With eighteen horses, including 2023's best two-year-old filly Commandoslastdance, Nault is back in action at the track.
On a warm and sunny Thursday morning, the rail of the training track was crowded with horses from every trainer on the grounds, who appeared to be using the track simultaneously.
Trainer Mike Nault was among many who didn't want to pass up the opportunity to enjoy the much-needed sunshine. Nault had purchased two yearlings at the Manitoba yearling sale, one by Speculating and the other by Vengeful Wildcat, out for exercise.
Now that he's back at the track with eighteen horses, Nault's charges have been training at Miracle Ranch on Garvin Road for a few months, and all of them were galloping well and eager for more. Among them was Commandoslastdance, the probable 2-year-old champion filly from the previous year.
Throughout his career, the 58-year-old trainer has had remarkable success with young horses; his most recent successes were with Commandoslastdance, Lady Cop, and Diamond Digger. This year, he will have five two-year-olds in his barn: the two previously mentioned by Speculating and Vengeful Wildcat, another Manitoba-bred by Nonios, and two that he bought at the Ontario yearling sale—one by Jimmy Creed, the winner of the Malibu Stakes (G1), and another by Echo Town, the winner of the H. Allen Jerkens Stakes (G1).
Nault remarked, "I have a really nice stable this year."
Nault's career record to date is 140-118-138 with 906 starts and $1,573,670 in purse earnings; but, over the last four years, his results have significantly improved. In 2023, he achieved his greatest year to date when he broke through the $300,000 purse ceiling for the first time in his career and won 25 races at a 26 percent clip.
The best one he has ever taught?
"Hidden Grace," remarked Nault, who was also present at Oaklawn Park in 2019 with Escape Clause when that filly finished second in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1), losing by a narrow margin to Midnight Bisou, the greatest female in the world at the time.
Is it appropriate to discuss Commandos Last Dance and the Queens of Manitoba racing in the same sentence? Let's give her some time. Yet as of right now, she appears powerful.