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!