Casse Exacta Upsets $100,000 Star Shoot

TORONTO, ON – A pair of Mark Casse trainees upset the heavily-favored Dream It Is on Saturday when Sly Beauty edged out stablemate Closer Still in an exciting stretch run to win the $100,000 Star Shoot Stakes at Woodbine.

Breaking from the rail under Eurico Da Silva, Sly Beauty saved ground along the inside while Closer Still outran Dream It Is to the early lead, posting splits of :22.85 and :45.50. Off of the far turn, Dream It Is made her bid to the outside of the leader, but Closer Still fought back gamely. Unbeknownst to either of the front-running duo, Da Silva pulled Sly Beauty off of the rail and commenced a rally while widest of all. As Closer Still disposed of Dream It Is, Sly Beauty charged hard down the middle of the track, prevailing in the shadow of the wire to win by a 1/2-length in a final time of 1:10.03 for the 6-furlong sprint over the all-weather synthetic surface.

“I gave her a big warm up and the last 1/4 (mile) was tough,” Da Silva said. “She was running off with me and I was very close to clipping a heel there one time. Finally, in the turn, she gave me a little break, and when I swung outside, she just took off from there. She ran a big race. I think she’s very, very talented. I really liked the way she ran, and I think you’re going to see her more times here (in the winner’s circle).”

Dream It Is faded to finish third, beating Magic Spell by only a 1/2-length at the wire. Wild Lute was the remaining runner to complete the order of finish.

Sly Beauty’s win was her first since breaking her maiden here at second asking on June 18, 2017. The 3-year-old daughter of Into Mischief improved her record to 5-2-0-0 with career earnings of $80,761 for owner/breeder Debby Oxley.

“She can be a little nervous, and I think Eurico did a good job in warm up,” said assistant trainer Kathryn Sullivan. “Nothing phases him too much, so he was pretty relaxed on her. It was a little bit tight in there, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he just never gave up on her. He had a lot of confidence, which I think helped a lot.”

Sly Beauty returned $24.50 to win and $12.10 to place, while Closer Still paid $5.40 to place. There was no show betting.