BY BROCK SHERIDAN
TORONTO—Mark Casse trainees Victory Achieved and My Boy Prince will meet again, this time in the US$200,000 bet365 Kennedy Road Stakes (Grade 2), for 3-year-olds and older Saturday at Woodbine. Earlier this year on August 1 at Colonial Downs racing five-and-a-half furlongs on the green, My Boy Prince got the nod against Victory Achieved in the $154,000 Van Clief (Listed) with the two stablemates finishing heads apart in first and second.
Saturday, they are among seven set to go six furlongs on the all-weather main track.
A Florida-bred homebred for Live Oak Plantation, Victory Achieved rolls into the Kennedy Road off a three-length triumph in the Grade 3 Nearctic on the Woodbine grass on October 3, earning the 5-year-old son of Street Sense out of the War Front mare Lady of Victory his first graded badge.
“It was a stellar field and the way he did it was so impressive,” Casse assistant Kathryn Sullivan said. “He likes to be close to the pace but he doesn’t necessarily have to be on the lead. If he’s on the lead, he’s won from there and if he’s sitting off it, he can win that way as well. It’s nice to have that balance and he certainly does.”
Fashioning a record of five wins with four seconds and a third 14 starts, Victory Achieved, who won three straight races at Woodbine in the fall of 2024, has recorded $343,097 in career purse earnings.
The bay gelding has two wins and three seconds in five races this year, having started his 2026 campaign with a three-quarters of a length score in an upper tier, $62,500 optional claiming on the Gulfstream Park synthetic on May 30.
“This has been a wonderful year for him—he’s just been so consistent,” Sullivan said. “He’s… …one who goes over and gives you that 100 per cent effort. You always know what to expect.”
Victory Achieved has a career record of five wins, four seconds and a third in 14 starts with earnings of $343,097. He is out of Lady of Victory by War Front.
Rafael Hernandez was aboard for the first time in the Neartic and gets the return mount Saturday. They are the 2-1 morning line favorites and will start from post five.
My Boy Prince is rated second in the program at 5-2 off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Woodford sprinting five-and-a-half furlongs on the Keeneland turf on October 3.
In one start between the Van Clief and the Woodford, My Boy Prince was sixth, beaten less than four lengths by winner Possiblemente in the Grade 2 Light and Wonder Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint going six furlongs on September 5.
For Sullivan, having two top contenders clash in a graded stakes is a plus.
Fraser Aebly will ride My Boy Prince from post three.
“It’s always a good thing to have horses in these types of races,” Sullivan said. “You have two horses who are very competitive and very talented. Obviously, you want them both to win, but the most important thing is that they are each able to run the race that suits them and they get a chance to run an uncomplicated race.”
Multiple graded stakes-winner Nobals, who won the 2024 and 2025 editions of the Kennedy Road, will look to join Pink Lloyd as the only three-time winner of the race. The son of Noble Mission (GB) is has 13 wins, seven seconds and four thirds with earnings of $2,001,162 from 36 starts for trainer Larry Rivelli and owner Patricia’s Hope LLC.
Nobals is 6-1 on the morning line and will be ridden from post four by Walter Rodriguez.
Others set to line up for the Kennedy Road are G T Five Hundred with jockey Christoff Douglas, Pietro Moran teams with Arbiter, Sahin Civaci has the call on War Strategy and Ready to Collect will have Keveh Nicholls aboard.
–Portions of this article were taken directly from a Woodbine press release
Return to the November 13 issue of Wire to Wire
