ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The curtain raiser for the racing week at Woodbine is one of three inner turf tilts on the seven-race Thursday card. Stakes-placed Secret Load looks live in the 7 1/2-furlong event for nonwinners-of-three Ontario-sired allowance types and $40,000 claimers.
Secret Load went winless in eight races last year while often competitive with open first-level allowance company. Perhaps her best outing was a closing third behind the tough duo of Hurricane Clair and War Painter in the 1 1/16-mile La Prevoyante Stakes for Ontario-sired females on Dec. 13, after which she got the winter off.
Secret Load returned from a 5 1/2-month layoff in a seven-furlong Tapeta sprint at this level May 30. After getting away slowly, she raced four wide all the way over an inside-biased track, finishing a better-than-looked third as the favorite.
Secret Load is probably at her best on the Tapeta, but the daughter of Reload is certainly no slouch on the grass. Keveh Nicholls will ride her again for The Estate of Paul Buttigieg and trainer Rick Hayashi, who has a 10 percent strike rate second time off a layoff.
Lining up against Secret Load will be Regal Moment, Texas Holiday, Monty’s Inn, Zabarta, and Dazzling Cruiser.
Regal Moment is exiting an 8 1/2-month break and might need one. Last year, she won an Ontario-sired allowance going long on the inner turf in her season finale Oct. 2. Going back five years, her trainer, Stuart Simon, won at a 13 percent rate with six-month-plus comebackers, with a positive return in investment of $2.05.
Texas Holiday figures to lead the way with Eswan Flores subbing for the suspended Rafael Hernandez, who was aboard when she wired nonwinners-of-two opponents with the aid of an inside bias on the Tapeta on May 23. She crushed maidens on the inner turf last July but was a disappointment in three inner turf excursions in the fall.
Monty’s Inn missed the break before rallying from left field to win her season opener against $25,000 nonwinners-of-two claimers in a 5 1/2-furlong Tapeta dash on May 29. She finished far back in her only turf start on the main course here last summer.
Zabarta, the lone 3-year-old in the lineup, took the restricted South Ocean Stakes in October with authority while earning just a 61 Beyer Speed Figure. After a non-threatening fifth in the Nov. 22 Shady Well Stakes, she wasn’t seen again until she beat out Secret Load for second in her May 30 season debut.
Dazzling Cruiser has been competing regularly since early last summer, earning her diploma here on the inner turf in October. She was knocking on the door versus nonwinners-of-two claimers during the winter at Gulfstream before scoring for $35,000 there in April. When favored here May 10 in a Tapeta route at this level, the 5-year-old trailed in fifth early before closing belatedly for third.
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