162nd Queen's Plate: "Chance of a Lifetime" for Breeder Kursner

There are 16 horses expected to compete for $1 million in the 162nd Queen’s Plate this Sunday at Woodbine. A lot of things have to go right for an owner, trainer, or breeder to have a horse make the final field.

That fact is not lost on Mitch Kursner, who orchestrated the breeding of his mare Duchess Dancer (Congrats) to Kentucky stallion Bodemeister to get SAFE CONDUCT, one of the contenders in the 1 1/4 mile Canadian classic.

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In a short span, Kursner’s boutique broodmare business has attracted North American attention and Safe Conduct has been a big part of that. Kursner only bought Duchess Dancer in the fall of 2016, one of the first two mares he purchased.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” said Kursner, an owner/operator of an industrial commercial construction company in Toronto. “My wife Marla keeps telling me to relax and enjoy it, but by Sunday I think I will be a basket case.”

And while, yes, luck plays a role in anything horse racing related, this is not a fly-by-night story of an Ontario breeder. Kursner has been a lover of horse racing since his grandfather Hy took him to the track often. “My grandfather never owned horses but he knew all the big guys back then,” said Kursner. “He knew trainers Lou Cavalaris, Yonnie Starr and Frank Merrill.”

Kursner, an avid bettor and pedigree buff, began dabbling in claiming horses in the late 1980s. When his career got too busy he left racing for a while before returning in the early 2000s seeking shared ownership of higher-quality horses. He joined forces with trainer Catherine Day Phillips, who trained for some of the leading owners and breeders in the country.

“At Catherine’s barn you have David Anderson, Sean Fitzhenry and Richard Day,” said Kursner. “They set the bar high in breeding.”

In 2016 Kursner, Anderson, Day Phillips and John Fielding won the Woodbine Oaks with Neshama, a day Kursner will always treasure.

“It was amazing owning a part of a horse who won a Canadian classic, but my heart has always been into trying the breeding.”

Kursner was attracted to Duchess Dancer because of her famous half-brother, Canadian Horse of the Year and graded stakes-winning sprinter Fatal Bullet, raced by Bear Stables. He bought her for $95,000 (US) in foal to Carpe Diem and that first offspring, brazenly named Queen’splate Nolan, brought $70,000 as a yearling.

Safe Conduct is the mare’s second foal and he was sold as a weanling at the 2018 Keeneland November sale for $45,000. The colt was born at Mike Carroll’s former Grandview Farm in Bellwood, ON.

Safe Conduct as a foal at Grandview Farm – courtesy Mitch Kursner

“He was a smashing looking weanling,” said Kursner. “But Bodemiester was a bit soft at the time commercially so I decided to sell him as a weanling. I was there the day he sold and the fellow who bought him for Mr. (Robert) Vukovich was excited he got him.”

When Safe Conduct won his second career race at the prestigious Saratoga meeting last summer, Kursner was thrilled.

“My daughter Halee was filming me watching the race,” laughed Kursner. “You would have thought I needed to be institutionalized.”

Trained by Phil Serpe for Vukovich, Safe Conduct did not race again until this winter, finishing second in a nine-furlong turf race at Gulfstream before he won an allowance race at Belmont at 38-to-1 by 2 1/2 lengths.

That’s when stuff started to get real.

The Plate was put on Safe Conduct’s schedule, but subsequent outings in the slop (the off-the-turf Pennine Ridge Stakes) and on soft turf in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby did not work out well. Still, the colt has shown plenty of ability to be among the top contenders in the Plate if he takes to the Tapeta surface. Irad Ortiz Jr. will ride on Sunday.

Duchess Dancer has a nifty Collected colt coming up in the 2021 Keeneland September yearling sale and a weanling filly by Munnings.

Kursner’s most recent mare purchase, one of three broodmares he has at Gail Wood’s farm in Hillsburgh, is Cafe Matcha, a well-bred, attractive Medaglia D’oro mare he bought with Carroll. Cafe Matcha, a half-sister to Champion Sprinter Points OfftheBench, has her first foal, a More Than Ready colt who was accepted to the recent Saratoga sale, catalogued for Keeneland September.

Incredibly, Safe Conduct is not the only Kursner-bred headed for a big race in Canada. Bodemonster, another Bodemeister, is headed to the Canadian Derby at Century Mile.

Kursner is grateful for the people around him who have helped on his quest to have a top Canadian breeding operation. “You are only as good as your team. I have learned a lot from Mike Carroll and Gail Wood and had a lot of help from Marette Farrell and so many others.”

A popular and personable member of the horse racing industry in Ontario, Kursner is on “Cloud 15” as the Plate nears.

“Owning a horse who wins a big race, or any race, that is an amazing thing,” said Kursner. “Breeding one yourself that gets to a big race like the Plate? That brings it to a whole other level.”