The Triple Crown, Canadian style, kicks off this weekend at Woodbine Racetrack with the 3 year old fillies going to gate in the Woodbine Oaks. The $500,000 Oaks is the feature race on Sunday’s card, along with two co-features – the Alywow Stakes and The Queens Plate Trial.

Sunday has the largest purse total of the year thus far, with more than $1 million up for grabs in ten races. The Oaks has nine talented fillies, which will go to post in this one and one-eighth mile event. All are looking for their chance to bring home $300,000. It seems as though there are two with a much better chance than the rest:

Dixie Strike is the 6/5 morning line favorite for the Oaks; not only is she the favorite for this race, but is also the Queens Plate favorite this year. This is the same scenario that last year’s Oaks and Derby winner Inglorious went through. Both Dixie Strike and Inglorious have the same mother, Noble Strike, and if Dixie pulls off both victories it will be the first time sisters will have won both the Oaks and the Derby.

Dixie will be in tough against a very strong opponent on Sunday in Northern Passion. This winner of the Fury Stakes seems to really enjoy the polytrack, and her strong closing sprint style seems right in line to stretch out. These two look very strong in this field of nine, and will without a doubt try to hold off the other seven competitors. It’s their race to lose.

The Queens Plate Trial has 11 horses entered and seems to only be missing four of the early favorites for the Queens Plate in three weeks. Beeker St, my early favorite for the Plate, runs Sunday, but after his last win where Making Amends nearly passed him, leads me to believe Making Amends may be more likely to stretch out over the mile. The Trial seems to be a very competitive race, with these horses racing against the likes of Peyton, Classic Bryce, Menlo Castle, Big Creek, and Drago’s Best. I believe if there is a heavy favorite in this race that he will have a very hard time winning; therefore I expect very nice payoffs in this dash.

The early feature on Sunday’s card is the Alywow Stakes, a race for three-year old fillies going 6 ½ furlongs on the turf where there is no shortage of talent. At first look I see Tu Endie Wei, an absolute monster filly, going short distances. Recently when attempting to race over a mile, she was caught by Dixie Strike in the final stretch, but held onto second. It’s possible the rest of the field is running for second place money, because this filly is just that fast. Make no mistake, I am not trying to take anything away from the rest of the field because they are all capable of making the big upset.

Trainer Mark Casse will be trying hard to beat Endei Wei as he is putting five horses in the gate. That’s right, five of the nine starters are trained by last year’s record-breaking trainer. Gonzalez and Lynch both have fillies looking to upset; Man Stuff is unbeaten in two starts and Blue Heart may love the cut back in distance. As aforementioned, Tu Endie Wei will be looking to get back on track shortening up against this very tough field.

With all the well deserved hype in the USA about the Triple Crown and I’ll Have Another, the excitement can be felt with Canadian/Woodbine racing. The fillies start their Triple Crown bids and the boys are looking to find out who the real studs of the division are en route to the Queens Plate.

Here are a few videos from Woodbine you might enjoy…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ0R7HMWyFM

And the races for June 3:

http://www.equibase.com/static/entry/WO060312CAN-EQB.html

…and that is the Last Word.