ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Patches O’Houlihan will shoot for his third win in a row while attempting to capture the Grade 3, $150,000 Vigil for the second year in a row on Saturday’s Woodbine Mile undercard. Last year’s Canadian champion male sprinter, Patches O’Houlihan appears to be even better this year. The speedy 4-year-old took his July 28 season opener in the Pink Lloyd Stakes for Ontario-sired stock by six lengths with a whopping 103 Beyer Speed Figure. He doubled up on Aug. 23 in the Grade 3 Bold Venture, scoring by a neck over the unbeaten Playmea Tune while getting a 99 Beyer. Patches O’Houlihan missed some training in the spring due to a badly bruised heel, which delayed his return to the races. “We did a lot of hard work on him,” trainer Robert Tiller said. “It was two months of hell. There was a time when I thought we’d never get him back to the races.” Tiller felt that Patches O’Houlihan beat a modest field in the Pink Lloyd and was more impressed with the gelding’s Bold Venture triumph. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. “He was so game,” Tiller said. “Playmea Tune is a serious horse. They softened him up all the way. The trouble is you’ve got to keep doing it and doing it. It’s horse racing, and there’s so many factors. He’s doing great. Watching him gallop, he looks really good.” Tiller scoffed at the notion that Patches O’Houlihan is on a par with Pink Lloyd, the five-time Canadian champion sprinter he trained, who won the Vigil from 2017-20. “I will never call him better than Pink Lloyd,” Tiller stressed. “Pink Lloyd could come from anywhere in a race and win. Every time he wins, he inches up a little closer, but there will never be another Pink Lloyd. He’s the greatest horse I’ve ever had.” Sofia Vives will ride Patches O’Houlihan again in the six-furlong Vigil, which lured six other older runners, including War Bomber. Trained by Norm McKnight, War Bomber passed on the Woodbine Mile after narrowly losing the Grade 2 King Edward to Filo Di Arianna on the grass Aug. 23. The versatile 6-year-old was competitive on the Tapeta in the past. Ontario Matron Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Ontario Matron going 1 1/16 miles attracted 15 fillies and mares, including the Mark Casse-trained trio of Elysian Field, Solo Album, and Forever Dixie. Elysian Field won the 2023 Sovereign Award for champion 3-year-old filly after landing the Woodbine Oaks and running second to Paramount Prince in the King’s Plate. She was all out to win a conditioned allowance/optional claimer on the Tapeta in her third outing of the season July 13 and is coming off a sagging sixth in the Grade 2 Canadian on the grass. “She didn’t run good last time,” Casse recalled. “She must have hit her head on the gate or something, because she had a fair amount of blood coming out of her nose. She didn’t actually bleed when we scoped her.” Solo Album was the runner-up in the Sovereign voting to Elysian Field last year, during which she won the Grade 3 Selene and was demoted from first to fifth in the Grade 3 Ontario Derby in a controversial disqualification. At this meet, she dropped a neck decision to Fashionably Fab in the Grade 3 Belle Mahone before taking the Grade 3 Trillium by a head over Forever Dixie. The erratic Forever Dixie looked rejuvenated in the Trillium, in which she got a career-high 91 Beyer after closing between rivals in that heartbreaking loss. She never fired most recently in the one-turn Canadian on the main turf, which hasn’t been her surface of choice. “She’s like that – in and out,” Casse said. Fashionably Fab is among the leading older females on the grounds. Trained by Kevin Attard, she capped a five-race win streak in stakes with a determined score off a winter layoff in the Belle Mahone on June 1. After finishing a close third in the Trillium, she wound up fourth in the Canadian. Sabatini is taking on older opposition for the first time off a failed turf experiment. She was previously victorious in the Grade 3 Selene on the Tapeta while putting up an 88 Beyer. Josie Carroll trains Sabatini and Ephrata, who is the lone also-eligible. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.