Making his stakes debut, Aurora Meadows and Oxbridge Farm’s Court of the Realm held off the determined run of Fifty Proof to win the $269,200 King Edward (Can-IIT) (VIDEO) June 25 at Woodbine.
Ridden by Eurico Da Silva for Peter Berringer, Court of the Realm won for the fifth consecutive time while covering one mile on the good turf in 1:35.86. The son of Powerscourt also notched his first victory on turf after scoring his previous four wins on Polytrack. The bay colt, sent off at 12-1 in a field of 11, was bred in Kentucky by J. Fred Miller III.
On the front end in his previous four wins, Court of the Realm was never far off the pace in the King Edward but sat off a few rivals including Fifty Proof, who got the opening quarter-mile in :24.02 under Justin Stein, and a half-mile in :47.18. Grand Adventure was also part of the pace, as was Artic Fern and Woodbourne.
Fifty Proof cut the corner still going well but relinquished his lead at the top of the lane to Grand Adventure, who was game along the hedge with Patrick Husbands aboard. Meanwhile, Court of the Realm entered the lane three–wide and was running step-for-step with those two. He grabbed the lead from Grand Adventure approaching the sixteenth-pole but still had to fight off Fifty Proof, who had re-rallied between horses only to fall a half-length short.
Society's Chairman , the 5-2 favorite, rallied late for third over Artic Fern.
Court of the Realm broke his maiden at fourth asking last September at Woodbine and won a pair of allowance races before the end of his 3-year-old campaign. He was freshened over the winter and came back to take an optional claimer by 3 3/4 lengths in Toronto on May 22 in his 2011 debut. Overall, he improved to 5-1-1 from eight starts.
Out of the Lear Fan mare Grand Fan, Court of the Realm has earned $317,895.
The winner paid $26.10, $11.60, and $6.60. The exacta (6-2) returned $212.40 and the trifecta (6-2-11) was worth $983.