Mighty Beau should set up well for closers
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The way things have gone this Churchill Downs meet for the trainer Wesley Ward, the Mighty Beau Stakes will feature a destructively fast pace, fall apart, and land in the lap of the Ward-trained No Nay Hudson.
“Hot barn” rubbish aside, this could really happen. The Mighty Beau is a $225,000 grass race contested at five furlongs. Of course, some very quick horses who would prefer to lead are entered – that’s the nature of this game. But there comes a breaking point, pace-wise, to every race of any sort, and the Mighty Beau might cross on over to the other side of it.
From the inside out: Sweet Dani Boy, Doncho, Joe Shiesty, Nothing Better, and Schwarzmeier. That’s half the Mighty Beau’s 10 entrants whose stylistic preference looks simple: Blast out of the gate and see where it takes you.
No more than nine will actually run in the Mighty Beau, since Works for Me, a major player, races instead in the Jaipur at Saratoga, trainer Joe Lee said.
Of the pace players, Joe Shiesty stands the best chance of holding up, partly because he once nearly won an important turf sprint from off the pace, and partly because he’s just the best horse in the Mighty Beau.
Closing in on $1 million in earnings five months into his 5-year-old season, Joe Shiesty won this race by a neck last year when almost run down by the Ward-trained Arrest Me Red after working his way into a clear lead. Joe Shiesty, trained and partly owned by Eric Foster, went through a period of breaking more poorly than usual during the latter part of his 2025 campaign. He did so in the Grade 2 Woodford last fall at Keeneland and closed to within a neck of victory, but that’s not how Joe Shiesty wants to run and has been running.
After fading to fifth in a below-par effort at Keeneland in the Shakertown on April 4, Joe Shiesty hit a high note May 2 in the Grade 2 Turf Sprint at Churchill, where he led to the last jumps, beaten a neck by the sharp Yellow Card. Problem is, Joe Shiesty has pace rivals drawn inside and out Saturday. Jockey Fernando De La Cruz could face touch choices.
Troubleshooting can stalk and pounce – and is good enough – but will have to wend his way through traffic after breaking from post 2. No Nay Hudson, meanwhile, drew outside.
Ward came into this racing week with 10 winners from just 27 starters at the meet. That puts him one win out of second behind two barns that have run 53 and 76 horses, respectively, and five behind leading trainer Joe Sharp, who has had 79 starters.
No Nay Hudson failed to put his best hoof forward in his last start, the Shakertown, but has hit a high enough level to post an upset. His lone start over the Churchill course yielded a win in the 2023 William Walker Stakes. Joe Shiesty won the same race a year later. Joe Shiesty, at base, is a better horse than No Nay Hudson, but “better” alone often does not suffice to win a horse race.
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