Selene Preview: Our Flash Drive Steps Up, Stretches Out

TORONTO, ON – Fresh off a maiden-breaking effort in his local debut June 19, Live Oak Plantation homebred Our Flash Drive steps up and stretches out to route for the first time in Saturday’s $150,000 Selene Stakes (G3) at Woodbine.

The Selene is a 1 1/16-mile synthetic route restricted to 3-year-old fillies. This year’s edition is the seventh event on an 11-race card and has a local post time of 4:21 PM.

Here’s a look at the full field for the Selene:

1. Gote Go 2/1 – She returns to synthetic for the first time since rallying from well off the pace and breaking her maiden over this course and distance last November. She contested a trio of 1 1/16-mile allowance turf routes at Keeneland and Churchill Downs, winning the most recent attempt, and reunites with Scott Bahen, who piloted her to the aforementioned maiden victory. Trainer Roger Attfield wins 14% when his runners make similar surface swaos.

2. California Lily 3/1 – She returned from a 3-month layoff to finish third by 3/4 of a length in the local 6-furlong Star Shoot Stakes and has a synthetic surface record of 4-2-0-1, including a maiden-breaking debut victory here last October. Last year’s meet-leading rider Rafael Hernandez returns from time off due to injury and wins 29% as the usual first-call rider for trainer Mark Casse, who entered three in this field and has a 17% win rate so far this meet.

3. Our Flash Drive 7/2 – She failed to menace in a pair of dirt sprints at Saratoga last summer, then took 10 months away from the race track before returning to win a local 7-furlong sprint by 3 3/4 lengths last month. Patrick Husbands, aboard for the first time that day, retains the mount and wins 18% when riding for Casse, whose barn connects at 21% with runners making their second starts back after similar layoffs. She fired a bullet 4-furlong work in :46.60 here July 2.

4. Il Malocchio 6/1 – The Ontario-bred returns to Woodbine and trainer Martin Drexler after putting together a 3-0-1-1 record for Kenny McPeek while attempting to impact the Kentucky Oaks (G1) trail. She started her career here with Drexler, putting together to a 4-1-2-0 record that included a runner-up finish in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes over this course and distance. Drexler and new jockey Kazushi Kimura have won 18% together with a $2.25 ROI since 2020.

5. Sweet Souper Sweet 10/1 – Bearing the same owner silks as Our Flash Drive, she hails from the barn of Mike Trombetta, who saddled her to a pair of synthetic sprint victories in 2020 including a local 5-furlong event on debut last June. She returned from 7 months off to finish a decent fourth in the Star Shoot and should be much sharper with the rust knocked off. Trombetta’s runners win 29% with a $4.08 when making their second starts back after similar breaks.

6. Danger 15/1 – Casse’s third runner makes her Woodbine debut after breaking her maiden at Turfway Park last December in what was her first start on synthetic. Though she has a long layoff to overcome, Casse wins 16% with horses returning from comparable time off and wins 17% with new rider Emma-Jayne Wilson. Her damsire Sidney’s Candy won 3 graded stakes on synthetic in 2010, including the Santa Anita Derby (G1).

7. Munnyfor Ro 8/1 – She returns to Kevin Attard, who handled her for 2 starts in 2020 before she transferred to Brian Lynch’s barns in Florida and Kentucky. She broke her maiden at fifth asking in a 1 1/8-mile Keeneland turf route and was most recently sixth in the Regret Stakes (G3), held at that same distance on Churchill Downs’ lawn. That was her first career start without Lasix, which she’ll receive again here, and Attard wins 24% in graded stakes.