Luster rebounds on Tapeta to win Selene Stakes at Woodbine

Luster turned Woodbine’s Tapeta back into an asset on Saturday, and the Selene Stakes paid off immediately. The 3-year-old filly drew clear by 1 3/4 lengths in the Grade 3 at 1 1/16 miles, stopped the clock in 1:44.06 and gave trainer Josie Carroll and rider Fraser Aebly a first graded stakes victory with a horse whose ceiling now looks tied to the synthetic surface.

The win mattered because it answered the one real question hanging over Luster after her loss in the Ruling Angel Stakes last month. On June 27, she settled into the race and finished it herself, going straight past Katie’s Grace, who was second by a nose over Dixie Law. Luster carried 120 pounds, held the 7-5 favorite’s burden and did not need a runaway kick to make the point. She was simply better when the race asked for a finish.

The Selene was worth $150,000 guaranteed, with total value listed at C$178,200, or US$125,542, and it served as another strong data point for a filly whose profile is rising with each start. Luster is now 3-for-4 lifetime and 2-for-3 this year, a line that reads less like a fluke than a horse still figuring out how dangerous she can be. She is by Knicks Go out of Ruby Frost, by The Factor, and the pedigree only adds to the intrigue because Knicks Go, the 2021 Horse of the Year and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, has already produced graded-level runners in his first crop.

The chart listed Luster as a gray or roan filly foaled Feb. 25, 2023, in Ontario, bred by Mr. Ravi Sugrim and Ms. Joannie Dass, and owned by Gainesway Stable, Antony Beck and Andrew Rosen. Those details matter because the Selene did more than add black type. It confirmed that the switch back to Tapeta can sharpen her best weapon, and that matters at Woodbine, where the all-weather program has a habit of sorting out the fillies with the most versatile form.

That makes the Woodbine Oaks Presented by Stella Artois the obvious next marker. The July 19 race, the 71st running, is set for 1 1/8 miles on the all-weather surface with a $500,000 purse, and the Selene has now become the launch point for the filly who may be best suited to keep climbing there. Dixie Law, a graded stakes winner and a 2025 Sovereign Award finalist, came in with real stakes credentials of her own, but Luster was the one who settled the surface argument and left the division with a new benchmark.