Competitive stakes highlight Queen's Plate undercard

Eight distaffers will kick off the stakes action on Queen's Plate Day at

Woodbine Sunday in the Grade 2, C$200,000

Dance Smartly, which shares the undercard with the Grade 2, C$200,000

Highlander and Grade 3, C$150,000

Singspiel.

The 155th edition of the C$1 million Queen's Plate for sophomores is the

highlight on the day, but before that historic contest takes place older runners

will get their turn in the spotlight.

A contentious group has been entered to go nine furlongs over the Woodbine

turf in the Dance Smartly, including Grade 3 heroine Overheard. The Macho Uno

four-year-old will be making just her second start of the year after missing by

only a head in the Miss Liberty at Monmouth Park on May 26. She closed out her

three-year-old campaign with a one-length victory in Keeneland's Valley View for

trainer Malcolm Pierce and has yet to finish worse than third in 11 career

starts.

Overheard will keep jockey Eurico Da Silva, aboard for her past six, in the

irons for Sunday's race.

Pierce will also saddle the lightly raced Deceptive Vision in the Dance

Smartly. The A.P. Indy four-year-old will try stakes company for the second

straight time following a third in the Nassau on May 25. That snapped a

three-race win streak the bay miss began when breaking her maiden in January

2013. Patrick Husbands has the call.

Trainer Mark Casse will be sending out Industrial Policy for her second go

around against stakes rivals on Sunday. The four-year-old daughter of Harlan's

Holiday placed in six straight maiden contests before finally breaking through

in her seventh attempt last August at Saratoga while under the tutelage of

conditioner Chad Brown. Only after Industrial Policy finished fourth in the May

26 Miss Liberty did she find herself heading north to Casse's barn. Javier

Castellano will be aboard as the dark bay filly tries to debut a winner for her

new shedrow.

Also with a chance in the Dance Smartly are dual stakes winner Surtsey,

Valley View runner-up English Class and multiple stakes-placed Savvy Hester.

Theatre Star and Precarious complete the field.

A few races later, 10 turf runners will sprint six furlongs in the

Highlander, including Something Extra and Mr. Online.

That duo met last out in the Connaught Cup, a race Something Extra was trying

to win for a third straight time. Alas, it wasn't meant to be as the Indian

Charlie gelding was caught in the final yards and had to settle for second. The

Gail Cox pupil entered that race off his six-year-old debut in Keeneland's

Shakertown, where he finished a nice third in what was his first start in nine

months.

Something Extra will try to get back on the winning track in the Highlander

with Da Silva staying in the saddle.

Mr. Online ran fourth in the Connaught Cup on May 31, but was only beaten 1

1/2 lengths by the winner. Before that the Mike Pino charge just missed when

second by a neck in both the Appleton and Canadian Turf at Gulfstream Park. The

five-year-old gelded son of Silent Name closed out 2013 with a head win in the

El Prado, his only stakes triumph to date, and gets Castellano in the irons

Sunday to help his chances at a second black-type victory.

Something Extra and Mr. Online have their work cut out for them in the

Highlander as they face not only each other but Canadian champion sprinter

Phil's Dream, Grade 2 stars Bear No Joke and Havelock, and Grade 3 conqueror

Occasional View. Lockout, Stormy Rush, Sparrowhawk and Awesome Eclipse round out

the field.

Sandwiched between the Dance Smartly and Highlander is the Singspiel

featuring a field of six going 1 1/2 miles on Woodbine's turf. Grade 1-placed

multiple stakes winner Dynamic Sky will duke it out with Canadian champion turf

male Forte Dei Marmi, who also happens to be going for a title defense in the

race.

Dynamic Sky dropped his first starts of the season, but the Casse trainee

rebounded last out to finish second, but elevated to first via disqualification,

in a 10-furlong allowance on Woodbine's Polytrack. The Sky Mesa four-year-old

ran third in last year's Queen's Plate, which also was his final start of the

year, and will be trying turf for the first time in the Singspiel.

Forte Dei Marmi romped in the 2013 edition of the Singspiel by 6 1/4 lengths,

then defended his title in the Sky Classic by 2 1/4 lengths. A neck victory in

the Northern Dancer Turf helped propel the Selkirk eight-year-old to a Sovereign

Award as Canada's top turf male, but he hasn't shown the same spark in three

starts thus far this year.

The Roger Attfield-trained gelding ran fifth in a Keeneland allowance on

April 5, returned 20 days later to fill the seventh spot in the Elkhorn at that

track and was fourth in Churchill Downs' Louisville Handicap in late May. Forte

Dei Marmi could use this one to get back to his winning ways.

Hampstead Heath, Quaesitor, Perfect Timber and Aldous Snow are also entered

in the Singspiel.

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