TORONTO —
Daisuke Fukumoto and Mighty Heart ran away with the $1-million Queen’s Plate on Saturday.
Fukumoto took his one-eyed mount to the lead from the start, then surged to a stunning 7 1/2-length victory in the opening leg of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown at Woodbine Racetrack. Mighty Heart, a 13/1 longshot, lost an eye in a paddock accident with his mother as a foal.
His winning time of 2:01.98 was the second-fastest since 1957 when the Plate was first run at the new Woodbine at its current distance. That effort was second only to Izvestia (2:01 4/5 in 1990).
But Fukumoto, who hit the winner’s circle in his first-ever appearance in this race, said going to the lead from the start wasn’t his original plan.
“He was very sharp so I just let him go,” Fukumoto said. “ I tried to calm (him) a little bit but after the wire he kept going, he didn’t stop there.
“He knew (it was) a big race, that’s why he was sharp. I am lucky. He only has one eye but he’s got a big heart, a mighty heart.”
Fukumoto secured trainer Josie Carroll a third career Queen’s Plate win. Carroll also took second with Belichick, who finished ahead of Plate Trial winner Clayton, the 3/1 second choice.
What was surprising, though, was those two finished ahead of Carroll’s other horse in the race, Curlin’s Voyage. Canada’s champion two-year-old filly and ’20 Woodbine Oaks winner broke from the No. 10 post as the 9/5 favourite but finished fifth.
“I’ll tell you what I thought about (Mighty Heart) was if he got a good trip he’d run all day because this horse just doesn’t pull up,” Carroll said. “Once he gets rolling he just rolls on.
“Certainly, the filly being the favourite and most accomplished I expected her to be the top horse in there. But I had confidence in the other two or they wouldn’t have been in there.”
But Carroll admitted Fukumoto’s race strategy caused her some concern.
“I was watching the fractions and I’m thinking, ‘You’re maybe going a little quick out there. Back it off a little,”’ she said. “But the horse seemed to be running along pretty easily.
“This is becoming a serious horse . . . everything is coming together for him and I think he’s going places.”
Mighty Heart recorded his second win in five career starts – all this year. The $600,000 winner’s share was almost six times as much as he’d won ($53,220) prior to Saturday’s event.
But it was a definitely a most unusual Plate.
The race was originally scheduled to be run June 27 but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was run without fans in the stands.
Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, was in attendance and presented the Queen’s Plate trophy to Mighty Heart’s connections afterwards. Queen Elizabeth II is patron of the Plate but last attended in 2010.
The Plate dates back to 1860 and is North America’s longest, continuously run stakes event. It’s also the opening jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown but is much more than just a horse race.
Woodbine stages a festival around the event that includes outdoor concerts and a variety of social functions. The race has traditionally also had a fashionable flair with many men and women in attendance donning sharp suits or tuxedos with tails and top hats or elegant dresses and lavish headwear.
The usually jam-packed parking lots around the track were empty. The usual roar of the crowd at both the start of the race and especially at the finish, was replaced by an eerie silence.
Ditto for the pari-mutuel betting booths, which stood empty minus the usual lineups of eager bettors hoping to cash in.
“It was a very different day,” said Carroll. “I’d say it was a little calmer because we didn’t have the big crowds in the paddock and things that rile the horses up so much so it was a much quieter day.
“We missed the fans, though. There’s nothing like that moment when your horse is coming back after winning and the fans are applauding and honouring that moment, that performance. That’s one of the most moving things for me so we did miss that.”
However, Carroll said the absence of crowd noise helped Mighty Heart.
“I think in this instance it was probably a good thing,” she said. “He can be a little flighty until he gets used to things so it may have benefited him.”
The remainder of the field, in order of finish, included: Tecumseh’s War; Curlin’s Voyage; Merveilleux; Dotted Line; Glorious Tribute; Truebelieve; Holyfield; Olliemyboy; F F Rocket; Sweepin Hard; and Halo Again.
The second leg is the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes on Sept. 29 at Fort Erie Racetrack. But Carroll wouldn’t say if Mighty Heart will run in the 1 3/16-mile dirt race.
“He trained really well on the dirt in New Orleans over the winter,” Carroll said. “I guess my biggest question is coming back that quickly.
“This year that race (Prince of Wales) comes back awfully quick. You hate to do the wrong thing by a horse that’s just ran his eyeballs out.”
The final Triple Crown event is the $400,000 Breeders Stakes turf race Oct. 24 at Woodbine.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2020.
CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.
Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.
Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.
The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.
Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.
The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.
Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.
Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.
Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.
Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.
Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.
Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.
The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.
Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.
The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.
“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.
“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”
The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.
Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.
“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.
“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”
Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.
Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.
“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.
Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.
The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.
Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”
Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.
Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.
“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”
The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.
Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.
The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.
Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.
“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”
A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.
Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.
“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
