by Tom Musgrave

Marsh Side snapped a losing streak that dated to December 2006 by surging to the lead in early stretch to win the $1,851,250 Pattison Canadian International Stakes (Can-G1) on Saturday at Woodbine.

With his 1 3/4-length win in the 1 1/2-mile turf race, one of four races on Woodbine's Saturday card that were part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series, 29.60-to-1 longshot Marsh Side earned a guaranteed starting spot in the Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Turf (G1) on October 25 at the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park.

Lucarno took the early lead in the ten-horse field, setting the pace through a half-mile in :50.63 and six furlongs in 1:15.61 as Marsh Side was rated in third by jockey Javier Castellano, about two lengths behind the leader. Castellano gave the bay Gone West horse his cue on the turn, and Marsh Side surged to a 1 1/2-length lead in early stretch as Lucarno tired.

Spice Route (GB) and Champs Elysees (GB) rallied gamely from near the back of the pack to challenge Marsh Side, but could not catch the leader, who finished the 1 1/2-mile race in 2:28.73 on firm turf.

Spice Route finished second, a neck in front of Champs Elysees. Doctor Dino (Fr), the 1.35-to-1 favorite, closed from the outside late on the turn but flattened out late and finished fifth.

The win was Marsh Side's first in eight starts since annexing the 2006 Valedictory Stakes at Woodbine. The five-year-old bay horse finished last of 12 in last year's Canadian International and entered off a fourth-place finish to Champs Elysees in the Northern Dancer Turf Stakes Presented by VTech (Can-G1) on September 7 at Woodbine.

Trained by Neil Drysdale for owner-breeder Robert S. Evans, Marsh Side improved to five wins in 18 starts and boosted his earnings to $1,439,706. He is out of the Pleasant Colony mare Colonial Play.

For an Equibase chart, click here.

Tom Musgrave is internet content editor of Thoroughbred Times