We have shipped Duke of Love from Canada to Kentucky as we continue to work on finding him a home. We have been exploring possible stud options, knowing his value is pretty limited, but have come up empty to this point. We will give that one more push, but if unsuccessful will secure alternate retirement plans that don’t involve a breeding career.
Duke of Love had his second work back on Monday morning since his most recent race and was credited with a half mile in :49.40 over the all-weather surface at Woodbine. Josie remains pleased with your son of Cupid overall, despite the disappointing effort last out and believes the lack of pace in the race really worked against him. We are finalizing a next race spot with Josie and will report back once we do. We have a few options in early August at Woodbine, but are also exploring the possibility of shipping to run on dirt next out.
Duke of Love breezed five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Woodbine this past Saturday morning. We caught up with Josie Carroll this morning, and she reported that everything remains in good order for you son of Cupid. She did nominate him to the G2 Eclipse S., but prefers to wait for an allowance race to build his confidence back up. As soon as a specific spot in targeted, we will relay that information, but we are keeping our eye out for any possible extras in the short term.
We checked in with Josie Carroll, who remains very pleased with how Duke of Love exited his comeback to the races on Mar. 1. He returned to the work tab on Thursday, breezing a half-mile in :48.75 while on the inside of Forty N Five. While Duke of Love’s breezes are never going to look flashy, Josie thought he worked well and switched his leads earlier than normal, having the help of that mate to his outside to keep him focused. He finished about a head back at the wire, but then galloped out better of the two, which has been very common in his works.
Click here to view the breeze, courtesy of XBTV.
Duke of Love is doing great at Palm Meadows Training Center. Trainer Josie Carroll has been trying to breeze him the last few days but she has been unhappy with the track surface due to weather. Josie is anticipating better weather and a good track tomorrow and hopes to breeze him then. He will only breeze an official three furlongs but will gallop out a half-mile as she believes he’s pretty fit as we expected.
If he does not breeze back tomorrow, expect to see him on the work tab later this week.
Duke of Love remained on his usual work schedule this morning at Woodbine, covering five furlongs in 1:00.80 (2/3) over the all-weather track. Since this was his second work back following some missed time, Duke picked up the pace nicely.
As previously mentioned, there is a seven furlong allowance race we could consider in early July but at that time we should be able to glance at the new condition book which may have a two turn option.
Duke of Love picked up the pace on Friday morning at Palm Meadows Training Center, covering five furlongs in 1:02.45 over a wet fast track. Your son of Cupid broke off at a very easy tempo and as you will see in the video, was forced to work a few paths off of the inside rail. He stayed on his left lead throughout most of the stretch before flopping to his right lead at the wire. Being his first real five-eighths and doing it over a track that had moisture in it, his lack of lead change is not a major concern but we’ll see how he returns next week with this work now under his belt.
Duke of Love’s work can be seen here. This link leads to an XBTV workout hub. To unlock access to professional workouts, please sign up for a free 1ST bet account if you haven’t already.
Following our most recent update, trainer Josie Carroll opted to wait a little bit longer before shipping Duke of Love to South Florida but we are pleased to report your son of Cupid arrived at Palm Meadows this afternoon. We’ll get with Josie regarding her tentative plan for the coming weeks and report back with an additional update.
Following our most recent update, Duke of Love started tack-walking and improving each week. Trainer Josie Carroll is pleased with his progress and reported that our son of Cupid could ship to Palm Meadows in Florida as soon as next week. We will follow up with shipping arrangements as soon as they are made.
Duke of Love returned to the track at Woodbine and is getting back into a routine. We are still very proud of his performance, as he earned one of the top speed figures for that week. Our team will be checking up on him this weekend and we’ll follow up with content from the track and from trainer Josie Carroll. You can still watch that win in the G3 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes on repeat by clicking here. If you are interested in purchasing an official winner’s circle photo, click here. Congratulations again to all owners and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for our 4-year-old.
Photo credit: Lola Nichol