G3 Jacques Cartier Stakes Preview @ Woodbine | May 30, 2026

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-31

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[00:00:15]>> Hi everyone, David Aragona and Mike Beer here taking a look at the final of a trio of stakes races this Saturday at Woodbine. Race nine is the grade three Jacques Cartier. This one going the six furlong distance on the all-weather course for older horses. We've got three graded stakes this Saturday at Woodbine.

[00:00:32]Want to let you know that there is a new wager linking these three races, a $5 all stakes pick three with a low 15% takeout. So, if you want to take advantage of one of those low takeout, high minimum wagers that are typically very player friendly, you can do so this Saturday at Woodbine. Hopefully Mike and I can give you some give you some ideas of the handicapping of these races. We got stakes previews of all three of these including this Jacques Cartier.

[00:00:54]Let's throw up the field of eight that were entered in this race, Mike, and I thought this was a pretty interesting race to handicap. It handicaps as well and it's fairly wide open. I'll be intrigued to see who actually goes favorite in here because the lukewarm morning line favorite is the number four GT500 and I guess I understand that based on the form that he showed for Mike Maker, but he's in a different stable now and I wonder if he's still going to take that much money for his new barn.

[00:01:17]>> There are There are different ways to go in here. It's hard to knock GT500 just because he just He obviously really likes the all-weather surface and he just keeps showing up and he keeps winning races. Um and so maybe he will be the one to go favorite in here, but his figures have dipped a little bit recently. So, I feel like that could open it up to some other horses taking more money than him.

[00:01:35]>> Yeah, I thought there were cases to be made for almost every horse in this field and as we start to handicap this race, I say almost because I think the one horse that's a little tough to get to in here, Mike, is the number one So Delicious. As we start to go through these contenders, um this horse is just stepping way up in class. Never run a speed figure that makes him remotely competitive against this field and I mean, he's run well in three of his four starts, but they've been against much weaker competition. So, I thought he was the one that was pretty tough to make any sort of case for.

[00:02:01]>> Exactly. I mean, his over his form just in and of itself of itself is fine. He's run pretty well in all of his races.

[00:02:07]They just They just don't really stack up against horses like this.

[00:02:11]>> The number two, Western World. He's the one that is showing a leading on that timeform US pace projector in the lower right-hand portion of the screen. And kind of interesting, Mike, that they're taking the blinkers off this horse after he wore them for his last 11 races and showed a lot of speed with the blinkers, a lot of gate speed. He's always breaking sharply. So, I'll be interested to see if he's quite as sharp in the early stages without them. Maybe they're just trying to get this horse to finish a little better because he's led into the final furlong in I think his last seven races, but he's only won two of them. So, you want to try to get this horse to finish off those races, hold off the closers. That's going to be the key to his fortunes. And here also key is whether he's going to be ready off the layoff because he got pretty good over the course of the 2025 season, but now he's had these 6 months away to deal with.

[00:02:54]>> Yeah, exactly. The layoff is a concern.

[00:02:55]I I thought about the blinker thing, too, David, because there are a There are especially early on there are a bunch of races where he just didn't finish them off. Um That being said, his last three starts on this surface are very clearly the three best races of his life. He's got a lot of speed. Even the loss in the Kennedy Road before the layoff, he ran great in there. I mean, they made him duel the pace all the way in there. Um a really good horse, Noble's, just had a perfect trip and came and out-finished him at the end. But this horse this horse actually ran really well in that race. I thought long and hard about trying to wire the field with this horse.

[00:03:28]>> He should be a square price, especially coming in off that break. The number three is It's Bourbon Thirty. I'll be interested to see what price this horse is, Mike. He's a generous 10-1 in the morning line, but when you isolate his two synthetic races, kind of feels like he's supposed to be one of the favorites in here because he was right there on the wire with GT 500 in the Forego three back. That was his most recent synthetic race at Turfway. Prior to that, he earned a 90-plus buyer winning a high level allowance optional claimer at Turfway. So, just based on those two synthetic sprints, he certainly fits here. And after that, they just tried a really tough spots on the turf in the Shaker Town and the turf sprint on Derby day. So, this is a bit of a drop in class for Its Bourbon 30.

[00:04:06]>> It's probably a better spot for him. And we already know that he can handle Well, we know he can handle all weather.

[00:04:09]Whether he can handle Woodbine's all weather, I guess that's a question he has to answer cuz it doesn't always translate. Um boy, when they switched him over in December though, I thought he ran really well in that race. Got a a really good trip. He's so handy that he can just sort of sit up close. If they go fast, he doesn't have to be involved.

[00:04:24]I really like that win from him. He couldn't get by GT 500 in that four by.

[00:04:29]I guess we'll talk more about that race cuz a few of the these horses were in there. They were just going really slow on the lead in that race. And I have no problem with the with the decision from Machado just to go early and go up and join the pace three wide. He dueled with GT 500. Just couldn't get pushed past him at the end, but uh this horse ran He ran fine in that race.

