Two-time Canadian Horse of the Year MIGHTY HEART, the 2020 Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes winner, will make his first start since March of 2023 when trainer Jonathan Thomas sends him out at Finger Lakes on July 31.
Mighty Heart, now a gelding, was at Ballycroy Training Centre following his brief racing campaign in the winter of 2023. There was not much interest in the horse for stud duty so owner Lawrence Cordes had the horse gelded. He was then returned to training and Thomas, a Kentucky-based conditioner who has been working with Mighty Heart since this past March.
“He’s training well,” said Thomas. “He’s enthusiastic, dappled out.”
Thomas, who has trained for giants of the turf such as George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stables, said the Finger Lakes race is a good place to get Mighty Heart started after the long layoff.
“We’re trying to just get a race for him under his belt. I wouldn’t put him in a stakes race right off the bat but these conditioned allowance races are rare.” The Finger Lakes race is for non-winners of a race since January 2024.
Mighty Heart is one of seven horses entered in the $26,000, one-mile dirt allowance race at Finger Lakes on Wednesday. The race is the seventh, set to go off at 3:54 p.m.
A millionaire, Mighty Heart went on from his championship three-year-old season to win graded stakes races at Woodbine plus the Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs. He won an allowance race at Tampa Bay Downs in 2023 but was unplaced in subsequent outings. The son of Dramedy is now seven. Andre Worrie will ride Mighty Heart on Wednesday.
Mighty Heart, who has one eye, is the subject of a popular book, Run With a Mighty Heart, available on Amazon.
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