The preps have been run, the post-position draw has been made, the morning line is set, and a field of 10 colts and two fillies is ready to make a run for history in the $1,000,000 Grade I (Can.) Queen’s Plate, the oldest continuously run stakes race in North America. The race, for Canadian-bred three-year-olds, and the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, goes 1 ¼ miles over Woodbine’s Polytrack this Sunday, July 7, 2013. Post time is 5:38 PM ET.
Sam-Son Farms Up With The Birds has been installed as the 2-1 ML favorite. A son of Stormy Atlantic, he has never finished worse than third in six lifetime starts, and most recently handily won the Marine Stakes at Woodbine. Sam-Son will be chasing their sixth Plate victory, the most recent coming with Eye of the Leopard in 2009. The filly Nipissing, winner of this year’s Woodbine Oaks, is the early second choice at 7-2, while Dynamic Sky, a nose-winner of the Plate Trial, rounds out the top three at 4-1.
Following those top choices will be Pyrite Mountain (6-1), His Race To Win, who fell just short to Dynamic Sky in the Trial, and the filly Spring In The Air, the beaten favorite in the Oaks, both at 10-1. Rounding out the field are Midnight Aria (15-1), Kaigun, Jagger M and River Seven (all 20-1), County Lineman (30-1) and Rackman (50-1). In the quest for the Canadian Triple Crown, the Queen’s Plate is followed by the Prince of Wales Stakes and the Breeders’ Stakes. The last horse to sweep all three was Wando in 2004.
Players trying to look beyond prohibitive favorite Tepin in the September 17 Woodbine Mile will surely have their work cut out for them as the superstar mare tackles seven rivals on the grass.
The second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown goes Tuesday night from Fort Erie race track, where Sir Dudley Digges will try to take another step toward Canadian racing history.
On Sunday, Woodbine will host the $1 million Queen’s Plate Stakes, Canada’s most prestigious race. Restricted to horses foaled in Canada, the classic mile and a quarter contest has drawn a field of thirteen three-year-olds.
A spectacular card of graded stakes action has been assembled for Saturday at Belmont Park and the $1 million Ogden Phipps is shaping up to be one of the most competitive races of the day. The Grade 1 event for fillies and mares will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth.
2016 Woodbine Mile Picks and Preview
16 September 2016Players trying to look beyond prohibitive favorite Tepin in the September 17 Woodbine Mile will surely have their work cut out for them as the superstar mare tackles seven rivals on the grass....
Join The Conversation