The final leg of Canada’s Triple Crown was run this past weekend as the Breeder’s Stakes was contested at Woodbine Race Track near Toronto. Like the US version of the Triple Crown, the Canadian counterpart had three different winners in three different races. Sir Dudley Digges won the Queen’s Plate, Amis Gizmo won the Price of Wales Stakes and 26-1 longshot Camp Creek was the upset winner of the Breeder’s Stakes.

Camp Creek had just broken his maiden on July 15, winning an allowance race on the turf track at Woodbine. It was the first turf race for the Hillsbrook Farms owned gelding and he clearly took to the surface change. That was apparent again in the Breeders’ Stakes, his first Triple Crown race (or stakes race for that matter) in five career starts. Camp Creek won the race by a length and a half over Queen’s Plate winner Sir Dudley Diggs. Trainer Rachel Halden became the fourth female trainer to win the race joining Catherine Day Phillips (who won the race twice), Debbie England and Josie Carroll.

Jockey Rafael Hernandez won the race for the first time in his first season riding at Woodbine: “When I passed the wire, I said, ‘I won.’ I can’t believe it. At the three-eighths (pole), I started to ask him to pick it up. When we turned for home, I put him clear and he did everything on his own. He broke good. He settled back a little bit. I had a little trouble in the first turn. One horse came out a little bit. He grabbed a little bit of heels, so he settled back even more and he relaxed himself.”

Trainer Halden appeared to be in a state of disbelief: “I can’t say I was expecting it, but we were hopeful and thought he deserved a chance. To me, he was just an improving horse. I’d been looking to get him on the grass for a while and when we did he won quite nicely and it looked like a stretch out in distance wouldn’t be an issue for him. Sometimes, when you have a three-year-old Canadian-bred you need to take a chance at these kinds of races.”

Leavem In Malibu finished third, Scholar Athlete fourth with race favorite Conquest Daddyo in fifth place.