Cooler Mike may run back fast

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Cooler Mike captured Woodbine’s final turf stakes of the season with a half-length victory over Silent Poet in the Bunty Lawless on Oct. 20. Trainer Nick Nosowenko said he would like to run Cooler Mike twice more at Woodbine, and is targeting the $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes on Nov. 30 as Cooler Mike’s final start of the meet.

In between, Nosowenko is searching for options. Cooler Mike could run back locally as early as this Sunday in the Grade 2, $175,000 Autumn Stakes. Nosowenko said he also nominated Cooler Mike to the $150,000 Artie Schiller Stakes at Aqueduct, which will be run over one mile on turf on Nov. 9. Nosowenko said he felt it was possible to fit in another start between the Bunty Lawless and Sir Barton given the time between races.

“Six weeks is a long way to go,” he said. “It’s getting late in the year and he’s good right now. I look at it like you get two more into him here if possible, and then we see what happens – whether we decide to keep going with him or give him the winter off.”

Nosowenko said he would be open to any surface for Cooler Mike’s next start, which could also add Churchill Downs to the list of possible options.

“I’d really like to run him on the dirt, myself,” he said. “He’s doing the turf, but I think he is a better dirt and Tapeta horse.”

Cooler Mike has recorded the first two stakes wins of his career in his last three starts, in the Halton Stakes and Bunty Lawless. He showed promise as a 3-year-old last season, finishing second behind Wonder Gadot in the Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes, but did not run during the second half of the 2018 season. Nosowenko said Cooler Mike wintered in Florida with Kelly and Slade Callaghan. The gelding has hit the board in six of his eight starts this season.

“We’re proud of him,” Nosowenko said. “From last year, going through the Triple Crown and coming up a little sore, we weren’t sure what was going to happen this year. I guess the turnout and starting up in Florida really did him well this year, and he came in in really good order.”

Cooler Mike’s stakes victories this year have also marked Nosowenko’s first two stakes wins as trainer. Nosowenko said he’s happy he no longer has to think about chasing a first stakes victory.

“Before you would see your name there, and it was stakesplaced trainer,” he said. “Now, you’re a stakes-winning trainer. It was really nice for him to do it for us, and we’re pretty proud of him.”

Mr Ritz rolls into Autumn

Mr Ritz recorded his first graded stakes win two starts back in the Grade 3 Seagram Cup Stakes at Woodbine on Aug. 11, and followed that up with a victory in the Presque Isle Mile Stakes on Sept. 9. He’ll look for his third consecutive stakes win in Sunday’s Grade 2, $175,000 Autumn Stakes over 1 1/16miles on Tapeta at Woodbine.

Mr Ritz put in his final work for the Autumn on Saturday morning at Woodbine, breezing five furlongs in 1:00.80 on the main track. He earned a careerbest 96 Beyer Speed Figure in the Presque Isle Mile Stakes, and trainer Josie Carroll said he is continuing to get better.

“This is a steadily improving horse,” she said.

Mr Ritz will run in the Autumn with just over seven weeks between starts. The Grade 3 Durham Cup Stakes here on Sept. 28 could have presented an option in between races, but Carroll said the connections felt that less than three weeks between starts was a bit tight.

“It was too close to the Presque Isle race, so we then focused immediately on this race,” she said.

Holy Helena retired

Holy Helena, winner of the 2017 Queen’s Plate, has been retired following her fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor

Stakes here on Oct. 12, according to a post on the Adena Springs Facebook page.

“The great Holy Helena has been retired from racing and is ready to begin her career as a broodmare!” the post said.

Holy Helena retires with a record of eight wins from 20 starts and earnings of close to $1.6 million. The daughter of Ghostzapper out of the Holy Bull mare Holy Grace debuted in April of her 3-year-old year in 2017. After winning her maiden in her second start, she went on to sweep the Woodbine Oaks and Queen’s Plate in her third and fourth starts, becoming the seventh filly to record that double. Her first graded stakes victory came as as a 4-year-old in the Grade 3 The Very One Stakes at Gulfstream Park. She repeated in the The Very One Stakes this season, and also won the 2018 Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay Stakes at Belmont Park and the 2019 Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes at Woodbine. She was trained throughout her career by Jimmy Jerkens and retires back to Adena Springs where she was bred.

Breeding plans have not been announced.

MICHAEL BURNS Cooler Mike is expected to make two more starts before the 2019 Woodbine season ends.