Woodbine Mile: Wise Dan has final breeze

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wise Dan, the defending champion and marquee player, is slated to arrive early Friday morning for Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile.

Trained by Charlie LoPresti, Wise Dan breezed four furlongs in 48.20 seconds at his Keeneland base Tuesday morning, six days after breezing five furlongs there in 59 and galloping out six furlongs in 1:11.

“He’s really fit and ready to go,” LoPresti said. “Maybe we’ll take him over to the paddock and school him, and he will have a gallop day, probably on Saturday like we did last year.”

Also remaining on target for the Woodbine Mile are Za Approval, based in New York; Dimension, from Kentucky; and Trade Storm, from England. Locals expected to run are Excaper and Riding the River.

The Woodbine Mile on turf heads a four-stakes card that also includes the Grade 1, $500,000 Northern Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up; the Grade 2, $300,000 Canadian, a 1 1/8-mile turf race for fillies and mares; and the Grade 3, $150,000 Ontario Derby, a 1 1/8-mile Polytrack race for a 3-year-olds.

Ontario Derby: B E Boston Strong breezes

B E Boston Strong, a recent private purchase by Carlo and Lou Tucci, breezed five furlongs in 1:00.60 on the main track here Tuesday in preparation for the Ontario Derby.

“He breezed very, very well,” said Martha Gonzalez, wife and assistant to B E Boston Strong’s trainer, Nick Gonzalez.

B E Boston Strong, bred in Ontario by Chuck Fipke, was at Woodbine last year with trainer Roger Attfield and worked a number of times over the local Polytrack under the name Soul of Rahfee.

Sold to New England interests, the newly christened B E Boston Strong started twice on the dirt at Suffolk Downs this summer and is coming off a 10 1/4-length maiden win over six furlongs that yielded a Beyer Speed Figure of 83.

Jesse Campbell was aboard for the breeze and has the call for the Ontario Derby.

Martha Gonzalez also reports that the barn is keeping its options open with River Seven, another 3-year-old gelding owned by the Tuccis who is nominated to both the Woodbine Mile and the Ontario Derby.

“We’re still debating on where we’re running,” she said. “He’s doing well and everything. We just want to do the right thing by him.”

River Seven is coming off a second-place finish here Aug. 18 in the Breeders’ Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile race that was his first on turf.

Canadian: Pure Blue Sky gallops

Pure Blue Sky galloped over the E.P. Taylor turf course here Tuesday morning under exercise rider Dean Deverell with an eye toward Sunday’s Canadian, which is a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

“Every time she goes over the turf, she gets a little better,” said Sam DiPasquale, who trains Pure Blue Sky for Murray Stroud, Tom Rootham, and Gordon Clarke. “She’s got the pedigree for turf, but she didn’t take to it at first.”

Pure Blue Sky, a Kentucky-bred 4-year-old, is coming off a third-place finish in the Flaming Page, a 1 1/2-mile overnight turf stakes for fillies and mares here Aug. 14.