#HORSERACING: 2015 WOODBINE MILE + ROCK N’ RACING FESTIVAL!

Sunday marks a huge day in Woodbine Racetrack‘s 2015 Racing Season with the $1-million RICOH WOODBINE MILE to be run over one of the World’s finest turf courses.

Despite making the headlines as two-time American Horse of the Year WISE DAN‘s big return to the races, it was just announced that the champion has been retired due to an injury.  Still expect it to be a superb race with a strong local contingent and some outstanding horses invading Canada for a shot at that huge purse money!

Your probable field for the one-mile turf race:

Grand Arch
Kaigun
Lea 
Mondialiste (IRE)
Mr. Owen
Obviously
Platinum Glory
Reporting Star
Tower of Texas
Turncoat
Za Approval

OBVIOUSLY has competed against top-class competition in California earning $1.4 million and will be making the Woodbine Mile is seasonal debut. LEA also is mighty-classy, having run against the top-shelf opposition in the U.S. and certainly in the thick of things with $2.03 million in earnings.  MONDIALISTE also is shipping-in from England and coming-off two important wins in 2015. French three-year-old colt MR. OWEN is eyeing the Woodbine Mile after an impressive win in France earlier this month.

Don’t discount Toronto boys though!  GRAND ARCH is Woodbine-based mostly, before having achieved success in the U.S. and comes off a win in the important Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga in New York. REPORTING STAR wowed many of us recently with a gutsy win in the Play the King Stakes at Woodbine, beating-out local favourites TOWER OF TEXAS and KAIGUN.  Meanwhile, ZA APPROVAL (now based at Woodbine after spending much of his career in the U.S.) ran second to WISE DAN back in 2013 in this very race, en route to an identical placing in the important Breeders’ Cup Turf Mile that year too.

There will be lots of excitement on the undercard also with the $300k Northern Dancer Stakes which will see the hero of last month’s Breeders’ Stakes, DANISH DYNAFORMER, take-on older competition in that 1 1/2 mile turf race. This is seen as a test of his class.

Fillies and mares also will be looking for an automatic birth in the Racing’s championship day, the Breeders’ Cup this November, with a win in the $300k Canadian Stakes and it looks to be a tough one with  OVERHEARD up against French filly UCHENNA. Talented Irish-bred and American-based WATSDACHANCES, who recently won the important Beverly D Stakes at Arlington Park in Illinois, also likely will be shipping in.

Top local sprinter CALGARY CAT looks also to solidify his case as one of the best horses in the country in the Bold Venture Stakes, where he will face English-bred filly ENDLESS LIGHT.

Did you know also Woodbine is hosting a Rock N’ Racing Festival with lots of live music for you to enjoy? Acts like Rynheart, The Honest Heart Collective, Aukland, Highs and JJ and The Pillars will be playing, with The Edge 102.1 Hosts Melani Mariani and Wade MacNeil in attendance too!

Admission and parking are free, you get a pair of sunglasses free and your first bet is on them (head to the third floor to get ’em)! It all starts at 12! For directions, click here.

For more on Woodbine Mile Day, click here.

And don’t forget to take a Selfie from Woodbine Racetrack on Woodbine Mile Day and post on Twitter with the Hashtags #WOMile and #OfftotheRaces, for a shot at a prize of $1k!  So easy!

Although we’re swamped with TIFF, we’ll be sure to be at Woodbine this coming Sunday, September 13, 2015!

And one for Wise Dan, who will be missed!

(Photo credit: Mr. Will Wong)