Betting With, and Against, Mysterious Night in the 2022 Summer Stakes

Turf Racing (Photo by Coady Photography)

September 16th, 2022

An interesting field of seven juveniles will travel one mile on the Woodbine turf in Saturday’s C$500,000 Summer S. (G1). Godolphin homebred #1 Mysterious Night (6-5) is the one to beat in his North American debut after winning or placing in each of his handful of tries overseas this campaign.

Trained by Charlie Appleby, the two-year-old son of Dark Angel was a brave winner at Deauville in his latest showing and has proven to be capable of running over any kind of course for a conditioner who always has his horses on point when they ship. The Irish-bred bay has a good foundation under him, and he will surely appreciate the added ground on Saturday with regular rider William Buick taking the reins, as well. Mysterious Night appears to be a formidable foe in this spot.

Chad Brown’s #3 Appraise (5-1) is quite intriguing to me in his initial try at the trip following two sprint efforts. The son of Kodiac was a game victor at Saratoga prior to registering a solid fourth-place result in the Skidmore S., and the February foal could peak in this offering for a dynamic outfit when stretching runners out.

Appraise shows two morning drills in advance of Saturday, and his tactical speed could be a big weapon in this race with Manny Franco keeping the live mount. I envision the dangerous contender to be tracking the pace from third in the early going.

#7 Stayhonor Goodside (6-1) showed big improvement on the move to the green most recently and rates as a logical exotics contender in his second grassy try. The $85,000 son of Honor Code, who was a sharp debut winner on the all-weather course here in May, will improve second off the shelf following a nice effort when a closing third in the Soaring Free S. Sahin Civaci will guide the talented youngster.

#6 Philip My Dear (2-1) is unblemished from two impressive tries to date and is logical on this occasion for Kevin Attard. The dark bay son of Silent Name has displayed a stout turn of foot in each of his performances leading up to Saturday, and even slight improvement will make him especially dangerous in the lane with Kimura in the silks once again atop the $100,000 yearling purchase.