Ralph Murray and Calstar Farm's Miss Vyvyanne will seek her first graded stakes win when she takes on male rivals in the June 27 CA$200,000 Highlander Stakes (G2T) at Woodbine.
The 6-year-old mare returns to the inner turf at Woodbine, a surface where she won four 5-furlong races in 2025.
"I think it's the sharper turns (on the inner) that she enjoys," trainer Gail Cox said. "She handles them so well, she kicks away down the lane, and the stretch is shorter. So, when you put all those factors together, I think it just suits her in every way possible. She truly is a five-eighths horse. Could she go longer if she had to? If the setup was right, I'm sure she could, but she thrives at five-eighths on the smaller turf courses. She has a very efficient stride on the turf."
Miss Vyvyanne also has won two starts this season at Gulfstream Park by open lengths.
"We've been very conservative with where we've run her, but I felt she was moving better when we got her to Florida," Cox added. "She just kept on improving from there."
She enters Saturday's race off a runner-up finish to Canada's 2025 champion female sprinter Little Teddy in an allowance optional claiming race on the all-weather surface at Woodbine. She finished 7 1/2 lengths in front of third-place finisher Cara Cara.
"She's doing great," Cox said. "When you watch her run, you don't think she is going as fast as she is. The one thing you always get with her is an honest effort. She is a great example of a horse who tries no matter where she runs."
Among her competition will be Outlaw Kid, who enters the race off a heartbreaking defeat in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint Stakes at Laurel Park, where he lost by a nose to millionaire Chasing Liberty. The George Weaver trainee started the 2026 season by winning the King T. Leatherbury Stakes at Laurel.
Other top threats include the multiple graded stakes-placed Golden Afternoon, who enters the 5-furlong race off a win in an allowance optional claimer at Churchill Downs, and Centennial Farms (Niagara)'s multiple stakes winner G T Five Hundred.
Woodbine, Saturday, June 27, 2026, Race 7Entries: bet365 Highlander S. (G2T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Miss Vyvyanne (FL) Pietro Moran 115 Gail Cox 5/2 2 2G T Five Hundred (KY) Jose Luis Campos 120 Dale A. Desruisseaux 8/1 3 3Foxtrotanna (KY) David Moran 118 Steve Attard 20/1 4 4Outlaw Kid (ON) Sahin Civaci 120 George Weaver 3/1 5 5Western Whirl (ON) Fraser Aebly 118 Stuart C. Simon 6/1 6 6Golden Afternoon (KY) Rafael Manuel Hernandez 120 Nicholas Vaccarezza 9/5 7 7Ready to Collect (ON) Jason Hoyte 118 Roger Broomes 12/1
Woodbine will hold four other graded stakes races Saturday, including the Dominion Day Stakes (G3), which features Canada's 2023 champion 3-year-old male and 2024 champion older dirt male Paramount Prince. The Mark Casse-trained gelding won the 2024 edition of the Dominion Day.
Also featured on the card is the 7 1/2-furlong Royal North Stakes (G3T) on the inner turf, headlined by graded stakes winners Ozara and Reagan's Flame, the 1 1/16-mile Marine Stakes (G3) on the all-weather, and the 1 1/16 Selene Stakes (G3), also on the all-weather surface.
