ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Candy Overload and Flag of Honour will renew their recent rivalry Saturday at Woodbine in the Grade 3 Jacques Cartier, one of two $135,000 sprint stakes on the card, along with the Grade 3 Royal North. Not long after being purchased privately by Gary Barber and partners, Candy Overload notched his first stakes here in the fall of 2022 in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road. He was campaigned sporadically last year and returned from an extended layoff March 9 to land the Big Daddy Stakes at Turfway. Most recently here in the 5 1/2-furlong Thorncliffe Stakes, Candy Overload came from fifth to link up with Flag of Honour in the stretch. He dug in late to win by a half-length while recording a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure under Patrick Husbands. “We winter-raced him [two years ago] and paid the price for it last spring,” trainer Mark Casse recalled. “I gave him some time off, and it worked.” Australian import Flag of Honour has started three times here on the Tapeta for trainer Julia Carey. After a close third off a six-month break in an Oct. 29 conditioned allowance, the American Pharoah gelding rode a golden rail to victory in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road in November. He wintered north of the border prior to finishing a commendable second in his season opener in the Thorncliffe. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. “He stayed here in Ontario for the winter,” Carey said. “I was very impressed with his comeback. I knew he would need the race. I hope now that he’s 100 percent tight. The extra half a furlong is going to help.” Casse also is running Step Forward, who wired a field of allowance types going five furlongs off an 8 1/2-month layoff here April 28, for which he got a 98 Beyer. “I thought highly of Step Forward from the beginning, and he’s been [competitive], but his last performance was a breakout,” Casse said. “The question is, can he do it two times in a row?” The remaining entrants in the six-furlong event are Ironstone, Old Chestnut, Mason’s Gamble, and War Bomber, who was cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 2 Eclipse. Royal North The Casse-trained Play the Music goes for her second local stakes victory in a row while switching from Tapeta to the main turf in the 6 1/2-furlong Royal North for fillies and mares. Play the Music took the Lightning City Stakes over the Tampa turf in February, after which she ran sixth in the Grade 3 Giant’s Causeway on the Keeneland turf. When back on Lasix with Husbands aboard here May 4 in the Grade 3 Whimsical, she began to rally along the rail on the turn before angling a little outside in the stretch en route to a 4 1/4-length triumph. “We thought she had a lot of talent early in her career, and then she tailed off,” Casse recalled. “We gave her a break and she came back powerful. Her last race was very strong. Her race before at Keeneland, she was in the one hole and didn’t like that at all. I don’t think the surface matters with her.” Casse also entered Miss Speedy and Star Candy, who was supplemented. Miss Speedy struggled over yielding ground last time out in the Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney at Churchill, which came on the heels of an allowance score at Gulfstream. “I don’t think she cared for the softer turf,” Casse said. “She needs [the ground] a little harder. Her race at Gulfstream was very good. [Irad Ortiz Jr.] was excited about how she ran.” There are several shippers in the 10-horse field, including Secret Money and Baby No Worries. Secret Money should be well backed off her neck loss in the Unbridled Sidney to heavily favored Ova Charged, who is arguably the leading female turf sprinter on the continent. Secret Money won the Grade 3 Music City Stakes in September at Kentucky Downs for trainer Brendan Walsh. Baby No Worries, a deep closer trained by Tim Girten, dead-heated for third in the Whimsical when shipping in from Presque Isle Downs. “I was very happy with that effort,” Girten said. “I thought we had a good trip, and she came running hard.” Baby No Worries finished 3 1/4 lengths back in sixth in last year’s Royal North when the now-downgraded race had Grade 2 status. “That was only her second time on the turf,” Girten recalled. “Once she got her legs under her, she kicked in and had a nice run down the lane. She tried.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.