Two-time Canadian Horse of the Year and wildly popular MIGHTY HEART is back in Canada.
The 5-year-old bay horse, owned and bred by Larry Cordes and trained by Josie Carroll, heads a field of six for the STELLA ARTOIS ECLIPSE STAKES (G2) on Sunday, May 29 at Woodbine. This marks the return of the Eclipse Stakes, which was not run in 2021 due to the late start of the racing season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Eclipse, named for the great racehorse and stallion, was first run in 1956. It is race 7 on Sunday at Woodbine with a post time of 4:27 p.m.
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One-eyed Mighty Heart (Dramedy – Emma’s Bullseye by City Place) was the 2020 Horse of the Year based on his Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales victories, two thirds of the Canadian Triple Crown, in front of empty grandstands due to the pandemic.
Mighty Heart won the Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs in the spring of 2021 before making a splashing return to Woodbine on Canada Day, July 1, winning the Dominion Day Stakes (G3). That was the first day that fans were allowed back at Woodbine as the pandemic restrictions were eased.
The feisty horse went on to finish second in the Grade 3 West Virginia Governors Stakes at Mountaineer and Seagram Cup (G3) at Woodbine. He won the Grade 2 Autumn Stakes in November and was third to Fearless in the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday at Gulfstream.
The 2022 season did not start off smoothly for Mighty Heart as he faded in the Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland after setting the pace.
“I’m really glad to have him home,” said Carroll. “We didn’t have a great effort at Keeneland, but in retrospect, he wasn’t overly fond of the surface he was training on over the winter, and probably was not as tight as he should have been. I regret maybe running him a little bit, but I really thought he was ready. After the race, he was just very tired. So, we got a couple of really good works into him now, and he’s just tearing the place down. We’re really excited to run him.”
The bay sports a record of 6-2-3 from 17 career starts along with earnings of $1,077,265 (US).
“He’s a horse that very much likes his routine, and now he’s back in his steady, daily… doing what he’s used to doing,” offered Carroll. “He’s an unusual horse that way. The nice thing about him is that he’s versatile. I think we have to leave it a lot to the rider and see how the race plays out. This horse can win on the lead, he can from just off the pace, he can win in between horses – he does like to engage a horse. He’s a bit of a scrapper.”
Patrick Husbands, who rode Mighty Heart to the Autumn win last fall and has worked the horse at Woodbine this spring, returns to ride.
Mighty Heart meets up with the 2021 Champion 3-year-old colt FROSTED OVER, trained by Mark Casse, graded stakes winner SPECIAL FORCES from the Kevin Attard barn and 2021 Plate runner-up RIPTIDE ROCK.
STELLA ARTOIS ECLIPSE STAKES FIELD
Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer
1 – Special Forces – Justin Stein – Kevin Attard
2 – Frosted Over – Kazushi Kimura – Mark Casse
3 – Mighty Heart – Patrick Husbands – Josie Carroll
4 – Riptide Rock – Rafael Hernandez – Sid Attard
5 – Artie’s Storm – David Moran – Paul Buttigieg
6 – Seventyseven Stone – Omar Moreno – Paul Lepiane
Mighty Heart’s biography is now available on Amazon and Chapters:
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