Like the King could snap out of funk

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Like the King has been mired in a slump, but the classy 5-year-old could be rejuvenated as a new gelding in Sunday’s featured conditioned allowance/optional claimer at Woodbine.

Like the King is winless in 13 starts since taking the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Stakes over Turfway’s Tapeta in 2021, after which he wound up 12th in the Kentucky Derby. He subsequently ran second in the Grade 3 Kent and third in the Grade 3 Saranac before closing out his 3-year-old campaign with a second in the Bryan Station Stakes at Keeneland.

Like the King wasn’t an impact player during the last 13 months, and trainer Mark Casse had him gelded after his flat fifth as the favorite in a key allowance/optional claimer at Tampa on March 1. Over the past five years, Casse posted a 20 percent strike rate with 61-180-day layoff runners going turf/synthetic, with a positive return on investment of $2.44.

Casse also entered Bohemian Boy in the 1 1/16-mile route. The speedy sprinter held on for second behind favored Rondure off a four-month break in a seven-furlong race on May 7. He could lead the way on the stretchout to a distance over which he scored twice early in his career on different surfaces at Gulfstream.

Emma-Jayne Wilson will ride Like the King and Eswan Flores has the mount on Bohemian Boy.

Need-the-lead router Malibu Edge could hook up on the front end with Bohemian Boy in a suicidal duel. Malibu Edge has been idle since ending up third at this level Dec. 4, which was three weeks after he won an Oct. 9 allowance by a nose.

Chiefswood Stables owns Malibu Edge and the comebacker War Court, who capped his 2022 season with back-toback scores vs. maidens and first-level allowance types.

The millionaire turf specialist A Thread of Blue is competing for the first time since a fourth-place finish on the Tapeta Nov. 13. The 7-year-old was claimed for $50,000 from Casse in July by trainer Donnie MacRae, who sent him out to work like clockwork every week since mid-April. MacRae has been winning at a 25 percent rate with horses off at least six months.

Dancin in Da’nile competed in two-thirds of the 2022 Canadian Triple Crown, finishing fifth in the Queen’s Plate on Tapeta and fourth in the Breeders’ Stakes on the grass. He wintered at Payson Park in Florida after winning his last start here in an Oct. 30 allowance on turf with an 85 Beyer Speed Figure.

Rounding out the eighth-race field are Seventyseven Stone, Canadian Pharoah, Concealed Carry, and Gaston.

Sunday’s seventh race, a first-level allowance route on the grass, drew a field of 11 including Silver Peak and Lac Macaza.