Roger Attfield Wins His 8th Breeders' Stakes
Longshot Perfect Shower Wins Third Jewel in Canadian Triple Crown
Aug 2, 2009
The bay son of Perfect Soul broke from post 12, raced in the middle of the pack for most of the race, then surged to the front in the home stretch to win in 2:29 1/5 over a course rated as Firm. He set a new record as the longest shot to win the 1-1/2-mile Breeders’ Stakes in its 119-year history. He also gave trainer Roger Attfield his record-setting eighth Breeders’ Stakes win.
Perfect Shower Makes A Big Jump To Stakes Company
One reason the odds were so long on a Roger Attfield trainee was because of the colt’s last outing: a win in a $25,000 claiming race.
“We took a big shot here,” Attfield said after the race. “This horse was just starting to come around. He’s been training so very, very well.”
Perfect Shower drifted wide in the stretch, but straightened up when given a few right-handed taps by winning rider Jono Jones.
“He’s still a big, green, gangly horse,” said Attfield. “He just got lost, I think.”
Jones said he asked Perfect Shower for some run when he saw that Queen’s Plate champion Eye of the Leopard was not responding to urging by jockey Eurico Rosa Da Silva.
“I kicked off early and I just hoped we’d hang on to the end,” Jones said.
The winner is owned and bred by Charles Fipke, whose Not Bourbon, also trained by Attfield, won the 2008 Queen’s Plate. The colt’s sire, Perfect Soul, did not race at 2 or 3. He was second in the Breeders Cup Handicap (Can-IT) at 4, was Champion Turf Male in Canada at 5 and was a graded stakes winner at age 6. Perfect Shower is from his first crop.
Guipago and Reservoir Run Second and Third in Breeders’ Stakes
Guipago, who loves running on turf, ran what may have been the race of his life to finish three-quarters of a length behind the winner. The chestnut son of My Way Only was ridden by Tyler Pizarro and paid $23.00 and $11.90 after being sent off at odds of 29-1. He is trained by Analisa Delmas.
Reservoir, a turf specialist, broke from post 13. He was in the thick of it early and was a good third for rider Jim McAleney. The son of Sky Classic went off as the third choice at 5-1 and paid $5.90 to show. He is trained by Julia Carey.
Mr. Foricos Two U, trained by Catherine Day Phillips, ran a good race to be fourth. The gelded son of Porto Foricos previously was a close second in the Queen’s Plate on Polytrack, but was fifth in the Prince of Wales on dirt, both times under American jockey Mike Smith. Patrick Husbands got the call this time.
Gallant, winner of the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie, made a game effort, but was not up to the task on this day and placed sixth behind Keino West.
“We got to the top of the lane and he just got outrun,” said jockey Corey Fraser. “I don’t think he minded the turf.” Gallant, a son of Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Aptitude and out of a Touch Gold mare, is trained by Mark Casse.
Queen's Plate Champion Finishes Eleventh
Parabola was seventh, followed by Full Throttle, Genius Kinshasa (who set most of the early fractions), Flip For the Coin, Eye of the Leopard, Mensch and Hisaki.
Despite his dam’s turf pedigree, the 9-10 favourite Eye of the Leopard never got hold of the surface. Da Silva said the Sam-Son entry, trained by Mark Frostad, did not like the turf course.
“When we went to the first turn, he was not handling the surface,” a disappointed Da Silva said. “The horse was looking fantastic. It was just the surface. He could not handle it.”
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