Mo Town’s Accidental Hero Breaks Through in G3

Placing in three straight stakes races in his starts before the Grade III British Columbia Derby, Accidental Hero (3c Mo Town x Pardonmecomingthru) scored his first stakes victory in the Hastings Grade III on Saturday.

The 1 1/8-mile dirt race saw Accidental Hero break last in the field before taking up his position in midpack to track a dueling pair of leaders. Not much changed for the colt as they raced down the backstretch but as jockey Kimal Santo swung him a few paths wide entering the turn, the colt started to advance toward the leaders. He collared the leader midway around the bend but had to fight his way to the win from there.

Sunbird refused to give in but Accidental Hero proved to be the more determined of the two and had his head in front as they crossed under the wire to give Mo Town his third graded stakes winner.

Accidental Hero has won three of 13 starts with seven other top three finishes. Trained by WYN Racing Stables, he is trained by Larry Grieve and was a $260,000 OBS March purchase as a 2-year-old last year.

The Kentucky-bred colt was bred by Michael Barnett out of the stakes placed Pardonmecomingthru, who has three winners from three to race. That mare is a half-sister to Grade II winner Postponed and stakes winner Bridesmaid in addition to the stakes-placed Tea For Two.

Mo Town has sired four stakes winners in 2023 with nine stakes performers. Both numbers make Mo Town eighth best of all second crop sires. He is the sire of 40 winners overall in 2023.