Mighty Heart

Mighty Heart needed three races to secure his first career win, making his first start on a synthetic track on the all-weather Tapeta Footings surface at Woodbine in July 2020 and surging to a 4 ¼-length wins. Two starts later he became a Canadian classic winner when he rolled to a dominant 7 ½-length romp in the Queen’s Plate at odds of 13.25-1.

Mighty Heart, who lost his left eye in a paddock accident when he was just two weeks old, quickly became a feel-good story during the year of the COVID-19 pandemic and a fan favorite in Canada. He followed his Queen’s Plate victory with a 2 ½-length win in the Prince of Wales Stakes to move within one win of sweeping the Canadian Triple Crown, but he came up short when he set the pace and faded to seventh in the Breeders’ Stakes Oct. 24. He closed out his 3-year-old season with a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Ontario Derby in November.

Mighty Heart returned from an extended layoff April 17, 2021, at Keeneland for his 4-year-old bow and set the pace in a 1 1/16-mile dirt race before fading late and finishing third. He regained his top form by outlasting Night Ops and Sprawl to win a thrilling edition of the $150,000 Blame Stakes May 29 at Churchill Downs.

In his return to his home country, Mighty Heart showed plenty of heart in the Grade 3 Dominion Day Stakes, turning back all challengers in the stretch for the victory. It was his first graded stakes victory, and the first one in the career of jockey Daisuke Fukumoto.

Mighty Heart next finished second in two straight Grade 3 stakes – the West Virginia Governor’s Cup at Mountaineer and the Seagram Cup Stakes back at Woodbine – before running fourth in the Grade 3 Durham Cup at his home track in October.

On Nov. 14, the two-time Canadian classic winner notched his first Grade 2 victory when he led from the start and turned back a challenge from 2019 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets winner Sir Winston to take the Autumn Stakes at Woodbine by three-quarters of a length.