BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Dual Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse attempts to upset the rescheduled Grade 3 Bold Venture at Woodbine Friday with Florida-bred Capture the Lion, who also looks for his first stakes victory in the six-and-a-half-furlong event for seven 3-year-olds and older.
The Bold Venture will be the second attempt at this level for the 4-year-old gelding, who finished fourth last out while making his stakes debut in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup at seven furlongs on the Woodbine grass. Capture the Lion may benefit from the shorter distance in the Bold Venture as he pressed the pace during most of the Connaught Cup before he faded to finish fourth, four-and-a-half lengths shy of winner Cruden Bay but just a neck behind third-place finisher and Bold Venture rival Ironstone.
Capture the Lion may also enjoy returning to a synthetic surface after winning two of four starts with a third while competing in optional claiming races over the Gulfstream Park all-weather course last year.
The son of Uncaptured sports a career ledger of four wins, a second and two thirds in 12 starts while earning $153,585 for owner Gary Barber. He is out of Keyvacious, by Teuflesberg and was bred in Florida by the late Sherry R. Mansfield and Kenneth H. Davis.
Capture the Lion is a graduate of Ocala Breeders’ Sales having sold for $55,000 to JEC out the Hawk’s Rest consignment at the 2022 March Sale.
Casse will give a leg up on Capture the Lion to Sahin Civaci and they have drawn post one. Capture the Lion is 15-1 on the morning line.
The 7-5 program favorite for the Bold Venture is Patches O’Houlihan, winner of the CA$100,000 Pink Lloyd going six furlongs at Woodbine in his last race on July 28.
Trained by Robert Tiller for Frank D. Di Giulio Jr., Patches O’Houlihan has produced a dominant record while racing exclusively at Woodbine, winning eight of 10 including last year’s Bold Venture and the Grade 3 Vigil in September.
Patches O’Houlihan will be ridden by Ocala’s Sophia Vives from post thee.
Completing the field are Ironstone and jockey Ryan Munger, Border Town will have Leo Salles aboard, I’m a Gambler (Ire) and rider Pietro Moran, Playmea Tune will have Kazushi Kimura in the saddle and Patrick Husbands rides First Empire.
Tammy A. Gantt contributed to this story.
