Allowance feature has stakes feel

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – No stakes was scheduled for Sunday at Woodbine, but the excellent 10-race card has a stakes-caliber conditioned allowance with an $80,000 claiming option, carded as the ninth.

Stakes winners Filo Di Arianna, Avie’s Flatter, and Clayton are among the 10 entered in the seven-furlong Tapeta sprint, which carries a purse of $112,500 including bonuses.

Filo Di Arianna was unbeaten in three starts in his native Brazil in 2019, which included an 11-length victory in Group 2 company. The chunky chestnut easily won his North American debut here in June of last year in an open allowance on the grass, but was out of the money in two subsequent graded turf sprints in the United States.

Filo Di Arianna is making his first non-turf start Sunday and has always worked quickly on Tapeta.

“He’s a very talented horse,” trainer Mark Casse said. “I’m not worried about Tapeta.”

Kazushi Kimura has the mount on Filo Di Arianna, who will break from the rail in his first race with Lasix, a 19 percent angle with Casse in allowances during the past five years.

Avie’s Flatter was Canada’s champion male 2-year-old in 2018, and he placed in all three legs of the 2019 Canadian Triple Crown without winning one of them.

Avie’s Flatter was a Sovereign Award finalist for champion male sprinter last year, during which he won 3 of 5 starts, including the Grade 2 Connaught Cup and Grade 2 Nearctic, both on turf. The son of the late Flatter is 3 for 7 on Tapeta, which included an authoritative score in his 2021 season opener going seven eighths in conditioned allowance company.

The 126-pound highweight, Luis Contreras will get a leg up on Avie’s Flatter from trainer Josie Carroll.

Clayton was a protagonist in the 2020 Canadian Triple Crown, finishing third in the Queen’s Plate and second in the Prince of Wales Stakes after landing the Plate Trial Stakes.

Trained by Kevin Attard, Clayton has been idle since finishing a close third behind perennial champion sprinter Pink Lloyd in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road in November. He has been working right along and will be ridden by Antonio Gallardo.

Roaring Forties made his first start as a gelding a winning one while clearing the second allowance condition May 15 in his debut for trainer Katerina Vassilieva. He dueled up front with a sharp Chuck Willis before weakening to third behind that rival most recently in an open allowance on the grass, his least favorite surface.

Casse also is sending out the turf-sprint expert Old Chestnut, who has been freshened since finishing a distant fifth in a key conditioned allowance April 28 at Gulfstream. The 5-year-old was a fading fifth the only time he competed on Tapeta here in his first start at 2 in a stakes.

Lenny K could hit the ticket. He had a sluggish beginning last time out when a nonthreatening sixth in the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier.

Avoman and Primo Touch were both scratched from Friday’s Grade 3 Dominion Day.