Mighty Heart looking to end 17-year Canadian
Triple Crown drought
TORONTO — He’s chasing Canada’s first Triple Crown in 17 years, but it hasn’t exactly been a meteoric rise for Mighty Heart.
The colt lost his left eye in a paddock accident as a foal and didn’t race as a two-year-old. And a lacklustre start this winter — fourth and 10th-place finishes at Fair Grounds in New Orleans — prompted concern from owner-breeder Lawrence Cordes.
Hall of Fame trainer Josie Carroll, though, preached patience.
“He did ask me at that time, ‘Do I have a horse worth going on with or is this (loss of eye) going to handicap him in any way?” Carroll said earlier this week. “Yes, at that time I did say, ‘Larry, this is a good horse, he just needs some time and needs to figure it out.’ ”
Since then, Mighty Heart has won three-of-four races (finishing third in the other), including the $1-million Queen’s Plate and $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes. A victory today in the $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes — a 1 1⁄2- mile turf event at Woodbine Racetrack — would make Mighty Heart just the eighth winner of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown since the series began in 1959 and first since Wando in 2003.
Mighty Heart is the early evenmoney favourite for the Breeders’ and will break from the No. 8 post in the 12-horse field.
“Obviously I was somewhat disappointed but there was a shining light there,” Cordes said of Mighty Heart’s first two events. “In his first race, he violently threw his head coming out of the gate and lost probably three or four lengths.
“Then, on the first turn, he lost about eight lengths veering out and then another eight lengths veering out on the second turn. But, in the stretch, he made up 16 lengths on some pretty nice horses so there was that glimmer of light. Josie said, ‘Patience, we’ll figure out what this is. He’s got talent.’ ”
That talent was certainly on full display Sept. 12 when Mighty Heart went wire-to-wire for an emphatic 7 1⁄ 2- length Plate victory at13/1odds. Seventeen days later, he came from third on the final turn to win the Prince of Wales as the 6/5 favourite.
Mighty Heart came into the Plate well under the radar.
To many, he was an unknown, the last of Carroll’s three entries behind heralded filly Curlin’s Voyage and Belichick, who eventually finished behind Mighty Heart and will also run today.
“I think these good horses have something intangible,” Carroll said of Mighty Heart. “This horse had that demeanour.
“He had talent but he matured. Every time he ran he got better and I thought going into the Plate this horse was so much on the improve he deserves his shot.”
Carroll can become the first female to train a Canadian Triple Crown champion and just the fifth overall since ’59.
“It’s pretty exciting, but what’s exciting is this horse has a shot to do it,” she said.
“We often go in these races but this horse has shown himself to be a serious contender.”