Stephen’s rousing victory in Sunday’s $25,000 Coronation Futurity at Woodbine was just part of an incredible three-day span for Constitution that included four stakes winners, two of them Grade 1’s, and a Grade 1 runner-up.
Stephen, a $170,000 OBS April Sale buy this year for owners Al and Bill Ulwelling, returned big dividends Sunday in what was the 2-year-olds maiden-breaking victory. After hopping slightly at the start of the 1 1/8-mile affair, Stephen settled near the back of the field going into the first turn. He commenced his rally with about three furlongs to run, going inside, then shifting out in the stretch to run down Tio Magico and win by 1 1/4-lengths on the wire.
“Obviously, in the second race, I thought he ran great,” said trainer Kevin Attard, referencing the colt’s fast-closing second on Nov. 4. “He showed a tremendous turn of foot, was coming to the winner and just ran out of real estate. He’s trained well in the interim and he was coming into this race in great shape, so we were pretty high on our chances.”
Stephen’s win elevated his earnings to $129,964.
The winner was bred by Trackwest Racing Inc. and is the first foal out of the stakes winner Naughty Holiday and is from the immediate family of millionaire Naughty New Yorker.
Constitution goes into the final two months of the year as the leading Second-Crop sire in North America and will have a chance to widen the gap when his multiple Grade 1 winner Tiz the Law runs in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Keeneland.
