Strong return from Fifty Proof earns him Sir Barton Stakes after long layoff
It was an all out approach from Canada’s champion older male of 2011, Fifty Proof, to take the $127,321 Sir Barton Stakes after coming off a 16-layoff, and marked his return a winning one at Woodbine Racecourse on 2 December, 2012.
The 6-year-old gelded son of Whiskey Wisdom, Fifty Proof, displayed a front running performance in massive field of 12 Ontario bred older horses, and it was an impressive performance as the Ian Black trained gelding had never competed since posting a second
place finish in the Canadian Grade 2 Nijinsky Stakes over Woodbine’s turf course on 24 July, 2011.
The Sir Barton Stakes was run over the distance of 1 1/16 miles, and over the venue’s Polytrack, Fifty Proof took 1 minute and 43.46 seconds to complete the distance, and kept Head Honcho adrift by a convincing margin of 1 ¼ lengths.
Under jockey Justin Stein, the dup broke alertly from the gate and went on to dictate the pace, which wasn’t a blistering one as they covered the opening quarter mile in 24.39 seconds, half mile in 48.38 seconds, and six furlongs in 1 minute and 12.36 seconds.
Among 11 males, was Moonlit Beauty, the only female who was taking on boys for the first time in her career. She stalked the pace from second position under jockey Eurico Da Silva.
Swinging off the final bend, Bobcaygeon and Head Honcho were shaken up to come off the pace, but did not faze Eurico Da Silva, who urged Fifty Proof to get into high gear, and the gelding responded by opening up a 3 ½ length lead in the stretch.
It was smooth sailing onwards, as Head Honcho grabbed the second place finish over Bobcaygeon by 2 ½ lengths.
“He was just good enough that he didn’t have to be (at his best), but they ran really fast too,” said Black. “He’s a very good horse, that’s the bottom line.”
“He’ll go to Florida soon and we’ll look at some turf races,” said Black. “He’s trained on the dirt, but he’s never run on it. He’s a very good ‘Poly’ horse, but he loves the turf.”
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