TORONTO — Six-year-old gelding Forte Dei Marmi makes his first start at Woodbine since his tenth-place finish in last year’s Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, in Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Sky Classic Stakes.
Owned by Stella Perdomo and trained by recent National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame inductee Roger Attfield, Forte Dei Marmi, who began his career in Britain before competing in North America in 2011, will go after his second win in the fifth start of his campaign.
“He has a lovely turn of foot,” said Attfield, of the six-time winner from 22 starts, who is named for a sea town in northern Tuscany. “He’s doing quite well now. We thought we had him right in the spring, but he had a few little setbacks. He’s doing really well and hopefully that translates into a big effort on Sunday.”
The 2011 running of the Woodbine Mile represented the bay’s first race outside of England, a troubled trip that saw Forte Dei Marmi squeezed back at the turn, finishing 5 ¼ lengths behind Turallure in the $1-million classic.
The British-bred’s first start following the Mile came on March 18 at Gulfstream Park, yielding a second-place finish at 1 1/16 miles. After a neck score at one mile on the Keeneland turf, Forte Dei Marmi finished third in the Grade 2 Dixie Stakes at Pimlico. In his most recent start, he was sixth in the Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs on June 16.
Forte Dei Marmi has had success at the 1 ¼-mile Sky Classic distance, recording four wins and two thirds from 12 tries. His last attempt at 10 furlongs resulted in a third-place finish, just one length behind the winner, on August 29, 2011, at Epsom.
Attfield, who has three Sky Classic crowns (1986 with Wild Style, 1989 with Steady Power and 2000 with Muntej) is hoping to see some lively early pace for his charge to run at.
“When you run a mile on the turf, you can get that good early speed for a horse that likes to close,” offered Attfield. “It can be trickier when it’s a mile and a quarter. It’s one of those races where we’ll just have to play it by ear.”
Out of the winning Sadler’s Wells mare Frangy, Forte Dei Marmi is a son of Selkirk, who captured the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II as well as being a multiple Group 2 champion with scores in the Challenge Stakes, Lockinge Stakes and the Celebration Mile Stakes.
Last year, Kara’s Orientation won the Sky Classic in a time of 2:04.87.
First-race post on Sunday is 1:00 p.m., a card that also features the Belle Mahone Stakes.
FIELD FOR THE SKY CLASSIC
Post / Horse / Jockey / Trainer
1 / Scalo / Umberto Rispoli / Andreas Wohler
2 / Miami Deco / Jesse Campbell / Brian Lynch
3 / Stormy Lord / Justin Stein / Ian Black
4 / Forte Dei Marmi / Alex Solis / Roger Attfield
5 / Pender Harbour / Luis Contreras / Mike De Paulo
6 / Smart Bid / Edgar Prado / Graham Motion
7 / Eye of the Leopard / Eurico Rosa da Silva / Malcolm Pierce
8 / Hotep / Patrick Husbands / Malcolm Pierce