Table set: Glorious Gem takes on nine in Cup and Saucer

TORONTO, October 2, 2026 – Dale Desruisseaux trainee Glorious Gem will step into the stakes spotlight for the $300,000 Cup and Saucer, Sunday at Woodbine.

A 1 1/16-mile event for Canadian-foaled 2-year-olds run on the E.P. Taylor turf, the Cup and Saucer has drawn 10 hopefuls, including Glorious Gem, a homebred for Garland Williamson’s Hillsbrook Farms.

The daughter of Tonalist out of the Tactical Cat mare Like a Gem (a multiple stakes-winning homebred for Williamson) finished second in her debut on Sept. 13, at seven furlongs on the E.P. Taylor turf.

Sixth of seven early, Glorious Gem went four-wide nearing the three-eighths pole and then seven-wide in upper stretch before finishing 3 ¼-lengths behind the winner.

“The seven-eighths in her first race wasn’t the ideal distance, but we needed to get a race into her before this one,” said Desruisseaux, who is having a career-best campaign. “We told Rafi (jockey, Hernandez) to just let her break, come running and make sure she gallops out really well, which she did.”

The multiple graded stakes winning conditioner recalled his first impressions of the filly.

“I would kind of describe her as a teenage kid going through some growth spurts. She had a string-bean look to her early on, but she has definitely put on some muscle and grew taller. Now, she is a taller, narrower, typical two-turn looking filly.”

Desruisseaux isn’t overly concerned about facing the boys in the Cup and Saucer.

“We think she fits here and we have her ready to go on Sunday. She is a staying-type filly, who looks like she will love to run long, and she even trains that way. She doesn’t have a big turn of foot, but she just grinds away and keeps going that speed the whole way.

“It is asking a lot from her to go into a stakes race for her second start, but you only get one chance to after it, so we made the decision to run her here. We have known from day one that she is the type who wants to run two miles. She is bred to go long. She is a half to Hard Not to Like (a multiple graded stakes winner bred by Williamson, who won the 2011 Cup and Saucer), who was a great filly in her day and then there is Tonalist, which throws distance on distance.”

Irina Sirotinina is the groom.

Recent works: Glorious Gem covered four furlongs in :50.80 over the main track on Sept. 26.

“It was a maintenance breeze, coming back into this one three weeks after her first race,” said Desruisseaux. “We sat behind a horse to teach her to rate a little bit. She went by them at the wire and galloped out very nicely.”

Fast facts: Hall of Fame trainer Jim Day has won 10 editions of the Cup and Saucer, including seven straight runnings from 1984-1990. Suffern, a son of Sweeper out of the Marathon mare Saffron, won the inaugural edition in 1937. The bay went 14-4-8 from 54 career starts. ​

Wagering menu for the Cup and Saucer: Includes Rolling Double / Exacta / 0.20 Trifecta / 0.20 Superfecta / $1 Swinger.

Field for the Cup and Saucer Stakes

Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer

1 – King’s Counsel – Daisuke Fukumoto – Barb Minshall

2 – Barger – Jose Campos – Sid Attard

3 – Mo Cookie – Rico Walcott – Mike De Paulo

4 – Bunyan – Fraser Aebly – Kevin Attard

5 – Canada – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Mark Casse

6 – Sunny’s Rainbow (S) – Luis Contreras – Mike De Paulo

7 – Whatta Move – Pietro Moran – Josie Carroll

8 – Glorious Gem – Rafael Hernandez – Dale Desruisseaux

9 – Road to Glory – Ryan Munger – John Charalambous

10 – Ghostface – Sahin Civaci – Mark Casse

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Chris Lomon, Woodbine

Glorious Gem at Woodbine