Essex Serpent seeks to shed the competition in Grade 3 Dominion Day
At 0h04, on June 28, 2025 • By Woodbine
Essex Serpent, fresh off an impressive score, looks to notch his second career graded tally, this time in the $150,000 Dominion Day Stakes (G3), part of the Canada Day Racing Festival, Saturday at Woodbine.
A 1 1/8-mile main track event for 4-year-olds and up, the Dominion Day shares the spotlight with four other graded stakes offerings: $200,000 bet365 Highlander (G2T), $175,000 Nassau (G2T), $150,000 HPIbet Marine (G3) and $150,000 Selene (G3).
On May 10, Essex Serpent returned to race action after making his previous start last September in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.
And what a return was.
Under Patrick Husbands, the 4-year-old son of Honor Code out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Eileen’s Girl romped to an emphatic 5 ¼-length score over 1 1/16 miles in a time of 1:43.09.
“He’s an absolutely beautiful horse in every sense,” said Kathryn Sullivan, assistant trainer to Mark Casse. “Unfortunately, he ran two disappointing races last year when he was tenth in both The King’s Plate and Prince of Wales. But he had a great race to start the season, so we are hoping he can build on that and have a really good year.
“We just liked everything about that last win,” Sullivan continued. “He just persevered the whole race and ran the race his way and didn’t let up. He took the lead and continued on with it – just very impressive, especially after a long layoff like that. I don’t think we saw all that he had to give on that day.”
A homebred for Manfred and Penny Conrad, Essex Serpent breezed four furlongs over the Woodbine main track in :47.20 on June 21.
