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Horse Racing Blog by Beverley Smith

 

By BEVERLEY SMITH

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Home » Blog » Mighty Heart is Back

Mighty Heart is Back

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Mighty Heart in the post parade of the Breeders Stakes last October. (Photo by Beverley Smith)

Mighty Heart thrives on being an underdog. It’s so Canadian.

One-eyed. Smallish indeed, beside his peers. Recognizable with that hood adorned with a bubble and that way of running low, sticking his neck out for the wire. His heart is always in the right place.

Mighty Heart (8) at the start of the Breeders Stakes (Photo by Beverley Smith)
Mighty Heart quickly takes control. (Photo by Beverley Smith)
Mighty Heart edges out to the lead. (Photo by Beverley Smith)

Well, he’s back. He makes his 2021 debut at home in the Dominion Day Stakes at Woodbine on Thursday, facing a rather salty field, with Skywire, (Canada’s top older male last season with a couple of stakes wins); March to the Arch (second in last year’s Woodbine Mile, winner of the King Edward, Tampa Bay Stakes, and the Wise Dan); Lookin To Strike, (winner of the 2018 Ontario Derby), and Belichick, his stablemate that snapped Mighty Heart’s bid to become a Triple Crown winner in the Breeders Stakes at Woodbine last October.

Belichick winning the Breeders Stakes. (Photo by Beverley Smith)

Mighty Heart comes armed with 2020 Horse of the Year in Canada honours, and a gutsy win in the $150,000 Blame Stakes under the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs on May 29. “He’s got a heart that goes with his name,” said James Graham, who rode him that day. “He’s a very tough individual. Every time he had a horse that came alongside of him in deep stretch, he wanted to stick his neck out to make sure he was still in front. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to ride such a gusty horse like him.”

Mighty Heart won by a nose, charging between horses like Night Opps and Sprawl, who finished third behind Maxfield and Warrior’s Charge in the Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill. Mighty Heart had been the second-longest shot on the board at 9 to 1.

Mighty Heart winning the Blame Stakes by a nose, Sprawl to the inside, Night Opps to the outside. (Photo by Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Belichick lost an allowance race at Keeneland by a nose earlier this season. But he’s big and bold and full of himself.

Daisuke Fukumoto, who rode Mighty Heart to victories in the Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes, gets the mount again on the Horse of the Year. He was aboard when Mighty Heart finished seventh in the Breeders, as the colt went to the lead and was pressed all the way by a 101-1 longshot that finished last. It took its toll.

Daisuke Fukumoto (Photo by Beverley Smith)

Mighty Heart will break from post four in the seven-horse field in the race at 1 1/16th miles.  He won’t be a longshot this time, but he’ll be facing an interesting lineup of older horses at home. It might rain on him that day. But there’s a magic and a mystique about Mighty Heart, humbly born and undaunted by it.

Luis Conteras after his win on Belichick. (Photo by Beverley Smith)
More Belichick, after the wire. (Photo by Beverley Smith)
Belichick, victorious. (Photo by Beverley Smith)
Luis Contreras with his post-victory celebration. Because of restrictions, I’m on the wrong side. He got more dramatic later. (Photo by Beverley Smith)

 

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Filed Under: thoroughbred Tagged With: Belichick, Daisuke Fukumoto, Dominion Day Stakes, Mighty Heart

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Comments

  1. Jessica Buckley says

    June 28, 2021 at 8:03 am

    Great photos Bev. Thanks for posting!

    Reply
    • Beverley says

      June 28, 2021 at 7:48 pm

      Thanks. I may come back, too. We’ll see.

      Reply

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