The Duke reigned supreme in the 87th Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown, at Fort Erie on Tuesday. Duke of Love, owned by MyRacehorse, a microshare syndicate based in the U.S., and trained by Hall of Famer Josie Carroll, edged past Ironstone in the sloppy stretch to win by a length under jockey Justin Stein.
Unfortunately, the race favourite, SIR FOR SURE, who was third in the Queen’s Plate, lost his rider Declan Carroll down the backstretch. Sir for Sure was eventually caught by the outrider and Carroll walked away from the scary spill.
Ironstone went to the early lead in the 1 3/16 mile Prince of Wales as expected and clicked out an opening two furlongs in 22.93 and half a mile in 47.41. Duke of Love had broken well from the gate and was eager but Stein wrangled him back and angled him out to the 2 path around the first turn. Duke of Love then tracked Ironstone into the backstretch while Collaborative, Sir for Sure and Ice Road stacked up wide behind the pair.
There was a line of four horses in mid-pack, including Sir for Sure with Ice Road on his outside when Carroll appeared to lose his balance before falling off.
To the final turn, Ironstone was soon joined by Duke of Love as the pair separated themselves from the others and they battled to mid-stretch before Duke of Love edged clear. Ice Road was up for third over Fast Feet.
The final time was 1:58.07.
“The Plate was a throw-out race in my opinion,” said Stein. “Today, when Duke was on the track in post-parade, he had his game face on. He was a lot cooler. His body temperature on Plate Day, he got pretty nervous and warm, a little bit worked up. Today he knew what he was doing. He kept looking back at the gate, like are we going to go? You could just feel his energy was a lot more in tune with what he was supposed to be doing today.”
Trainer Josie Carroll has won this race in prior years with the likes of Mighty Heart and Amis Gizmo.
“He got the trip today. Justin rode him perfectly. We discussed what we were hoping for,” said Carroll. “I wanted Justin off the fence where he wasn’t going to be squeezed down in there and be in a lot of trouble this time. We wanted him to get a nice clear trip. The horse looked a little bit lost in the lead in the stretch, but Justin kept busy on him and got him home.”
MyRacehorse’s East Coast racing manager Harry Rice was on hand to watch Duke of Love persevere and capture the second jewel of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown. He was elated with the victory.
“It was awesome. We have about 900 owners that are involved with Duke. So, to have the 25 that we have here and see him finally put it together — we always knew he was going to — it was something else. We had people who travelled from all over – Americans, Canadians, and it was just an unbelievable day. Justin gave him a great ride, so it was good.”
Duke of Love, a two-time winner coming into the Wales, finished 8th in the Plate behind Moira after a troubled fourth-place finish to Sir for Sure in the Trial.
His career record now stands at 3 wins in 8 starts and earnings of $320,194.
The 3-year-old colt by Cupid – Tell the Duchess by Smart Strike was bred by Dave Whitford, Caldara Farm, Pat Costello, and Tom Zweisler.
The colt was originally a $15,000 weanling purchase by War Horse Place in Kentucky at the 2019 Keeneland November sale. He was sold as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton October in 2020 for $40,000 to Julie Davies and then bought for $85,000 by Myracehorse.com at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Spring Two-Year-Old Sale.
Duke of Love is the second foal of the unraced mare Tell the Duchess who was bred by Sam-Son Farm. Second dam, Classira (Ire), is a winner by Danehill.
Tell the Duchess is now owned by owner and trainer Laura Krasauskaite in Ontario.
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