Duke of Love Duels Ironstone to Prince of Wales Victory
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Photo: Michael Burns
Duke of Love wins the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie
The 87th running of the Prince of Wales Stakes was one for the history books, with Duke of Love dueling Ironstone through a gutsy stretch run to capture the race with Justin Stein aboard Sept. 13 at Fort Erie.
After moving through fractions of :22.83, :47.41, 1:11.73, and 1:37.57, it was Duke of Love who came out on top to win the 1 3/16-mile event in 1:58.07.
Ironstone finished second, while Ice Road settled for a third-place finish.
Duke of Love paid $7.10 to win and improved his record to 3-1-0 from eight starts. His earnings rose to $320,194.
The son of Cupid is owned by micro-share racing syndicate MyRacehorse and trained by Josie Carroll.
Capturing the second jewel of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown is a feeling Stein can describe candidly.
"I'm on a high. Put it that way. It will last all day, and tomorrow, and probably into Thursday," Stein said.
Prior to this race, Stein had ridden the horse in six of his seven career starts, including the Queen's Plate.
"The Plate was a throw out race in my opinion. Today, when Duke was on the track in post-parade, he had his game face on. He was a lot cooler. His body temperature on Plate Day, he got pretty nervous and warm, a little bit worked up," Stein said. "Today he knew what he was doing. He kept looking back at the gate, like are we going to go? You could just feel his energy was a lot more in tune with what he was supposed to be doing today."
Trainer Josie Carroll has won this race in prior years with the likes of Mighty Heart and Amis Gizmo.
"He got the trip today. Justin rode him perfectly. We discussed what we were hoping for," said Carroll. "I wanted Justin off the fence where he wasn't going to be squeezed down in there and be in a lot of trouble this time. We wanted him to get a nice clear trip. The horse looked a little bit lost in the lead in the stretch, but Justin kept busy on him and got him home."
MyRacehorse's East Coast racing manager, Harry Rice was on hand to watch Duke of Love persevere and capture the second jewel of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown. He was elated with the victory.
"It was awesome. We have about 900 owners that are involved with Duke. So, to have the 25 that we have here and see him finally put it together. We always knew he was going to. It was something else. We had people who travelled from all over—Americans, Canadians, and it was just an unbelievable day. Justin gave him a great ride, so it was good."