Duke Of Love A Canadian Classic Winner for Cupid

Cupid scored a Canadian classic winner on Tuesday when the MyRacehorse-owned Duke of Love (3c Cupid x Tell The Duchess, by Smart Strike) won the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie.

Making his first start on the dirt, Duke of Love showed that he relished the surface early on in the 1 3/16-mile race when taking up a spot just behind the leader. He tracked that one throughout the early running before starting to pour the pressure on in the turn.

Coming wide into the stretch, he entered a prolonged battle with the pacesetter and dug in to win by three quarters of a length with the rest of the field over six lengths behind at the line.

Trained by Josie Carroll, Duke of Love was also second in this year’s Grade III Marine Stakes and has over $320,194 in earnings with four top two finishes in eight starts.

The colt was an $85,000 2-year-old purchase at this year’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale by his owner and was bred by Caldara Farm, Patrick Costello, David Whitford, and Tom Zwiesler.

Duke of Love is one of two winners from two to race out of Tell The Duchess, who is out of a half-sister to Grade III winner Humble Eight and six other stakes performers. Among those six is Group II-placed Devoted To You, the dam of Group I Irish Derby winner Sovereign.

Duke of Love is the fourth stakes winner for Cupid in 2022, fifth best among all second crop sires while his eight stakes performers this year is sixth best in the group. He also has the second most 2022 winners of any second-crop sire this year with his runners led by Grade II winner and dual Grade I-placed Desert Dawn.