TORONTO—Sunday’s Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine, the Canadian version of the Belmont Stakes, promises to be a grueling test of speed and stamina as a baker’s dozen of 3-year-old colts and geldings try to navigate 1 1/2 miles of soggy grass while lugging 126 pounds.

Talk about handicapping challenges.

None of the 13 has ever run this far. Four of them, including morning-line favorite Eye of the Leopard, have never raced on grass before. Nine have never won on grass. What’s a bettor to do?

The Happy Handicapper has come up with Reservoir, a 6-1 shot with three things going for him: he’s fresh, he’s won on grass and he’s bred for the turf.

When last seen in competition, the chestnut gelding led the Queen’s Plate for a half-mile, fell a bit behind and, as chart-caller Paul Turney put it, “forced the issue to the far turn, gave way a little, chased to the stretch and tired” to finish 11th by 19 lengths after 1 1/4 miles .

It wasn’t the kind of race that gets a horse into the Hall of Fame, but it still was a decent effort, considering it was just the third start of the horse’s racing career, which just began May 6.

“It was his third start and we probably threw a lot at him in a short period of time,” said trainer Julia Carey, who said she didn’t intend for Reservoir to go to the top.

“I could feel that he was a little tense and then when they came out of the chute . . . the crowd, they all roared, and poor [jockey] Jimmy [McAleney] had no chance of getting him settled,” Carey said.

After the Plate, Carey skipped the Prince of Wales. (“He’s not a dirt horse, that would have been a waste of time,” she said.) Instead, she “turned him out for a few days” and then trained him with two stiff 5-furlong breezes (in 1:01 and 1:00 1/5) on the Woodbine main (synthetic surface) track. (Because of the wet weather, there has been little recent training for any horses on the Woodbine training track or main turf track.) Also, in an apparent effort to help Reservoir be more relaxed, Carey will remove the blinkers he has worn for his three previous races.

Reservoir’s second career race, the one just previous to the Plate, was a victory by a head over 1 1/8 miles of the Woodbine turf course. The race, clocked in 1:48 2/5, earned a Daily Racing Form Beyer Speed Figure of “82,” the co-highest of any turf performance by Breeders’ entrants.

Reservoir apparently has inherited his grass ability from his sire, Sky Classic, Canada’s champion grass horse of 1991, the year he won the Rothman’s International over 1 1/2 miles of grass. Reservoir’s Tomlinson turf number—a Racing Form pedigree indicator—is a “312,” second-highest in the Breeders’ field.

“He’s coming into it in very good shape, it’s just a matter of whether he can beat those guys or not,” Carey said.

After Reservoir, the H. H. has been most impressed by Parabola and Eye of the Leopard.

Parabola, a chestnut gelding trained by Barbara Minshall, earned an 82 Beyer in winning his last race, a 1 1/16 allowance race on the grass July 8.

Minshall said she originally had pointed Parabola for the Plate, but had to back off because of some “blood issues” that have since been solved.

“He has a nice, long low stride so I thought he might like the turf,” Minshall said. “He ran well enough [on July 8] and I thought the [Breeders’] race was wide open enough that he deserves a shot. . . . You’re only 3 [years old] once.”

Minshall, however, admits that “If I was just a handicapper, I’d say that Eye of the Leopard is the horse to beat.”

Eye of the Leopard, the Queen’s Plate winner who finished third by a half-length in the Prince of Wales at Fort Erie, is the obvious class of the race with earnings of $785,540 from three wins in five starts.

Although his sire, 1992 North American Horse of the Year A. P. Indy, is not primarily known as a grass-horse producer, Eye of the Leopard has such a strong turf pedigree on the side of his dam (Eye of the Sphynx), that he has the highest Tomlinson turf number (337) in the race.

“The whole family’s turf,” said trainer Mark Frostad. “The mile and a half won’t be a problem and the turf shouldn’t be a problem, although he’s never been on it.”

Despite his optimism, Frostad—who’s looking for his fourth Breeders’ win, and third for Sam-Son Farms—has some history to buck. Since the opening of Woodbine’s new European-style turf course in 1995, only one Queen’s Plate winner (Triple Crown winner Wando in 2003) has been able to win the Breeders’ Stakes.

The H. H. will play Reservoir (No. 13) to win and place and put him in an exacta box with Parabola (No. 7) and Eye of the Leopard (No. 4). That’s what one bettor’s going to do.