Lexie Lou headlines Canadian Stakes

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - Queen's Plate winner Lexie Lou leads a field of 10 fillies and mares into Sunday's $300,000 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine.

The filly became the 35th female to win the Queen's Plate and can guarantee herself a place in this year's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf with a victory on Sunday.

Trained by Mark Casse for Gary Barber, Lexie Lou will start the 1 1/8-mile turf event from post 2 with Patrick Husbands again riding the 3-year-old. Husbands guided Classic Stamp to victory in the 2004 Canadian Stakes.

Lexie Lou comes into the Sunday start with a three-race win streak that includes the Woodbine Oaks, Queen's Plate and most recently the Wonder Where Stakes all at Woodbine, the only track she has ever known. The Wonder Where Stakes was the filly's first race on grass after exclusively running on Woodbine's synthetic main track.

"I saw her race against Zensational Bunny (in the Star Shoot)," Barber noted after the Wonder Where, "and she galloped out like a monster. I said 'Wow'. I watched it three or four times over, called Mark, who was at the sales, and told him this filly could move up on the turf. She's bred for it, yet she's doing so well on synthetics. She was worth (going after) and the rest is history."

Lexie Lou has earned $1,399,250 in her career with six wins from 13 starts.

Here is the field for the Canadian from the rail out: Skylander Girl, Emil Ramsammy; Lexie Lou, Patrick Husbands; Deceptive Vision, Eurico Rosa da Silva; Savvy Hester, Justin Stein; Royal Fury, John Velazquez; Meri Shika, Emma-Jayne Wilson; Dance Again, Luis Contreras; La Tia, Joel Rosario; Industrial Policy, Javier Castellano and Solid Appeal, Jesse Campbell.

Post time for the Canadian Stakes will be approximately 5:12 p.m. ET.