Woodbine Update: Mighty Heart Nears 2021 Debut; Chircop Stable

Larry Cordes’ Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales champion of 2020, MIGHTY HEART, is being pointed to a race at the end of March to launch his 4-year-old campaign.

Trainer Josie Carroll, a finalist for Outstanding Trainer at the April 15 Sovereign Awards, told CanadianThoroughbred.com that the son of Dramedy is “doing very, very well” and she hopes to have the star colt compete at Gulfstream Park towards the end of March.

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“I think he will like the dirt track at Gulfstream,” said Carroll, who has a stable of horses at Palm Meadows this winter. “The track is kind to speed and he has speed.”

Carroll sent Mighty Heart out for a five furlong workout on Wednesday, March 10 in a bullet 1:01.80 at Palm Meadows, his second five furlong prep of the spring.

Carroll also trains BELICHICK who quashed Mighty Heart’s Triple Crown bid in the Breeders’ Stakes last year and said that colt is up to four furlong preps. “He will head up to Woodbine when the Tapeta track opens.” Belichick, by Lemon Drop Kid, is owned by NK Racing and LNJ Foxwoods Stables.

Another exciting horse for Carroll is her first homebred, DEJAS TOO, bred with friends Verne and Donna Dubinsky who raced Queen’s Plate winner Inglorious with Carroll.

A 3-year-old filly by Ami’s Holiday, whom Carroll trained to Breeders’ Stakes and Grey Stakes (G3) wins for Ivan Dalos, Dejas Too is out of the mare Unforgettable Too, also trained by Carroll as well as Greg Tracy in Alberta. Dejas Too won her maiden in her second career start and then was second in the South Ocean Stakes in her final outing as a juvenile in 2020.

“She’s here with me at Palm Meadows,” said Carroll. “It’s fun to have bred her and own her with Verne and Donna.”

Carroll hopes to have her horses back at Woodbine by the end of March to prepare for the opening of the Woodbine season, April 17.

Woodbine Entertainment issued its latest weekly report, March 10, on horses and horsepeople to watch with interviews from Robert Landry, racing manager for Chiefswood Stable and owner/trainer Steven Chircop:

Path to the Plate:

Horse: Weyburn
Sire: Pioneerof the Nile
Dam: Sunday Affair
Trainer: James Jerkens
Owner & Breeder: Chiefswood Stables
Record: 2-1-0 from 4 starts (click here to watch the Gotham Stakes win on March 6, 2021)
Rob Landry shares his thoughts on Weyburn:

On Weyburn’s Gotham score…

“It’s nice to start the year with a win like that. We’ve always had high hopes for this guy. The plan wasn’t really to run in him there – we were going to run him in an allowance race – but as it turned out, it worked out really well. This is what you hope to achieve, to win races like this with good horses. Winning a race like this just solidifies what we’re trying to achieve.”

On the dark bay’s grit down the lane…

“No, I wasn’t surprised. That whole family, Yorkton [a multiple graded stakes winning son of Speightstown-Sunday Affair] was a gutsy-running horse and the same thing with his other half-brother Nipigon [a multiple graded stakes placed son of Niigon-Sunday Affair], who always fought hard. Obviously, seasoning-wise, he’s still a big kid, and it was a big step up for him, going from a maiden win to a graded stakes race. It wasn’t the plan, but good horses overcome those kinds of things. Jimmy [trainer, Jerkens] was really happy with the way he was training and it all worked out.”

On showing his talent early on…

“He trained really well as a young horse when we had him down in Ocala. He was training well and we were really happy with him. Every foal out of that mare [Sunday Affair] has been a runner. That’s always telling too. He was a big, good-looking horse, very athletic and he was showing the signs early. He actually wanted to do more than he was ready to do as a young horse. I’m just happy with our whole team, from our broodmare farm, to our training centre, to our people in Ocala, to Jimmy – it’s a team effort. Everyone has done a tremendous job with this horse. I’m just very happy for everyone and the owners.”

On upcoming plans for Weyburn…

“Obviously, I didn’t nominate him to the U.S. Triple Crown with the way we were going. We had a couple of minor setbacks with a foot bruise and some other little things that caused us to miss a race. I don’t like to force horses somewhere they’re not ready to go. He stepped up and we have a little time to make the supplemental payment for the U.S. Triple Crown. I’ll talk to Jimmy and Mark and Bob Krembil [Chiefswood] as well.”

“We don’t know if that [Queen’s Plate] is the direction we’ll go with him. If we think he’s good enough to compete in the U.S. Triple Crown, being a different schedule, we still do have a shot at being in the Plate. We’ve nominated him for the Plate, but we do have some others that could potentially run in there as well.”

On similarities between Weyburn and Niigon, the Chiefswood horse Landry won the 2004 Queen’s Plate with…

“He does remind me of Niigon. Weyburn is also bred to have the stamina and is built to handle the [1 ¼ mile] distance. This is a really nice horse we have here now.”

Trainer Talk:

Steven Chircop
Career wins: 140

Winter home: “I stayed in Ontario. It’s been a winter full of planning and getting ready for the upcoming season. I’m just like everyone else… I can’t wait to get going again. Getting back into the barn at Woodbine is a great feeling.”

Last season: “It was a pretty decent season considering how short it was because of the pandemic. I would say the standout from 2020 was a horse, Sweet Yare N Dira [a 7-year-old daughter of Biondetti] that I claimed at Gulfstream, who was undefeated on the Woodbine Inner Turf last year. We claimed her for $16,000 and she won for $25,000, $40,000 and $62,000. She won a race on my birthday [July 18], so that was a nice present to have.”

Claim to fame: “Sweet Yare N Dira was very consistent. I went to claim another horse out of the race that I really liked, but the horse got scratched. I liked Sweet Yare N Dira, so I thought that I’d go ahead and claim her. But then I felt like I really didn’t want to rush things and go for her because I didn’t get the other horse. So I didn’t claim her and actually watched her run. She walked out of the gate going 5 furlongs and then won by a couple of lengths. That day, there were no claims for her. I ended up getting her the next start. It was a three-way shake and I got lucky.”

This season: “We bought a bunch of babies. We have 10 2-year-olds, and they’ll be the future of our barn. I’m hoping that Sweet Yare N Dira comes back and is as good as she was last year.”

The more the merrier: “We’ll have 25 horses this year. This is the most number of horses I’ve had in my career. I’ve had 20 and 21 in the past. I do a lot of claiming and the barn gets bigger mid-way through the season. This year, I’ve had a few good owners jump on board and we’ve sent some of the horses to Florida to train. I’m really excited to see what this year holds for us.”

Final furlong: “If someone were to say I had a successful year, I’d say that some of our 2-year-olds turned out to be decent, we finished in the top 15 of the standings, we had fans and owners back, I was able to get my wife and daughter in a win photo, and it was a healthy year for the horses and horsepeople.”

~ with files from Woodbine Entertainment/Chris Lomon