Runaway Again Upsets Mansetti in Prince of Wales

Runaway Again upset Mansetti and the latter's bid for Canadian Triple Crown glory by defeating the King's Plate winner by a half-length Sept. 9 at Fort Erie in the CA$400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes. The Prince of Wales is the middle leg of the three-race series for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds following the Aug. 16 King's Plate at Woodbine and preceding the Sept. 28 Breeders' Stakes there. Mansetti's defeat means the absence of a Canadian Triple Crown winner for yet another year. Wando in 2003 was the last horse to sweep the three races for Canadian-bred sophomores, the seventh to do so since the Canadian Triple Crown formally was established in 1959. Five horses won the trio of races before the official establishment of the series. Though Runaway Again was no match for Mansetti in the Plate, additional race experience, a shift to dirt, and the return of jockey Ryan Munger made all the difference on Tuesday. The Hard Spun gelding was always traveling comfortably inside while stalking the pace in fourth early, and he mounted a long, steady challenge to go after front-running Mansetti beginning the second turn. The latter initially fended him off, but tired in the final sixteenth of the 1 3/16-mile race. Mansetti finished three lengths ahead of third-place Faber. The Sid Attard-trained Runaway Again, a homebred for Stronach Stables, was clocked in 1:55.64 on a fast track after splits of :23.12, :46.96, 1:10.76, 1:35.87 set by Mansetti. The winner, who made his third career start, returned $18.50 to his backers for a $2 win wager. Munger said his plan was to keep tabs on Mansetti and move when required to go after that rival. He essentially tracked behind the favorite from start to finish, only angling out when needed to commence a bid. "Yeah, fortunately, Mansetti just started to tread water at the end, and that's when he knuckled down and found his feet for a very good one," he said of the victory. Runaway Again, who is out of the Storm Cat mare Golden Venus, gave owner Stronach Stables a second consecutive victory in the Prince of Wales with a homebred following the success with Harold Ladouceur-trained Vitality last year. Attard and Munger notched their first wins in the race. Attard kept open the possibility of Runaway Again running in the Breeders' Stakes, noting the gelding had worked well on grass previously. He said he would monitor how Runaway Again exits the Prince of Wales, and "play it by ear" whether to run. "We ask the boss, and if he says, 'Go,' we go," Attard said of Frank Stronach, the owner of Stronach Stables and Adena Springs, the breeder of record for Runaway Again. Tom's Magic, a troubled second in the King's Plate behind Mansetti and dual stakes winner on turf in the United States, skipped the Prince of Wales Stakes to await the Breeders' Stakes. Runaway Again is the seventh stakes winner in 2025 for Darley America's stallion Hard Spun. He stood this past breeding season for $25,000.