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.