10.20 Woodbine Mile Stakes (Grade I)
Charlie Appleby, William Buick and Godolphin seek some Grade 1 success in Canada this evening with representatives in three of the top level races.
Their season’s star, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Notable Speech heads the challenge, bidding to follow up last year’s success in the Woodbine Mile.
He got back to winning ways in emphatic fashion in winning the seven-furlong Sky Bet City Of York Stakes to make up for a disappointing run at Royal Ascot when sixth in the Queen Anne Stakes, having earlier won the Lockinge Stakes.
He had a big rival to overcome in the Miguel Clement-trained Deterministic.
The five-year-old had finished third in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes of 2024, but since then, he has not been out of the first two and has eight wins and two seconds to his name. He is on a six-race winning streak coming here and, with two Grade 1 wins on his last two outings this season in the two Saratoga contests, the Grade 1 Fourstardave Stakes and Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes. Notable Speech is around evens to 2/1 for his big rival on the morning line and he should be adaptable to add another Grade 1 for his team.
SELECTION: Notable Speech
Next best: Deterministic
10.55pm E. P. Taylor Stakes (Grade 1)
In the Grade 1 fillies contest, the E. P. Taylor Stakes, four of the eight runners are from Britain and Ireland with Willie McCreery represented by Jancis, a Group 2 winner at Newmarket earlier in the season.
Hector Berrios will partner Jancis as the five-year-old goes in search of big Grade 1 success. Though she was only fifth of seven to Blue Bolt in the Falmouth Stakes, her previous run at Royal Ascot when second behind the same mare in the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes, with last week’s Group 1 winner Friendly Soul back in third, gives her a decent shot at a Grade 1 placing here.
Andrew Balding’s See The Fire (Rob Hornby) is the top rated, but she was highly tried in the Group 1 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot when sixth of eight to Ombudsman. She was since third to Diamond Necklace and Friendly Soul in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood, beaten seven and three-quarter lengths and that looks a bit below her best form.
The Godolphin five-year-old Diamond Rain finished second in this last season, before a good run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf when she took third to Gezora. She has just a listed win at York last time out to her name in three outings this year.
Charlie Johnston runs the three-year-old Venetian Lace (Jamie Spencer). Her third in the 1000 Guineas to True Love gives her a good chance, but her later runs are a bit off that form, last in the Oaks and she ran behind Enceladus over a mile and a half in the Gordon Stakes last time.
The big ‘home’ fancy is the Graham Motion South Africa-bred Gimme A Nother, who won the Grade 2 Beverly D Stakes at Colonial Downs last time out beating today’s rival Achieve. She has won her last three and looks sure to be involved, if the European fillies underperform.
SELECTION: Gimme A Nother
Next best: See The Fire
There are two British-trained runners in the Grade 1 bet365 Summer Stakes over a mile for two-year-old colts. Charlie Appleby also runs the Goodwood third-place finisher from the Group 2 Coral Vintage Stakes Al Hudaiba, while Charlie Johnston is represented by another Godolphin-owned colt in the dual winner Sword Salute, the mount of Jamie Spencer.
Christopher Head runs the Bond Thoroughbred’s Big Money Man with P.J. McDonald on board.