Canadian Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old MIGHTY HEART (Dramedy) gets his first stakes race attempt in the U.S. on May 29 at Churchill Downs in the $150,000 Blame Stakes at 1 1/8 miles.
The Blame is slated as Race 6 with a post time of 3:18 p.m. The race can be used as a prep for the $600,000 Stephen Foster (GII), a “Win and You’re In” event for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) on the June 26 closing day program at Churchill Downs.
Mighty Heart came off his winter vacation to finish a close third in an allowance race at Keeneland on April 17 with a 91 Beyer Speed Figure according to Daily Racing Form. Larry Cordes’ 4-year-old colt, trained by Josie Carroll, led for most of that 1 1/16 mile race before being caught by South Bend, who is in the Blame Stakes, and Empty Tomb, who came back to win an allowance race at Churchill Downs on May 22.
Mighty Heart has drawn post 1 in the Blame with James Graham returning to ride. As a natural speed type, the Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales winner will likely show speed in a tough field which includes a couple of other possible front runners. He is listed at 12-to-1 in the morning line odds.
Steve Landers Racing’s two-time stakes winner and recent runner-up finisher in the $150,000 Ben Ali (Grade III) Night Ops was made the 5-2 morning line favourite for the second running of the Blame Stakes.
Trained by Brad Cox, Night Ops finished a half-length behind fellow Blame rival Silver Dust in the Ben Ali as the 4-5 post time favourite. Previously, the 5-year-old son of Warrior’s Reward won the $100,000 Cornhusker Handicap (GIII) as a 4-year-old and was victorious in the $350,000 Essex Handicap earlier in his 2020 season.
One race earlier on the Churchill Downs card May 29, Al and Bill Ulwelling’s Ontario homebred HADDASSAH (Air Force Blue) makes his second career start in the 1 1/8 mile Audubon Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on the turf. The bay gelding was an impressive debut winner at 1 mile and 70 yards on Tapeta at Woodbine Nov. 1 and has been training in Ontario since the winter. With Woodbine still not open, trainer Kevin Attard has sent some of his horses to the U.S. to race.
Haddassah is in post five in the eight-horse field and this is his grass debut. Mitchell Murrill will ride the Queen’s Plate hopeful. Attard also has the Ulwellings’s Lenny K, also an Ontario-bred, in a maiden race on the card.
*Leading Queen’s Plate contender SAFE CONDUCT starts in the Grade 2 Penine Ridge at Belmont on May 29, a 1 1/8 mile turf race which goes as race nine.
Safe Conduct is 6-to-1 for owner WellSpring Stables and trainer Phil Serpe and is coming off an allowance win on the Belmont turf with an 87 Beyer Speed Figure. The Bodemeister colt was bred in Ontario by Mitch Kursner. Jose Lezcano will ride.
Another Plate hopeful, RIPTIDE ROCK, owned and bred by Stronach Stables, is 7-to-2 in Friday night’s Jersey Derby at one mile on the grass. The son of Point of Entry will get his blinkers back on for his return to turf, the surface on which he won his debut at Woodbine last fall. Jerry Hollendorfer trains.
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