[00:04:48]>> Trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer has not started a single horse at Woodbine over the last 5 years, but is bringing up this one's regular jockey Luan Machado to ride on Saturday. The number four is GT 500. He was the one that got his head in front of Its Bourbon 30 when they faced off in the four go. That was his win on the synthetic at Turfway this winter.

[00:05:08]Actually, I should say one of his wins because he's a horse that loves that synthetic surface at Turfway. I think he is six for seven in his career over it.

[00:05:16]Only loss came in the Big Daddy two back where he was no match for Joe Shiesty, but that horse has been in great form recently on any surface that they run him. Mike, interesting that they put this horse up for sale after that Big Daddy race in March. Uh he was put in the March digital sale. He was an RNA for $160,000, but I imagine that there was a private sale immediately after that because he showed up for new connections in May at Woodbine. And can't blame some Woodbine connections for wanting to snatch up a horse who has such an affinity for all weather surfaces. But like you said, the Turfway form doesn't always translate up to Woodbine, and he did run on the Woodbine synth last time. We'll take a look at the stretch run of this race, and he has to work pretty hard for this victory. It was going 5 and 1/2. He probably is better going a touch longer, so he gets to work with six furlongs in this Jacques Cartier, but still, I think he's going to have to run a little better than he did in this race to beat this field Saturday.

[00:06:07]>> I agree. I mean, he gets the job done here, but it's it's hardly a compelling performance. I don't We're going to show you the stretch run here, David, but he's just sort of forging on here, and he's going to get up, but this horse He's had a perfect trip in this race, cuz the horses that that finished second and third, they just sort of hooked up and contested the pace in front of him, and this horse was all alone in third.

[00:06:23]He eventually closed them down. I'm not knocking this horse. He He shows up. He runs every single time, and he's really tactical, so he can get the right kind of trip in this race, but um if he is indeed the favorite at post time, I'll probably try to beat this horse.

[00:06:35]>> I kind of think the favorite is supposed to be the number five, Possiblemente, just given the form that he's in right now. I mean, Mike, this horse is razor sharp. You see those three buyers beat figures in a row in the upper 90s. Two of those came in synthetic sprints at Turfway. Like we said, Turfway isn't Woodbine, but I mean, this horse has handled other synthetic surfaces in the past. He used to run well at Gulfstream Park, so that gives you some confidence that he can handle different types of surfaces, and they even switched him back to turf last time in that turf sprint at Churchill Downs. That was an ultra tough spot. He didn't get off very well. He was towards the back of the pack early, but he was absolutely flying down towards the inside in the late stages of that race to get up for fifth, beating just over a length and a half.

[00:07:15]So, this horse has run well in all three of his last starts. It just seems like he's turned into a new animal since they've turned him back to sprint races.

[00:07:22]>> Finally found what he wants to do. He's He's got tactical speed to handle the the turn back, and he's just run really well in each of his last three starts.

[00:07:29]Um I I really liked the the win two starts back. I just thought he ran really well in there. He just always looked like he was going to win, David.

[00:07:36]They just sort of sat right behind the favorite on the lead, and once he got clear in the stretch, he went right by that horse. That was a really compelling performance and then that was a really tough spot last time. He ran well again.

[00:07:46]I'm with you. I I can see this horse being favored in here just based on his last three starts. All of them are good.

[00:07:52]>> The number six Play Me a Tune is another horse who's been pretty good on synthetic surfaces in the past. All five of his career victories have come over the all-weather. But Mike, well this horse hasn't won on turf or dirt. He can handle those surfaces, particularly the dirt. He's run well in a number of races including last time out in the Army Mule where he got pretty far back in the early stages. It was almost like his jockey didn't realize that the race was going to fall apart the way that it did because kind of realized in the final furlong that he better ride this one out to the wire cuz he was really running at the end with some finish, but kind of ran out of ground that day. And then you go back to the forego two starts back where he was beaten by a G2 500 at its Bourbon Derby over the synthetic surface at Turfway. This horse did not get the best trip that day. He was sort of held up towards the back of the pack, was trying to advance on the far turn, found some traffic at the quarter pole, was again stuck in traffic at upper stretch, had to duck back down inside, and there wasn't a whole lot of pace in that race.

[00:08:44]It just did not work out for him, but this horse's best race is on the all-weather and make him awfully tough against this field.

[00:08:49]>> They do. I mean it's he it's he was a tough call for me, David, cuz I just I I I looked at a bunch of his races from last year.

[00:08:57]I just I just don't think that he was running that well um in some tougher stakes races. I mean this horse he started out four for four or three for four on the all-weather surface up here and he hasn't been winning races recently. And he is a horse to me trips are really important to him. And I he doesn't always get them. And that forego you were talking about, yeah, they did not go fast early in there and he was trying to close.

