TORONTO, August 25, 2024 – Just Follow Me, with Emma-Jayne Wilson aboard, rallied from well off the pace to best 6-5 choice Little Teddy in the $100,000 Algoma Stakes, Sunday at Woodbine.
Trained by Bill Tharrenos, the daughter of Old Forester-Marilyns Last Love arrived at the seven-furlong Algoma off a fifth in the Thunder Bay Stakes on August 4.
Tabloid Material and Vandoo were one-two in the early going, the pair taking their five foes through an opening quarter in :23.73. Tabloid Material led Red Samurai by two lengths after a half in :47.46, while Just Follow Me followed the leader from in last.
Just Follow Me had plenty of work to do coming off the turn for home, as Little Teddy took over the proceedings. Wilson and the dark bay continued to chip away and were rewarded with a three-quarter length score in a time of 1:24.78 over the all-weather track. Tabloid Material was third, followed by Red Samurai in fourth.
It was the first stakes crown for the Michael Coll-owned filly, who finished fourth in the Georgian Bay Stakes on July 7 at Woodbine.
“It didn’t pan out exactly the way I thought it would on paper, but that’s what a sales stakes is,” said Wilson. “My main thing for my filly was just getting her to be within where she could kick. I don’t know if you could see, from my perspective, she wasn’t happy on the inside. The moment I got her peeled through the outside, she really leveled off and shifted three gears and just blew by them.”
Just Follow Me, now 3-1-0 from seven starts, paid $20.10 for the win.
Bred in Ontario by John Carey, Just Follow Me was a $31,000 (CDN) purchase at the 2022 CTHS Ontario Premier Yearling Sale.
“I always base buying yearlings on the mare,” noted Coll. “If the mare won as a 2-year-old, and if it has any offspring that won as a 2-year-old, then I take a serious look at it.”
Chris Lomon, Woodbine
