TORONTO, July 11 – Crown Isle notched his first added-money win, a 3 ½-length score in Saturday's $150,000 Toronto Cup Stakes.
The dark bay rallied from just off the pace along the inside and opened up impressively in mid-stretch to defeat runner-up Coffee Bar and third-place finisher Hisaki.
Owned by Uphill Stable and trained by John Charalambous, Crown Isle travelled 1 1/8 miles over a “good” turf in 1:48.86.
The Toronto Cup was the first career turf start for the Arch colt, who came into the race off a second-place finish to Stylish Citizen in the Charlie Barley Stakes on June 20.
The Kentucky-bred has two wins and three seconds from six starts.
In striking range early, jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson, who won last year’s Toronto Cup with Secret Getaway, allowed her mount to settle on the backstretch. On the turn, she bided her time as Coffee Bar took the lead.
“Early on, I was doing a lot of looking around, just checking around where everybody was,” said Wilson. “My horse was comfortable and galloping along easy. I was happy with where I was.”
In the stretch, Crown Isle reeled in his rival and drew off for the milestone victory.
“We were waiting for the turf,” said Charalambous. “It just didn’t happen last year. This year we’ve been trying. He got it today.”
Wilson, who has been aboard Crown Isle in all of his starts, was pleased with the effort of the three-year-old.
“He’s a big horse,” noted Wilson. “He’s still a little green. John has done a lot of work with him, prepping him for races in the right sort of way. He likes to look around a bit. Every single time I breezed him this spring we were always chasing horses down the lane and galloping out past the wire. Now he runs through the wire. He pulled away from those horses.”
Crown Isle paid $6.80 and $3.50, combining with Coffee Bar ($5) for a $24.40 exactor. Hisaki rounded out a $198.30 triactor. There was no show wagering.
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