Congratulations!

A HUGE win for Duke of Love in the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes! Congratulations to all of his owners. Stay tuned for a full race recap to come.

Duke of Love Workout Report

Duke of Love had his first work since the Queen’s Plate this morning over the dirt training track at Woodbine. Working on the outside of Bossy Holiday, the duo stopped the clock in a quick 59.00 seconds. While Josie Carroll would have liked to see a time in the 1:01 range, Justin Stein said Duke was towing him around the track and effortlessly was able to complete the breeze, as well as gallop out way in front of his workmate who had to try hard to stay head and head. Josie confirmed that the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes on Tuesday, September 13th, will be our next start. We will follow up shortly with a paddock lottery, as well as seating options.

Duke of Love Update

Duke of Love has been doing well since the Queen’s Plate and is currently targeting the Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, on September 13th at Fort Erie. The original plan for Duke was to ship to Fort Erie on Sunday or Monday to breeze him over the dirt course there, but with weather in the forecast, Josie Carroll has decided to keep Duke home and work him over the dirt training track at Woodbine tomorrow morning at 8:30.

Duke of Love Update

Duke of Love exited the Queen’s Plate in good physical order. Josie Carroll was a little disappointed with the result, but was still proud of the Duke for bringing his owners and herself on the journey to the Queen’s Plate. A preliminary target is currently the Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, on Tuesday September 13th at Fort Erie Race Track. Once the 3-year-old colt returns to the work tab, our race plan will become more clear.

Jockey Goggles

As Duke of Love marches onward to the Queen’s Plate on Aug. 21, jockey Richard Migliore looks back in this latest episode of Jockey Goggles and discusses the 3-year-old’s trip in his most recent effort, the Plate Trial.

Duke of Love Update

Duke of Love has returned to the track following his race on Sunday and is training towards the Queen’s Plate. Josie Carroll is very happy with the condition Duke has kept coming out of the Plate Trial and believes he is the most relaxed she has seen him after any of his races. Josie said there is a distinction between being tired and relaxed. If Duke was feeling and showing the effects of recently running, she wouldn’t be as pleased as she is now. She said she is very much looking forward to seeing him train over the course of the next few weeks. If you are interested in joining us for the Queen’s Plate, we have a very limited amount of tickets available which can be purchased here.

Duke of Love Update

The Duke bounced out of his fourth place effort in the Plate Trial in good shape. Trainer Josie Carroll said that she was concerned after the race that the Duke may have a few superficial cuts on his forelegs due to being in close quarters down the stretch, but was thrilled to see his legs clean, cold, and tight. If he continues to train well, Duke of Love will likely work 12 days from his last race (July 24th), which would be August 5th.

Duke of Love Race Recap

Duke of Love’s fourth-place finish today in the Plate Trial was actually a terrific effort considering the traffic-plagued trip he encountered in the 1 1/8th-mile stakes at Woodbine.

It was also an effort that has trainer Josie Carroll really pumped to forge on to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Queen’s Plate on Aug. 21 at Woodbine, as has always been the goal for your Cupid colt. She shares her very positive thoughts with our East Coast Racing Manager, Harry Rice, in the above video.

Ridden by his regular partner, Justin Stein, the 3-year-old never really was allowed to do any running until deep stretch when he got into the clear and unleashed a strong run in the final yards, just missing out on securing the third spot.

Duke of Love broke well and took up position on the rail while running in fourth going into the first turn. Never far off the early leaders, Causin’ Mayhem and Dancin in Da’nile, Duke of Love stayed on the rail with the 2-1 favorite The Minkster directly to his outside down the backstretch.

He faced a wall of horses turning for home and then early in the stretch, he was poised to enter a slim opening between horses, but the hole closed and Duke was rerouted to the outside, but he had too much to do at that point, yet still was showing a nice turn of foot when he got in the clear. Among the positives in this effort is that Josie said he had no problems with switching leads and that he was very relaxed down the backstretch and was not carrying his head in that high carriage position we had seen in his prior races.

The race was won by Sir For Sure, who came from off the pace. And it’s worthwhile to note that The Minkster faded and finished sixth. Duke was beaten a total of four lengths.

We lost today’s battle, but the future remains bright for Duke of Love. We will check back in a couple days with how Duke exited his effort and will report back.

We also included some fun photos of one of our very passionate partners who dressed for the occasion today!

Duke of Love Race Recap

A solid second-place finish today from Duke of Love to earn the important distinction of becoming a graded stakes-placed performer in the Grade 3 Marine Stakes at Woodbine.

With his regular partner Justin Stein at the controls, Duke of Love raced several lengths off the early pace in the two-turn, 1 1/16th-mile Tapeta race. He began rolling around the far turn but the eventual winner, Rondure, had the jump on your colt and sailed into the lane with a comfortable lead. Duke kept on battling to the very end and would finish 5 1/2 lengths behind Rondure, who was the runner-up in the Queenston Stakes.

Josie Carroll was very pleased with today’s race. What she particularly liked was that he caught up to the winner on the gallop-out, which is important as the distance of his races increase in the future. The conditioner was also happy to see Duke take some dirt in his face, which is good experience.

“I thought Justin did a great job of tucking him behind horses, and getting some dirt in his face,” Josie told our East Coast Racing Manager, Harry Rice.

She did, however, note her frustration with Duke’s continued lack of switching to his correct in his races. She shared that it is something he does flawlessly in his morning training. She said this possibly could be attributed to the fact he is still relatively young and/or is simply a result of the way he runs, with his head carriage high, which she describes as a “gawky” style of running.

Pending how Duke of Love comes out of today’s effort and trains going forward, he will race in the Plate Trial Stakes on July 24th as a prep for his main summer objective, the Grade 1 Queen’s Plate on Aug. 21. As a reminder to the colt’s partners, we still have some remaining tickets to our Queen’s Plate Weekend Experience and they can be found here.

In the coming days, we will check in with Josie and report back with how your son of Cupid came out of his race.

Grade 3 Marine Stakes Entry

Duke of Love has officially been entered in the $150,000, Grade 3 Marine Stakes on Saturday, July 2nd, at Woodbine. Justin Stein will be back aboard as the established duo will break from post six of eight in the 1 1/16-mile race. If you are interested in joining us on Saturday, we have both our paddock lottery and seating lottery available.