Tower of Texas stormed up the rail and won the $200,000 King Edward Stakes (Can-II) (VIDEO) in his turf debut June 21 at Woodbine.
Eurico Rosa da Silva relaxed off a quick early pace with the 4-year-old son of Street Sense , who hugged the rail into the stretch to rally. He overtook dueling front-runners, Stacked Deck and Excaper, midway down the lane and drew off to a 2 3/4-length victory.
Tower of Texas is perfect in three starts this year, all at Woodbine, and earned his first stakes win in the King Edward, finishing the mile race in 1:32.45 on a firm turf course.
Platinum Glory was all out to grab second in a three-horse race for the runner-up spot, just a nose in front of Stacked Deck, who bested 9-5 favorite Excaper by a head for third in the seven-horse field.
Stacked Deck set the tempo in the King Edward, clocking fractions of :23.21 and :45.14 for a half-mile, as Excaper stalked about a length back in second.
Tower of Texas settled into sixth position, just five lengths off the pace, through the early running and was ready to roll heading into the stretch to secure the win in 1:32.45 over a turf course rated firm.
Among the classic generation in Canada last season, Tower of Texas was third in the Plate Trial Stakes, after breaking his maiden two starts earlier, but then was trounced in the Queen's Plate, when he had no rally.
Tower of Texas returned to the races May 10 at Woodbine, demonstrating a powerful turn of foot to win a seven-furlong allowance race. In his previous start, he captured an off-the-turf sprint going six furlongs May 31, before handling the stretch out and the turf course.
With Saturday's win as the 3-1 second choice, his record improves to 4-3-2 from 12 career starts for Roger Attfield, who trains Tower of Texas for Thomas VanMeter II and Scott Dilworth.
"I was pretty confident that he'd run well on the turf, but I'd never been able to work him on it," Attfield said. "He had trained so well going into this race. He went into it such a happy, healthy horse. I'm so proud of him. He's a lovely horse."
The winner paid $9.30, $4.80, and $3.50 across the board. Platinum Glory delivered $10.40 and $5.60, while Stacked Deck returned $3.60 to show.
Tower of Texas was bred in Ontario by Anderson Farms and Rod Ferguson. His dam is the stakes-placed Danzig Connection mare Rare Opportunity. He is a three-quarter-brother to U.S. grade II winner Street Sounds and a half-brother Canadian filly classic winner Silver Highlight.
Scott and Evan Dilworth bought Tower of Texas as a yearling for $195,000 from the Anderson Farms consignment at Keeneland January horses of all ages sale. He has earned $296,891 thus far in his three-season career.
