WOODBINE - ECLIPSE STAKES DAY
Saturday 30th May 2026
The summer season at Woodbine is underway and this Saturday’s Bet365 Eclipse Stakes headlined a very strong card. Here’s a look at some of the key data from the 3 Graded races;
Belle Mahone Stakes - Grade 3
Woodbine is the 7th track that DELORAINE has run at in her relatively short career, but the bends at the Canadian track clearly suited as she stayed on strongly to land the first part of a big race double for her Godolphin owners. Tracking the pace set by the eventual runner-up and beaten favourite, Stylish Sue, she was asked to close once they straightened for home and responded readily to Ryan Munger’s encouragement, clocking the fastest time for the final quarter of a mile in 24.88s. With an average stride length of 23.45 ft, she is a relatively compact filly and that figure was far below the 24.4 ft average for a stakes winner over this course and distance taken from the TPD database.
Stylish Sue was 5th on the turf in the Modesty Stakes at Churchill Downs on her previous start, finishing within three quarters of a second behind Kathynmarissa and the Breeders’ Cup winner Gezora. Based on that level of form, she set a fair standard and having tried to make every yard of the running, she was perhaps a little unlucky to be caught by a fast-finishing Deloraine and there was a healthy gap back to the 3rd placed Equitas. I have added a small note to my tracker for Equitas, who recorded the longest average stride length in the field at 24.84 ft. That figure was almost a foot longer than the next longest stride figure and Michael de Paulo’s lightly raced 4-year-old would surely prefer a step up in trip and a faster pace to be seen to best effect. Whilst there are reasons to take some positives from the form of the placed horses, Deloraine was a clear best on the day and given the turn-of-foot that she showed in the closing stages to run the leader down, there will surely be other opportunities for her at Woodbine later in the year.
Bet365 Eclipse Stakes - Grade 2
Sofia Vives decided to give MAYCOCKS BAY a very aggressive ride to win this year’s Eclipse Stakes at Woodbine. Whether by design or not, Maycocks Bay set some very fast early fractions as he established a lead in excess of 8 lengths over the first half a mile. He was the only horse in the field to clear 40 mph as he reached a top speed of 40.39 mph with opening splits of 6.88 and 11.29s. In fact, he was the fastest horse for each of the opening 4 splits and he held an advantage of 1.32s over the runner-up at the halfway stage. Whilst it is probably fair to acknowledge that he was running on fumes in the final furlong, a winning time of 1:43.05 still ranked 4th in the last 10 renewals of this race. This was a first graded success for Michael Stidham’s son of Speightstown, who was making his first start in Canada on Saturday afternoon. Owned by Godolphin, he had finished 3rd at Keeneland in April behind Just A Touch when he had employed similar front running tactics. The turns at Woodbine clearly suited and although we should acknowledge that the other riders did allow him to build up a substantial lead in the early stages, his 7th and 8th split times still ranked in the top 4 and it was really only in the final furlong that he completely ran out of energy. Still holding an advantage of 0.98s as he passed the furlong pole, his stride frequency dropped to 2.31 per second in the final furlong, but that was still close enough to his overall race average (2.32 sps) to see him home. He comes with risks attached as there will be times when he uses too much energy in the early stages and simply doesn’t last home, but this performance on his first start at Woodbine should not be underestimated. He ran a good time, recorded a race best top speed figure and had enough left in the tank to hold off the closers in the final furlong. In a race where he recorded a finishing speed below 95%, this was a big effort from the winner, whose average stride length (24.02 ft) ranked only 5th.
Jacques Cartier Stakes - Grade 3
The Jacques Cartier Stakes followed a slightly more conventional pattern than the Eclipse. The winner, POSSIBLEMENTE, sat behind the early pace before coming with a late burst of speed to ultimately win relatively comfortably under Eswan Flores. The 6-year-old by Tale Of Ekati was winning for the 10th time in his career and although he had been soundly beaten on his previous starts at Woodbine, including a 6th placed finish in last season’s Eclipse Stakes, his subsequent form has proven that he is simply much more effective over the sprint trips. Since returning to 6 furlongs, he has won 3 of his last 4 starts and Joe Sharp’s team have completely revitalised this 6-year-old by returning him to the shorter distances. Although slightly keen in the early stages, Possiblemente ultimately dropped his head as the field approached the far turn and once asked for maximum effort, he rallied strongly to run the fastest final furlong in 12.17s with a late speed figure of 37 mph. His top speed figure of 41.9 mph ranked only 7th and was some way below the TPD average for a winner over this course and distance, but his late speed and more significantly his stride data were within 0.5% of those average figures and once getting the gaps, he was always ideally placed.