[00:09:20]And he made it he might have lost position early, but he was also under an all-out drive around the turn chasing that pace just trying to keep up. I didn't like that about him. Um you know, we'll see what kind of trip he can pull in here. I know he's good enough to win this race, but he's three to one on the morning line and I think trips are more important to this horse than to anybody else in here. And so that sort of turned me off to them a little bit.

[00:09:42]>> Yeah, the the positioning on the pace projector is a concern, Mike, because I think it's accurate. He just lacks rolling speed, and he's not a good gate horse. So, he's not going to do him any favors at the start. But, I do think that he's got the ability to win a race like this. We'll just see if they come back to him in the stretch. The number seven is Live Spirit. She is a mare facing off against the boys here. Kind of an interesting placement by the new connections now going out for Kevin Attard. She had spent a long time in the Steve Asmussen barn. And Mike, based on a lot of her races for Steve Asmussen, I can't say that I ever thought she was a horse that could stack up against a field like this, but she did run pretty well off that trip as which to Kevin Attard last time in the Whimsical. We'll take a look at the stretch run of this race, and yes, she was facing her own sex this day, but the horse that beats her, Reagan's Flame, is pretty good. And Live Spirit, you can see she makes the first move to kind of reach the front in the stretch. Can't quite go with the winner's late kick, but she put some separation between herself and the rest of the field. She gets a career best 90 buyer for this performance, and she's another one of these that has shown that she really has an affinity for all-weather surfaces.

[00:10:43]>> Yeah, her last two races are both really, really good. The win two starts back, the stakes win, and then that race right there. I mean, she was only second best in there. But, as you pointed out, the winner of that race is a recent convert to the synthetic surfaces, and she's just run two huge races since they switched her over. So, it feels like it feels like she has a chance to be pretty good.

[00:11:01]>> Rounding out this field on the outside is the number eight Awesome Bourbon.

[00:11:04]This horse got really good in the second half of the 2025 season. He won three races in a row, all on the turf, but he earned some big buyer speed figures along the way. Went back to synthetic at the end of the season in the Kennedy Road. We'll take a look at the stretch run of this race. Mike mentioned earlier that Western World is another horse that's coming out of this race. Western World is the one down on the rail that's fading out, but the horse highlighted in that oval is Awesome Bourbon, the horse that we're talking about. it. can see right here, he's kind of held up behind horses, has to, you know, get side needs slightly before switching out in mid-stretch. Uh I don't know if I totally agree with the short comment that he had a tough trip, Mike, but um he does get through at the end here. It tightens up once again right at the wire. I don't know how much it really cost him. There was a disqualification in this race, so he got elevated up to second. Um if this horse is ready to get back to his best races off the layoff, I suppose he has a chance here, though. Um I will say, Mike, I looked up some stats for this trainer. 120 plus day layoffs over the past 5 years, one for 58. So, that casts some doubt on this horse being ready off the bench.

[00:12:06]>> Yeah, seems like yeah, maybe he gives them one uh before they really get ready. We'll see if he does. He was, as you pointed out, he was in good form uh at the end of last year. The race that we just watched there that Kennedy rode, he did he ran well again, but I'm kind of with you. I'm not going to give him the tough trip excuse there. He was getting sucked into that race along the rail because they were dueling in front of him, and he did get in tight in the stretch, and maybe it cost him the win.

[00:12:26]But if if he had won that race, it would have been with a perfect trip into a duel.

[00:12:31]>> Let's go to our picks for this Jacques Cartier. Reminder, this does conclude that $5 base all stakes pick three with a 15% takeout. If you want to view our other videos to get some ideas for how to put a ticket together this Saturday.

[00:12:45]Mike, let's see where you went in this Jacques Cartier. Tough race to handicap, and you're going to land on the number three. It's Bourbon 30, a horse with some of that synthetic form from Turfway.

[00:12:53]>> Yeah, I thought about putting a lot of different horses on top in this race. I think ultimately what led me to this horse is I just like both of his his last two races on the all-weather surface down at Turfway. So, I like him switching back. I think he can get the right trip in here, and I I feel like he should be at least a fair price in this race. I I was going to put Possible mente on top, but I think he might go favorite in here, and I don't want the favorite.

[00:13:13]>> Yeah, I was struggling with which horse to put on top among the three that I've got as my top three picks. Like you, I think Possible mente could be favored, so I've got him in the second slot. I took a long look at Live Spirit, and I ended up putting the number six Play Me a Tune on top. He needs some things to go right because, like Mike said he doesn't have that early speed but I do think his best synthetic races do make him one of the most talented horses in this field. 6 5 7 3 for me and 3 5 1 6 for Mike in race 9 at Woodbine this Saturday the grade 3 Jacques Cartier.

[00:13:41]Good luck if you're playing the races this weekend.