Black duo on track for stakes

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Ian Black’s 2019 stakes winners Red Cabernet and Dun Drum will both make one more start before getting a winter break.

Red Cabernet is headed to Sunday’s Grade 2, $175,000 Bessarabian Stakes, while Dun Drum is on track for the $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes on Nov. 30, Black said after they worked at Woodbine on Sunday morning. Red Cabernet covered five furlongs on the main track in 1:01.00, while Dun Drum covered the same distance in 1:02.20.

They exit starts in the Bunty Lawless Stakes on turf. Red Cabernet finished fifth, beaten one length, while Dun Drum was eighth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths.

Red Cabernet has a pair of wins in seven stakes starts this season, all for owner Piano Bar Racing, with victories in the Eternal Search Stakes on the inner turf course and in the Algoma Stakes on the Tapeta. She also finished second in the Classy ’n Smart Stakes on Tapeta on Sept. 29 prior to the Bunty Lawless.

“It’s been a great year,” Black said. “It’s not going to be easy [in the Bessarabian], but it would be really nice to get a graded placing on her pedigree page.”

Red Cabernet finished sixth behind Moonlit Promise in last year’s Bessarabian Stakes.

Given her strong form this season against Ontario-sired fillies and mares, Black anticipated that Red Cabernet would return to racing for her 6-yearold campaign in 2020.

“All being well, and if she comes out of this next race fine, she’ll come back next year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dun Drum has had a productive 3-year-old campaign, following a 2-yearold season that included a victory in the Kingarvie Stakes.

Dun Drum began his 2019 season with a third-place finish in the Queenston Stakes in May, and on Sept. 7 added a win in the Vice Regent Stakes. He is owned by Joan Addison, Janet Black, and Barbara Bowen.

Dun Drum faced older horses for the third time this season in the Bunty Lawless.

“In the Bunty Lawless, he was wide most of the way and wasn’t beaten a long way either,” Ian Black said.

Following their respective starts, Black said Red Cabernet and Dun Drum will spend the winter in Ontario.

“They’ll take the winter off up here,” he said. “We haven’t had any horses go to Florida for a little while now. That’s what they’ll be doing, and hopefully they’ll bounce back next year.”

Dixie Moon retired

Following her fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine on Sept. 14, Dixie Moon was retired from racing, trainer Catherine Day Phillips said.

Day Phillips said that Dixie Moon, the winner of the 2018 Woodbine Oaks, has been sent to Kentucky and will enter owner Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry’s broodmare band. She will be bred to Medaglia d’Oro.

“She retired very healthy and sound, and I think she was just finding her footing again as an older horse,” Day Phillips

said. “It’s a bit bittersweet. It was hard to lose a horse like her from the barn, but yet exciting that she’s going to go on and have babies.”

Day Phillips said Dixie Moon’s value as a broodmare played a role in the Fitzhenrys’ decision to retire her.

“She didn’t have a lot more to prove as a racehorse and it was time to start her career as a broodmare,” she said.

The 4-year-old daughter of Curlin retires with a career record of five wins from 17 starts, with four of those victories coming in stakes. She won her debut as a 2-yearold in 2017, and immediately earned Grade 1 black type with a runner-up finish in the Natalma Stakes. She also won the Cup and Saucer Stakes and the Ontario Lassie Stakes. She finished sixth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar.

As a 3-year-old, Dixie Moon won the Woodbine Oaks on synthetic and the Carotene Stakes on turf, and also was second in the Grade 3 Selene. She also finished third in the Grade 3 Trillium this season.

She retires with career earnings of $805,950.