Trainer Roger Attfield has sent out the winners of seven of 13 runnings of the Singspiel Stakes, including the 1-2 finishers on two occasions. On Saturday, Attfield has another double-barrelled threat in for the Grade 3, $125,000 feature as Danish Dynaformer and Final Copy will go postward in a field of eight for the 1 1/2-mile turf race.
Danish Dynaformer ended second behind his stablemate in the Singspiel prep, at 1 1/4 miles on the turf here May 25, but boasts the stronger overall credentials.
“He wants to run a mile and a half,” said Attfield, who has saddled the Charles Fipke homebred for victories over that distance in the 2016 Singspiel and 2015 Breeders’.
“He needs pace to run at but it’s always difficult, going a mile and a half, to get a race where there’s a good honest pace.”
The record supports Attfield’s assertion, with the most recent example being Danish Dynaformer’s close fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Elkhorn at Keeneland.
And while the Singspiel prep was 1 1/4 miles, pace was the story there too as Final Copy led and pressed through slow splits and was able to prevail by 1 3/4 lengths over a grinding Danish Dynaformer.
“I knew Final Copy was going to run well, then they let him get out there and steal the race,” said Attfield, who conditions Final Copy for Chiefswood Stable.
“He’s starting to be a pretty consistent horse. I think he’s sitting on another pretty good race.”
Leading rider Rafael Hernandez will be back aboard Danish Dynaformer, one of six horses in the field slated to carry 118 pounds.
Steven Bahen retains the mount on Final Copy, who will carry 120 pounds.
Looking to disrupt the Attfield tea party will be Johnny Bear, Canada’s champion turf male following a campaign highlighted by an upset victory here in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer at 1 1/2 miles on the grass.
Johnny Bear, owned by the Colebrook Farms of John Brnjas and the Bear Stable of Danny Dion, ran fifth in the Singspiel prep and should benefit from the outing.
Luis Contreras regains the mount on Johnny Bear, who is conditioned by Ashlee Brnjas and will be the 122-pound highweight.
Trainer Mike Maker, who has a string based at Woodbine for the first time this year, had seven of the 21 nominees for the Singspiel this year but will be represented by Camelot Kitten, who was supplemented at a cost of $2,500.
Assistant trainer Nolan Ramsey, who is running the show for Maker here, sent out Camelot Kitten for the Grade 2 Connaught Cup on June 2 but watched the five-year-old end seventh of eight when trying a distance as short as seven furlongs for the first time.
“He’s a full brother to Bobby’s Kitten, who won a Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, and we wanted him go try sprinting because of that pedigree,” said Ramsey, grandson of prominent owners Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey.
While Camelot Kitten’s six career wins have come over 1 1/16 miles or 1 1/8 miles, Ramsey saw positives in the horse’s only try at 1 1/2 miles on the turf. That came in this year’s Grade 3 John B. Connelly at Sam Houston, where Camelot Kitten closed to finish fourth.
“It was an odd race,” said Ramsey. “He was way too far back, and he came running.”
Rounding out the Singspiel field will be Shahroze, Pumpkin Rumble, Seeking Albert and English Illusion.
Shahroze, invading from Fair Hill, Maryland for trainer Graham Motion, is coming off a sharp score over a mile and a quarter of turf at Belmont. The Singspiel will be his stakes debut.
Pumpkin Rumble was offered for the $62,500 price when getting up for a game win in an optional claiming/conditioned allowance race at one mile on the turf here June 3.
The Singspiel Stakes is scheduled as race eight on Saturday’s 1 p.m. program.
$125,000 Singspiel Stakes (Grade 3)
PP/Horse/Jockey/Trainer
1/Camelot Kitten/Patrick Husbands/Michael Maker
2/Shahroze/Alan Garcia/Graham Motion
3/Seeking Albert/David Moran/Mike DePaulo
4/English Illusion/Slade Callaghan/Danny Vella
5/Final Copy/Steven Bahen/Roger Attfield
6/Danish Dynaformer/Rafael Hernandez/Roger Attfield
7/Johnny Bear/Luis Contreras/Ashlee Brnjas
8/Pumpkin Rumble/Eurico Rosa da Silva/Kevin Attard
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