'Fueling' the 'Embur's' in the Ontario Matron

The Coaching Club American Oaks (gr.1) will easily trump all other filly and mare races over the course of the weekend with its deep and compact field of sophomore fillies, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t action happening elsewhere on the continent that isn’t worthy of notice. The $150,000 Ontario Matron Stakes (gr.3) at Woodbine on Sunday features an interesting and competitive field of seven older fillies and mares led by three time stakes winner Embur’s Song. Of the seven fillies entered in the Matron, six have tallied up wins in stakes and three are graded stakes winners.

 

Breaking from post position number one is Grade 1 winner Hooh Why. She may have a Grade 1 on her resume but you have to go all the way back to early April of 2009 when she captured the Ashland Stakes to find it. Since completing her semi-successful 2009 campaign she has performed erratically, winning just four of nineteen starts since the Ashland. With four starts already this year, three in graded stakes races, the five year old mare has won an Allowance Optional Claiming race and finished 5^th twice in Grade 3 stakes. She last finished 6^th in the Chicago Handicap at Arlington Park. She hasn’t posted any works since finishing out of the money in the Chicago Handicap so unless she’s sitting on top of an unusually big race, I’d say she’s a toss. Never a safe thing to say about a Grade 1 winner.

 

Indian Apple Is breaks from post two, and at odds of 15-1 she is the second longest shot on the board. The five year old Indian Charlie filly has raced exclusively at Woodbine with mild success, garnering seven wins in nineteen starts. She began the year finishing third in the Whimsical Stakes (gr.3) and followed that up with a fourth place finish in the Hendrie Stakes (gr.3). Her last effort was a sixth place effort in the Sweet Briar Too Stakes, missing fifth by a nose to Ariana D. The 1 1/16 miles of the Ontario Matron doesn’t seem to be her best distance as her winning performances have mostly come in the seven and six furlong range.

In post three is five time stakes winner and dual graded stakes winner Biofuel. Last year Biofuel won four of her six starts, including the Grade 3 Selene Stakes, and finished second and third in the Coaching Club American Oaks and Mother Goose Stakes respectively, both Grade 1’s. Making her first start of 2011 in the Sweet Briar Too Stakes on July 1^st she finished fourth as the high weight, beaten less than a length to the wire after navigating the final turn seven wide. She’s got a lot of upside and with all the time she had off between 2010 and 2011 she’s had an abundance of time for growth and improvement. She’s won at the distance over the same strip and enters off a solid 1:00.60 five furlong work. This filly has a very good chance to bounce back and steal the show. [Read the complete post here on Distaff Runner at Horse Racing Nation]