Woodbine Wrap: Long Run Ladies, 'Tune' Wows, and Speed Stays

It was a fantastic week at Woodbine, with several winners, LongRun and the track hosting a tremendous event, and a potential star making his debut.

The first four-day week of the 2024 Woodbine season is over, and while the battle over horse population and race conditions continues, it was encouraging to see 26 different trainers win 34 races last week. On Saturday, with approximately 150 guests attending the annual LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society's Ladies Lunch, each race was won by a different owner and trainer.

The LongRun Ladies Lunch has grown in stature over time. The charity dinner, planned by the LongRun board and presented by Woodbine Entertainment's exquisite food and beverage department led by Christy Fraser, was a big success. Guests enjoyed delicious food and racing, a plethora of prizes, and visits to the announcer's booth to meet Robert Geller and a winning horse in the winner's circle.

In addition, top apprentice and presently leading rider SOFIA VIVES made a special appearance that was well received.

LongRun's annual open house is coming up on June 15.

Tuned In

Anyone paying attention to the work in recent weeks will have noticed the name PLAYMEA TUNE flying about Woodbine. A four-year-old gelding owned and bred by Chiefswood Stable, the son of Maclean's Music, with a long history of workouts extending back to June 2022. The Josie Carroll trainee worked at Payson Park for the first three months of 2023 before being placed on leave until January.

The premiere was well worth the wait.

Playmea Tune settled comfortably for the opening two furlongs of the six-furlong Tapeta race, then moved to the lead three furlongs from home before being set down hard by jockey Kazushi Kimura, who kept the horse active as he opened up an 11-length lead. According to Daily Racing Form, the gelding covered the distance in 109.49 seconds, yielding a massive 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

Maclean's Music went undefeated in three races and received a 114 Beyer in his professional debut. Playmea Tune is out of the mare Fifth Overture, which had 11 other named foals and six winners, including stakes-placed Awesome Overture. Fifth Overture was a sprinter that won the Grade 3 Seaway Stakes.

Stay close

Last week's Tapeta races required you to be near the pace to be successful. Wide ralliers simply did not perform well in most races.

Sunday's victors were MAKE MAGIC, a maiden winner for owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse, and CARLISLE BAY, a two-year-old filly by Speightstown who defeated three competitors in a two-year-old filly event.

On Sunday, multiple weekly winners won races. Ryan Munger won four races, including the Sunday finals on BLAST IN THE SNOW, a grass sprint for trainer Catherine Day Phillips and owner/breeder Lindy Barrow. This is yet another victory for Ontario sire Reload this year.

Alexander Marti, who travelled to Woodbine from western Canada, won two races over the weekend, including one on the three-year-old filly LITTLE TEDDY, a Frac Daddy gal for York Tech Stable and trained by Santino DiPaola.

Apprentice rider PIETRO MORAN returned to racing last week and won three races, while his father David won two.