by Myra Lewyn

Lawrence Goichman’s homebred J’ray could parlay her late-running style into her first win at the highest level on Saturday in the $1-million E. P. Taylor Stakes (Can-G1) at Woodbine.

The five-year-old Distant View mare is the 5-to-2 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/4-mile turf race. She enters off consecutive graded stakes wins, most recently posting a last-to-first rally under Joe Bravo on yielding turf in the Canadian Stakes (Can-G2) on September 7.

The chestnut mare unleashed a strong closing bid behind ten opponents and overhauled E. P. Taylor entrant Callwood Dancer (Ire) leaving the sixteenth pole for a one-length win in the 1 1/8-mile race at the Toronto track.

“I’d say this filly has really got good,” Bravo said after the Canadian Stakes. “She saved all her energy until the turn for home. She exploded and really showed her true colors.”

The convincing triumph followed a win from well off the pace in the Taylor Made Matchmaker Stakes (G3) on August 3 at Monmouth Park.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, J’ray placed in two other stakes among seven starts this season, including the Suwannee River Handicap (G3) in her 2008 bow at Gulfstream Park. A win in the E. P. Taylor on Saturday would earn her a starting spot in the $2-million Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) on October 24 at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park as part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” series.

J’ray is not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup and her connections would have to supplement her at a cost of 9% of the purse—$180,000—should they decide to send her west.

Callwood Dancer has won three of five starts this season while racing exclusively at Woodbine, including a front-running win in the Nassau Stakes (Can-G2) on May 31 and an allowance victory on August 14 in her start prior to the Canadian Stakes.

Trained by Roger Attfield, she is seeking her first Grade 1 win.

Sealy Hill, Canada’s reigning Horse of the Year, has only an allowance win in July at Woodbine among five starts this year. She finished third in the Nassau Stakes.

Other contenders include Godolphin Racing’s French Group 2 winner Folk Opera (Ire), who will make her North American debut; multiple graded stakes winner Hostess; Toque de Queda (GB), the third-place finisher in the Beverly D. Stakes (G1) on August 9 at Arlington Park; and Royal Pleasure, who enters off back-to-back stakes wins.

Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor

The field, in post-position order, with (sire), jockey, weight, trainer, and morning-line odds:

1. Sealy Hill (Point Given), Patrick Husbands, 123, Mark E. Casse, 8-to-1;

2. J'ray (Distant View), Joe Bravo, 123, Todd A. Pletcher, 5-to-2;

3. Classy Landlady (Sky Classic), Tyler Pizarro, 123, Michael J. Doyle, 20-to-1;

4. Folk Opera [IRE] (Singspiel [IRE]), Lanfranco Dettori, 123, Saeed bin Suroor, 4-to-1;

5. Toque de Queda [GB] (Dansili [GB]), Garrett K. Gomez, 123, Mikel Delzangles, 7-to-2;

6. Green Lyons [IRE] (Green Desert), Jimmy Fortune, 123, Neil D. Drysdale, 15-to-1;

7. Callwood Dancer [IRE] (Danehill Dancer [IRE]), Eurico Rosa Da Silva, 123, Roger L. Attfield, 10-to-1;

8. Royal Pleasure (Royal Academy), Rosemary B. Homeister, Jr., 123, Jonathan E. Sheppard, 15-to-1; and

9. Hostess (Chester House), Javier Castellano, 123, H. James Bond, 6-to-1.