A pair of cats favored for 77th Canadian International
Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) – Brown Panther and Big Blue Kitten have been made the two favorites for Sunday’s $1 million Canadian International to be run over Woodbine’s E. P. Taylor turf course at 1 1/2 miles.
Brown Panther, trained by Tom Dascombe, comes in from Europe and is the 2-1 morning line favorite with Richard Kingscote slated to ride from post 4. Big Blue Kitten is the 3-1 second pick for trainer Chad Brown and owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey. The 6-year-old will break from post 9 in the 10-horse field with leading jockey Joel Rosario in the saddle.
The last four runnings of the International have been won by horses coming in from overseas, with Joshua Tree claiming the last two editions along with the 2010 race.
Brown Panther comes into the International off a victory in the Irish St Leger at the Curragh in Ireland. The 6-year-old, trained by Tom Dascombe, won the 1 3/4-mile stakes by 6 1/2 lengths as a 14-1 longshot.
“It was a hugely exciting day and the race went absolutely to plan,” said Dascombe. “It was a thrilling result as it was my first Group 1 winner and something I’ll always remember.”
Brown Panther, owned by Andrew Black and former star English footballer Michael Owen, has earned $1,106,547 with 10 wins, four seconds and three thirds from 24 career starts.
“He’s won two listed races over a mile and a half and he was just beaten about four lengths in the (Group 1) King George over a mile and a half,” noted Dascombe about Brown Panther. “As long as there’s a nice pace in the race it won’t bother him. He won’t want a crawl.”
Former United Nations Handicap winner Big Blue Kitten will be making his debut at Woodbine in Sunday’s International.
Big Blue Kitten posted wins last year in the United Nations and Sword Dancer sandwiched between runner-up finishes in the Monmouth Stakes and Turf Classic at Belmont Park. He finished eighth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf.
This season, Big Blue Kitten won the Lure at Saratoga followed by a second in Monmouth’s Cliff Hanger and fourth in the Turf Classic.
“It was a little disappointing,” Brown said about the Turf Classic on Sept. 27. “We really liked him going into the race. There wasn’t a lot of pace in the race. It wasn’t a bad effort but it wasn’t a winning effort, either. But he came out of the race in great shape, he’s training well.”
Big Blue Kitten has won half of his 22 career starts for $1,288,530.
Here is the field for the International in post position order: O’Prado Ole, Channing Hill, 20-1; The Pizza Man, Florent Geroux, 6-1; Suntracer, Carlos Marquez Jr., 12-1; Brown Panther, Richard Kingscote, 2-1; Dynamic Sky, Patrick Husbands, 15-1; War Dancer, Luis Contreras, 12-1; Hillstar, Ryan Moore, 5-1; Pyrite Mountain, Jamie Spencer, 12-1; Big Blue Kitten, Joel Rosario, 3-1 and Reporting Star, Justin Stein, 20-1.
The International will have an approximate post time of 3:32 p.m. ET and will be aired live on TSN.
Categorized in: Horses