Involuntary can go distance

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Like most of her rivals, Involuntary will be making her first start at about 1 1/2 miles on turf Friday at Woodbine in the $100,000 Flaming Page Stakes, and the improving 4-year-old is a candidate to stay the trip.

Involuntary’s only stakes win came going about a mile last August in the Drumtop at Suffolk Downs. Following a poor showing in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Oaks at Laurel, she got most of the fall and winter off.

Involuntary resurfaced with a new trainer, Josie Carroll, at Gulfstream on March 30, just missing in a second-level optional claimer. She subsequently ran second here on yielding turf in the Grade 2 Nassau and then stretched out from a mile to 10 furlongs most

recently in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly, finishing a close third.

Gary Boulanger retains the mount on Involuntary, a Stronach Stable runner bred in Kentucky.

The Flaming Page is the sixth of eight races on a card that begins at 3:45 p.m. Eastern.

KEY CONTENDERS

Involuntary, by City Zip Last 3 Beyers: 94-88-85

◗ The daughter of the recently deceased City Zip has kept busy in the mornings since the July 2 Dance Smartly. After posting a half-mile and then two five-eighths works, she breezed seven-eighths in 1:26.80 on the Tapeta last Friday.

Rachel Wall, by Blame Last 3 Beyers: 77-82-21

◗ The 5-year-old is the lone entrant with a victory at 1 1/2 miles, having won an optional claimer at Saratoga last September.

◗ She’s been freshened since a fading fourth in the 12-furlong Keertana Stakes on May 27 at Churchill Downs.

Happyness, by Verglas Last 3 Beyers: 81-77-90

◗ An import from France last year, she wasn’t up to snuff in stakes company in her last two outings, but she was good enough to win a 10-furlong allowance in the spring of 2016 at Belmont.

◗ Like Rachel Wall, she’s based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland with trainer Graham Motion. Giovanna Blues, Gio Ponti Last 3 Beyers: 83-85-76

◗ Since a troubled eighth in the Dance Smartly, the Michael Dickinson-trained 4-year-old has finished fifth in both the Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park and the Grade 3 Matchmaker at Monmouth.

Sardinia, by Tapit Last 3 Beyers: 82-53-77

◗ She won a recent one-mile optional claimer at Indiana Grand for trainer Mike Maker, who won the prestigious Queen’s Plate and Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes here last year.

Moonlight Sky, by Sky Mesa Last 3 Beyers: 76-78-78

◗ The Roger Attfield trainee won her last start over a modest field in a 1 1/16-mile allowance here.