Coming out of a low-level maiden claiming win, Perfect Shower shocked the best 3-year-olds in Canada at 46-1 when he came from off the pace to score a three-quarters of a length win in the $467,020 Breeders' Stakes on the Woodbine turf Aug. 2.
Trainer Roger Attfield earned his record eighth victory in the final jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.
Ridden by Jono Jones, Charles Fipke's Ontario homebred drove to a two-length lead mid-stretch and held sway through the final furlong in spite of drifting out markedly through the drive. He was the biggest longshot winner in the history of the race.
Attfield joked, "I was actually sitting in the stands with a cold beer watching the race and I thought he was coming over to get some of it at one point. He's still a big, green, gangly horse and still learning. He just got lost, I think."
The 29-1 shot Guipago finished second under Tyler Pizarro, completing a $2 exacta worth $2,170.50. Second choice Reservoir rallied for third for Jim McAleney in the 1 1/2-mile test. The final time was 2:29.39 on firm ground.
Queen's Plate winner Eye of the Leopard , the 9-10 favorite in his turf debut, finished 11th in the 13-horse field.
Perfect Shower raced mid-pack as Genius Kinshasa led the field through fractions of :24.98, :49.80 and 1:39.53 (mile) while pressed by Full Throttle. Eye of the Leopard was close up while racing third, with Prince of Wales Stakes winner Gallant to his inside, but both soon faded out of contention.
Full Throttle led at the quarter-pole, but Perfect Shower closed in quickly on the outside and got the advantage with three-sixteenths of a mile remaining. Perfect Shower poured it on from there but was tiring in the final furlong as Guipago closed steadily while five wide.
The winning son of Perfect Soul --Showering (by Miswaki) lost all five of his starts on turf in 2008 while finishing up his juvenile campaign in a pair of stakes races. Perfect Shower opened the 2009 campaign with an eighth-place finish against maiden special weight foes on Keeneland's Polytrack in April. Attfield dropped him into $25,000 maiden company for a 1 1/16-mile Polytrack event at Woodbine July 17 and the dark bay colt responded with a 4 1/4-length win with Jones aboard.
Attfield said that trip to the winner's circle may have given the colt the confidence he needed.
"After that he felt like King Kong, which quite often a win does that to a horse," Attfield said. "I said there were three very legitimate horses in there and then there was the rest of us all bunched together. So if I could run and get some money I've done OK, and I thought I had a good chance to do that."
Attfield was noncommittal about what's up next for Perfect Shower, but said the 3-year-old would receive some special treatment.
"We'll probably take him home tonight and wine and dine him," Attfield said, chuckling.
Fipke is an acclaimed geologist who made his fortune by discovering a large diamond mine in 1992 in the Northwest Territories. Fipke also owned Not Bourbon, who won the Queen's Plate and was named Canada's top 3-year-old male last year.
Perfect Shower had earned $34,235 prior to the Breeders', which was worth $278,430.
Perfect Shower paid a whopping $95.30, $34.80 and $13.60. Guipago, who beat maidens at 11 furlongs on grass July 9 at Woodbine for trainer Analisa Delmas, returned $23 and $11.90. Reservoir, rebounding from an 11th-place showing in the Queen's Plate, was $5.90 to show.
Completing the order: Mr. Foricos Two U, Keino West, Gallant, Parabola, Full Throttle, Genius Kinshasa, Flip for the Coin, Eye of the Leopard, Mensch, Hisaki.