dance Smartly and Casse has no concerns about the cutback in distance. “She’s pretty versatile,” said the trainer. Fev Rover (IRE) and jockey Javier Castellano winning the E.P. Taylor Stakes on October 8, 2023 at Woodbine (Michael Burns Photo) Graham Motion brings a strong hand into the Dance Smartly with Mission of Joy and Sparkle Blue both offering graded stakes credentials. Mission of Joy, a 4-year-old, was bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farm, but has not raced here since finishing up the track in her debut on the main track just over two years ago. Racing exclusively on turf since then, Mission of Joy has won Grade 3s at Tampa Bay Downs and Churchill Downs and finished a close third in two Grade 1 events. The most recent was a half-length defeat behind a pair of Chad Brown trainees in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Just A Game over one mile on the grass. She is winless in five starts this year, however, and comes into the Dance Smartly off a no-show effort in the one-mile Ladies Turf (G3) at Kentucky Downs. “I’m trying to get her back on track,” said Motion. “’She trains very well, but she obviously didn’t handle Kentucky Downs very well. She’s been knocking heads with some pretty nice horses. So, I think that makes her competitive up there, even though it’s a pretty deep race.” Sparkle Blue fared better in the Ladies, finishing fourth in her second start over the quirky Kentucky Downs course after a second-place finish in the same race the previous year. “She ran well at Kentucky Downs,” said Motion. “She’s a hard-knocking, blue-collar type that we’ve had a little luck with.” The 5-year-old has five stakes wins on her resume, two of them graded. Brown has a pair of Dance Smartly hopefuls in Princess Calla (SAF) and Tax Implications (GB). Princess Calla (SAF) was a multiple Group 1 winner in her homeland and makes her North American debut here while Tax implications took the Eatontown (G3T) at Monmouth Park this spring. Also coming in from south of the border are Nadette (FR) Mouffy, and Canisy. Nadette is trained by Neil Drysale, who sent out Miss Dracarys to upset last year’s Dance Smartly at the direct expense of odds-on Moria. Fourth in this Summer’s Beverly D., Nadette then failed to make much of an impact in the Ladies Turf. Earlier, the 5-year-old had romped in the Beverly D. Preview at 1/1/16 miles on the grass, her second stakes win after success in Santa Anita’s one-mile Wiltshire (G3T) this spring. The other shippers are seeking their first graded stakes scores. Mouffy also failed to show up in the Ladies but had been a smart winner over 1 1/16 miles of Aqueduct turf in her previous start, the listed Perfect Sting Stakes. Canisy, conditioned by Arnoud Delacour, finished a well-beaten second behind Nadette when last seen in the Beverly D. Preview. Rounding out the field are Millie Girl, who was last year’s Sovereign Award winner in the main-track older female category; Queen Macha; Spansive; and Dolce Sopresa. Millie Girl failed to fire last out in Belmont’s Grade 2 Flower Bowl but yielding turf and a glacial pace did her no favours. Prior to that, the 6-year-old Catherine Day Phillips trainee had run well here in two Grade 2 turf stakes, the 1 1/8 mile Canadian and the one-mile Nassau. Field for $200,000 bet365 Dance Smartly (Race 8) Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer 1 – Princess Calla (SAF) – Patrick Husbands – Chad Brown 2 – Millie Girl – Ryan Munger – Catherine Day Phillips 3 – Canisy – Jorge Vargas, Jr. – Arnaud Delacour 4 – Dolce Sopresa – Fraser Aebly – Josie Carroll 5 – Nadette (FR) – Julien Leparoux – Neil Drysdale 6 – Mission of Joy – Declan Cannon – Graham Motion 7 – Mouffy – Vincent Cheminaud – Jonathan Thomas 8 – Tax Implications (GB) – Luis Contreras – Chad Brown 9 – Fev Rover (IRE) – Sahin Civaci – Mark Casse 10 – Queen Macha – Jose Campos – Martin Drexler 11 – Spansive – Rafael Hernandez – Kevin Attard 12 – Sparkle Blue – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Graham Motion Bill Tallon, for Woodbine Communications Share This:Share
