Breaking Lucky outruns Shaman Ghost to win Prince of Wales
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Breaking Lucky, a 13-1 outsider trained by Reade Baker, outran the 3-5 favorite Shaman Ghost and Field of Courage to land the 80th running of the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, the middle leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, at Fort Erie on Tuesday.
With Jim McAleney aboard, Breaking Lucky trailed in the seven-horse field while saving ground early, as Cut to the Chase set moderate fractions in the 1 3/16-mile route for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds. Breaking Lucky awaited room on the far turn and then commenced a wide rally at the quarter pole. He hit the front with an eighth left before holding off a late bid along the rail from Shaman Ghost, and got home on top by a neck in 1:56.59.
“Everything worked out really well today,” McAleney said. “Everywhere I went, it opened up. I’m just so happy for this horse. He deserves it. He’s always been a nice horse, and he always tries really hard.”
Owned by Gunpowder Farm, Breaking Lucky ($28.10) banked $300,000 for his first stakes victory. The son of Lookin At Lucky was coming off a deceptively good fifth in the opening Triple Crown race, the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine, during which he made an early move into a hot pace before tiring.
Field of Courage took control in early stretch of the Prince of Wales, but weakened to finish another neck back in third. He was followed by Scorch, Conquest Boogaloo, Plate runner-up Danish Dynaformer, and Cut to the Chase.
* On the undercard, Tahnee shattered the five-furlong course record in an authoritative gate-to wire score in the $75,000 Rainbow Connection Stakes for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.
Tahnee ($5.30) prevailed by 3 3/4 lengths and covered the distance in 56.10 under Eurico Da Silva. Owned by CS Dowson Farm and trained by Mark Fournier, she earned $45,000 for her first stakes success.
“She was going very fast and traveling easily on the lead,” said Da Silva. “She was training very good. She was ready to run today. The track was very fast. It didn’t surprise me that she broke the track record.”