Lady Canterbury one of five festival stakes

It’s not a homecoming, since Winning Envelope never has raced at Canterbury Park, but Canterbury is the home track of Minnesota-based owner Bob Lothenbach, and Winning Envelope will carry his colors Wednesday evening in the $75,000 Lady Canterbury Stakes.

The Lady Canterbury is part of the Canterbury Turf Festival, five stakes races, all carded for grass, worth a total of $350,000 this year. First post is 4:40 p.m. Central, and this week’s weather could be a factor. The forecast for Wednesday into Wednesday night calls for beautiful conditions, but the turf course could take rain Monday night, Tuesday, and Tuesday evening.

Winning Envelope, a Chris Block-trained daughter of More Than Ready, doesn’t mind some give to the ground. In January, she won the $75,000 Jersey Lilly over a good course at Sam Houston, and last October she handled good turf at Keeneland capturing a second-level allowance race.

Winning Envelope showed such strong sprint speed winning her August 2018 debut it prompted Lothenbach to buy her, but she’s evolved into a much different type of horse, dropping far behind the leaders and coming with one run during the final half of her last eight races. With a large, competitive field signed on for Wednesday’s contest, Winning Envelope and jockey Florent Geroux will require luck and pace.

Beach Flower won the 2019 renewal of the Lady Canterbury by 3 1/2 lengths, earning a career-best 92 Beyer Speed Figure, a number she hasn’t approached in six subsequent starts. Mac Robertson, her trainer, has compiled a remarkable recent record at Canterbury:

In stakes races during the 2019 meet and so far in 2020, Robertson has gone 20-6-8 from 51 starters, good for a $2.94 return on investment.

Also worthy of consideration: Aife and Fool’s Paradise, the latter especially. Aife notched two strong turf-route wins during the Arlington meet, and her trainer, Matt Shirer, is adept winning with horses returning from layoffs similar to Aife’s, which comes to a little more than four months now. Fool’s Paradise, in from Texas for trainer Robertino Diodoro, had been racing on dirt until June, and a surface switch yielded two good Lone Star wins, the most recent in a $75,000 stakes comparable to the Lady Canterbury.

Maker strong in three stakes

Trainer Mike Maker won the 2018 Mystic Lake Derby with Sniper Kitten and the 2019 renewal with Faraway Kitten. Maker has a dog in this year’s fight, too, if not a kitten.

Angelus Warrior is the Maker-trained 9-5 morningline favorite in the 1 1/16-mile Mystic Lake Derby, which came up especially soft this year, luring just seven entrants. Angelus Warrior is no star, but he fits the spot adequately and will have Geroux, well mounted in Wednesday night’s stakes, in the irons.

Angelus Warrior has started twice in 2020, finishing second in a nine-furlong Churchill turf allowance race where he didn’t quite stay the trip, then winning a 1 1/16-mile grass race there at the same first-allowance level on June 18.

Angelus Warrior might have to catch Summer Assault, who ships from Arlington for trainer Michele Boyce, a twotime Canterbury stakes winner. Summer Assault nicely won his debut Jan. 18 in a Tampa Bay Downs turf sprint and showed in a recent front-running grass allowance race there he can get a two-turn distance.

Bayou Plan, who easily won an off-turf allowance race at Lone Star first off a claim by M and M Racing and Karl Broberg, won a Fair Grounds grass race in February and is a viable contender.

Maker also sends out Ask Bailey in the Northbound Pride Oaks, and while Ask Bailey hasn’t started since November, this pace-filled race sets up for her late run, and Ask Bailey was graded stakes-placed at age 2. Maker, returning horses from layoff between 120 and 400 days in turf-route stakes races has a record of just 0-0-2 from 12 starters over the last five years, but has done well if one substitutes allowance comeback races rather than stakes.

Urban Fairytale, a last-out Gulfstream turf-route maiden winner for trainer Ian Wilkes, should challenge Ask Bailey for favoritism.

Temple carries the Maker banner in the Mystic Lake Mile. Excluding his most recent start, Temple’s seven races since Maker claimed him in July 2019 fit the Mystic Lake Mile. Last out, Temple was probably in too tough in the Grade 3 Fort Marcy. He also was checked sharply at the quarter pole.

Giant Payday, owned by Lothenbach, finished third in this race a year ago when starting fresh after a long layoff, but this season has gotten in a prep race for the Mystic Lake Mile.

The Black Album was scheduled to be sold at auction on Tuesday and will be scratched, trainer Rudy Brisset said.

◗ Wellabled is one of the quickest turf sprinters in America, and it’s more than likely no one is catching him in the $50,000 Honor the Hero over five furlongs.

◗ Canterbury’s 10 percent takeout pick five begins with race 5, the local derby.