Honored as champion 3-year-old male in Canada last year following a King's Plate-winning campaign, Paramount Prince is on his way toward another Sovereign Award-caliber season this year at age 4.
The chestnut Society's Chairman gelding notched his third victory in four starts in 2024 by cruising to a front-running 5 1/2-length score over Stanley House in the CA$206,500 Seagram Cup Stakes (G2) July 27 at Woodbine. The win was the second in a graded stakes this summer at the Canadian track for the Mark Casse trainee following a 3 3/4-length triumph in the June 29 Dominion Day Stakes (G3).
"He's having so much fun right now," jockey Patrick Husbands said. "He's enjoying everything coming over here and he's growing up, he's getting bigger and bigger. He's the type of horse who has got a high cruising speed. He's just got one ear forward and one ear back. You can play with him, the more you push him the faster he goes. He's turned out to be a nice horse."
Stanley House, whose bid to challenge Paramount Prince was turned aside on the second turn, gamely outfinished Wicked Django for the place.
Paramount Prince, bred in Ontario by Ericka Rusnak out of the Eddington mare Platinum Steel, was a US$16,648 purchase by Mike Langlois at the 2021 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario Division) Canadian-Bred Yearling Sale. Gary Barber joined him as a co-owner in Paramount Prince after the speedy gelding flashed talent at age 2. He is now 6-for-12.
"There's just something about him. He's an incredible horse. They don't come like that every day," Langlois said. "Being new in the race business, I know how lucky we are and how blessed we are to have such an amazing horse."
Society's Chairman stood this past season at Shannondoe Farm for CA$6,000.
Video: Seagram Cup S. (G2)
Casse Adds The Ontario Colleen With Time to Dazzle
A race before the Seagram Cup, Tracy's Farmer's Time to Dazzle lived up to her name in the CA$137,270 Ontario Colleen Stakes (G3T) by busting out to a clear early lead and running away with the one-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies.
Challenged neither early nor late, Time to Dazzle cruised under the finish line 4 1/2 lengths in front of Simply in Front. The Casse trainee blitzed a mile on a firm E. P. Taylor Turf Course in 1:33.57 following splits of :24.13, :47.07, and 1:09.81.
"I wasn't expecting her to be on the lead, but she popped out really good, and she was comfortable up there," jockey Sahin Civaci said.
With Saturday's victory, her first in stakes company, she improved to 3-for-6. Civaci is now 2-for-2 aboard her, having also ridden her to a debut score at Woodbine last September.
"She's matured a lot," he said.
Uphill Dance grabbed third, and Tripolina was fourth.
The winner, a gray or roan daughter of Not This Time , who stood this past breeding season for $150,000 at Taylor Made Stallions, paid US$24.70 for a $2 win bet. Bred by Dr. Rodney Orr in Kentucky out of the Unbridled's Song's mare Staria, she was a US$310,000 purchase by her owner from the Paramount Sales consignment at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
