Patricia's Hope's Nobals made another trip north of the border to run on the Woodbine Tapeta, and he will return home to Chicago having repeated in the $127,026 Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) Nov. 15. Trained by Larry Rivelli, the 2023 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) winner won his third race in four starts over the surface.
Breaking from the rail, jockey Rafael Hernandez planned to challenge expected pacesetter Western Whirl, but when Ryan Munger decided to apply pressure with Reload's Rascal, he instead pulled back to stalk from third.
After fractions of :22.26 and :44.85, Hernandez had to get to work on the far turn, but once he got out and leveled off in the stretch he overpowered the pacesetters. Lucky Score came with a late run, but came up a half-length short at the wire as Nobals completed 6 furlongs in 1:09.85. He paid $3.80 to win.
"It set up perfect, the horse loves this track," Hernandez told Woodbine publicity. "You can do whatever you want with the horse. He has a lot of class. A horse just like that, it makes your job easy."
Shifting in during his stretch rally, Lucky Score was determined to have caused interference with Awesome Bourbon and Society's Thunder; the pair were elevated to second and third, respectively, as Lucky Score was placed fourth by the stewards.
The victory was a fourth in graded company and 10th black-type stakes score for the 6-year-old Noble Mission gelding, elevating his career earnings to $1,917,108. Nobals was bred in Kentucky by Dr. John Chandler.
