Mighty Heart enters Dominion Day Stakes on high note; $66K carryover in pick five
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Off a determined stakes score at Churchill Downs, 2020 Canadian Horse of the Year Mighty Heart returns to Woodbine in Thursday’s $150,000 Dominion Day Stakes, when the one-eyed fan favorite meets six others.
The Grade 3 event has been shortened from its traditional distance of 1 1/4 miles to 1 1/16 miles.
Thursday’s card also features a $66,725 carryover in the pick five, which starts in the day’s second race.
Mighty Heart won last year’s Queen’s Plate here and the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie, but his bid to sweep the Canadian Triple Crown fell well short going 1 1/2 miles on turf in the Breeders’ Stakes.
Mighty Heart capped his campaign with a front-running fourth in the Grade 3 Ontario Derby. He was also on the lead before weakening to third in his season opener in a third-level allowance at Churchill. He won his last start there in the $150,000 Blame on the dirt from a pace-pressing position by a nose in a blanket finish.
Trainer Josie Carroll said Mighty Heart ran to his name in the 1 1/8-mile Blame under James Graham.
“At the top of the lane, I thought he was tiring,” Carroll recalled. “And then, he just dug in. I’ve always said he’s a scrappy horse. He doesn’t mind being in tight. The rider said to me the tighter they made it, the harder he ran. He’s a very game horse.”
Carroll felt it was important for Canadian racing to see Mighty Heart acquit himself well in the United States.
“What made me feel really good about it is our Horse of the Year went south of the border and distinguished himself as a horse who can compete in stakes anywhere,” Carroll said. “He’s not just a good Canadian horse.”
Carroll has another serious contender in Belichick, who rallied for second on a speed-favoring Tapeta in the Queen’s Plate, before graduating in style in the Breeders’.
Belichick got the winter off after finishing second in the Ontario Derby, and lost an allowance route by a nose when coming off the sidelines at Churchill Downs on May 13. Carroll said she was content with his comeback race on the grass.
“I thought he ran with some pretty nice horses and just got a little tired,” Carroll said. “He’d been off a long time.”
Trainer Mark Casse entered Skywire, Lookin to Strike, and March to the Arch.
Skywire was voted the Sovereign Award for champion older male main-track runner last year, when he prevailed in the Grade 2 Eclipse and Grade 2 Autumn.
Lookin to Strike finished fifth, while Skywire was seventh, when they both returned from a layoff in the March 27 Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway.
Turf expert March to Arch, runner-up in last year’s Woodbine Mile, has been working right along on the Tapeta for his first start of the year.