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<\/p>\nThe 1 1\/2-mile Breeders\u2019 Stakes turf race will provide Ciunas and the other horses in the field with a very solid test. But in his most recent effort, over 1 1\/16 miles on grass, Ciunas once again came on strong to earn a one-length win in 1:44.44 over firm ground.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe relaxed early in the race, and he came with his run very effectively,\u201d said Attfield. \u201cThat\u2019s what we have been looking for from him and that is what he has shown in both races.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can settle well at the start and then put in that nice run at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
The race field with post, horse and jockey, includes: 1) Scat Girl, Daisuke Fukumoto; 2) D\u2019aurum, Pietro Moran; 3) Borealis Trail, Jose Campos; 4) Ciunas, Civaci; 5) Aristella, Patrick Husbands; 6) Watsonville Red, Leo Salles; 7) Faber, Moran; 8) Sedburys Ghost, Ryan Munger; and 9) Tom\u2019s Magic, Rafael Hernandez.<\/p>\n
Neither Mansetti (King\u2019s Plate winner) nor Runaway Again (Prince of Wales champion) will run Sunday.<\/p>\n
But Kevin Attard \u2014 Mansetti\u2019s trainer \u2014 will have two horse in the Breeders\u2019 Stakes, Faber and D\u2019aurum. Moran, who rode Mansetti in the Plate, will be aboard either Faber or D\u2019aurum on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The affable Attfield, 85, gained induction into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1999 before going into the National Museum of Racing\u2019s Hall of Fame in 2012. Attfield recollects how Ciunas first caught the celebrated trainer\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe caught my eye right from when we started breezing him, actually,\u201d said Attfield. \u201cHe always looked like a nice horse, and he\u2019s done everything right so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s coming along very nicely. This is a big step up, but from everything I have seen of him, he should enjoy the mile and a half. That\u2019s why we nominated him for this race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attfield has been named Canada\u2019s top trainer eight times and his stellar resume includes a record-tying eight King\u2019s Plate wins and three OLG Canadian Triple Crown titles, With Approval in 1989, Izvestia in 1990 and Peteski in 1993.<\/p>\n
He earned his first Breeders\u2019 Stakes victory in 1986 with Carotene, with the last coming in 2015 with Danish Dynaformer. Attfield is expecting another strong effort from Ciunas on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has worked extremely well,\u201d Attfield said. \u201cHe worked faster than I wanted him to go this past weekend, but he did it within himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to be pleased with that, and his gallop out was very good. It put the green light on as far as the decision for the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trainer Rachel Halden will send two horses postward Sunday with Borealis Trail and filly Aristella. The latter will be ridden by veteran jockey Husbands, who in 2003 rode Wando, the last horse to win Canada\u2019s Triple Crown.<\/p>\n
Last year, Halden conditioned the first- and second-place horses in the Breeders\u2019 Stakes with Roscar and Saccharine, respectively. Aristella won the $250,000 Wonder Where Stakes, third leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara, on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew it was going to be a tough race, but she was doing so well coming into the race and we felt she deserved to be there,\u201d said Halden. \u201cIt was a great effort and she has come out of it very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2025.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 1 1\/2-mile Breeders\u2019 Stakes turf race will provide Ciunas and the other horses in the field with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-163017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}