Canadian Horse of the Year Mighty Heart scores sharp, front-running Dominion Day victory

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - To the sound of his screaming fans, the one-eyed champion Mighty Heart went coast to coast in the Grade 3 Dominion Day Stakes on the Canada Day holiday Thursday at Woodbine.

Mighty Heart ($5.80) went straight to the lead under his Queen’s Plate-winning rider, Daisuke Fukumoto, and set a slow opening quarter of 25.23. March to the Arch, the 8-5 favorite, advanced to press Mighty Heart through a half in 48.49, and then joined up on the lead on the far turn, along with longshot Malibu Mambo.

Mighty Heart repelled those challenges early in the stretch, and then drew off to prevail by 1 3/4 lengths, in a time of 1:43.33 for the 1 1/16 miles.

“I breezed him a couple of times, and he was ready to go,” Fukumoto said.

March to the Arch wound up second, while Malibu Mambo faded to finish another three lengths back in third. Lookin to Strike and Skywire completed the order of finish. Belichick and Atoned were scratched.

Mighty Heart, the 2020 Canadian Horse of the Year, earned $108,000 of the $171,300 purse for owner-breeder Larry Cordes.

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Trainer Josie Carroll was all smiles after Mighty Heart’s second straight stakes score, which came just over a month after his gutsy win in the $150,000 Blame at Churchill.

“He had two works after [the Blame], simply because he came out of it so well,” Carroll said. “We sort of had to take the [edge] off him four days ago, so he would settle in this race.”