TORONTO — Kevin Attard has some tough decisions to make.
The Canadian trainer has four horses slated to chase two berths into the 2023 Breeders' Cup this weekend at Woodbine Racetrack. Trouble is, two of them — fillies Bolt Enoree and Airosa — are currently entered in both the $500,000 Grade 1 bet365 Summer Stakes and the $500,000 Grade 1 Johnny Walker Natalma Stakes, that go Saturday on the card highlighted by the $1-million Ricoh Woodbine Mile.
What Attard and the respective connections must decide is exactly what race to put those horses into. The Natalma Stakes is for two-year-old fillies while the Summer Stakes is for two-year-olds.
Both turf races cover a mile.
Airosa has won her last two starts — both on grass — after finishing fourth to begin her racing career. Bolt Enoree has a victory (over the boys in her debut in May) from three starts.
The Natalma winner will earn a spot in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, a Grade 1 event covering a mile. The Summer Stakes champion will secure entry into the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, also over a mile.
The 2023 Breeders Cup will be held Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita in California.
"I'm going to give the owners a chance to go over the races then we'll put some notes together and decide what's best individually for each horse," Attard said during a telephone interview Thursday. "We can play it out a little bit and see."
The expectation is Attard and the connections will reach their final decisions sometime Saturday.
Attard's racing resume is an impressive one, with the King's Plate, Woodbine Oaks, Prince of Wales and E.P. Taylor Stakes among his list of victories. But adding a Breeders' Cup title would certainly be a crowning achievement.
"Being Canadian, the King's Plate means a lot," Attard said. "But if you get lucky enough to win a Breeders' Cup, that might surpass the Plate just because you're on a world stage.
"No disrespect to the Plate because when you win that race you're getting calls internationally from people congratulating you. But obviously at the Breeders' Cup, it's best meets best all across the world."
Attard likened the Breeders' Cup-King's Plate comparison to AHL players striving to reach the NHL.
"If you're a hockey player, at the end of the day that's what you're looking at, right, to play in the NHL," he said. "The Breeders' Cup, that's the ultimate goal."
Attard's other entries Saturday include Rhapsody, a Kentucky-bred two-year-old filly, and Bucyk, a Canadian-bred two-year-old colt. Rhapsody is entered in the Natalma while Bucyk will run in the Summer Stakes.
Regardless of how Bolt Enoree, Airosa and Bucyk fare this weekend, all three hold great promise for 2024 in both the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks (for fillies) and King's Plate.
"At the end of the day, at the sale you're buying Canadian-breds for the long-term and that's the King's Plate and Canadian Oaks," Attard said. "A lot of these pedigrees have a turf influence and having Breeders' Cup win-and-you're-in races in your own backyard is something to strive for.
"That's our biggest goal with them … to try and get them to these races and earn a berth into the Breeders' Cup if they're good enough. If they're a Canadian-bred, it's just a bonus because down the road we look at the Canadian classics."
Attard is especially bullish, though, on what could lie ahead for Airosa and Bolt Enoree.
"I think Airosa is a very special horse, she's definitely talented enough to get to the Breeders' Cup," he said. "We've been pretty high on her from the get-go … now that we've stretched her out in distance she seems to have taken a liking to the turf and is definitely proving to be the horse we really expected her to be.
"Bolt Enoree is also a very nice filly who has a very bright future as well. I honestly think with a better trip she's a potential upset wherever she is, be it in the boys' race or fillies' race Saturday."
And having Breeders' Cup win-and-you're-in races on the home track certainly gives Woodbine-based horses an advantage.
"For sure," Attard said. "You don't have to put your horse into a van, you kind of just walk out of your barn right over to the frontside.
"Your horses are accustomed to it, it's a very big bonus. I think we're fortunate here to have those kind of races here and with Woodbine's turf course, it's a no-brainer why."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2023.
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press