King's Plate

Mike Renfro caught 28 touchdowns during his eleven seasons in the NFL playing for the Houston Oilers and the Dallas Cowboys. Like most athletes, even after all these years, he misses those Sunday afternoons, the camaraderie with his teammates and the thrill of competition. But what would fill the void when he walked off the field for the last time in 1988? To Renfro, that's a very easy question to answer. He discovered horse racing. Thirty-seven years later, Renfro is part of the CJ Thoroughbreds ownership group, which has its...

A single filly, No Time (Not This Time), was named the 7-2 morning-line favorite in a 13-horse field due to line up for the King's Plate Saturday at Woodbine. North America's oldest continually contested race, the Canadian-bred 3-year-olds will go 1 1/4 miles on the main track as the first of three legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. To be ridden again by John Velazquez, the daughter of Not This Time last won the Woodbine Oaks for owner Gary Barber and trainer Mark Casse--the jockey, owner and trainer who won...

When Sedburys Ghost (Shaman Ghost) burst from the pack to capture the Plate Trial Stakes at Woodbine a week ago, the gelding gave his owner/breeder Yawen Wu her first stakes victory and has the Canadian engineer dreaming of her first trip to the King's Plate. After finishing fourth in the 1 1/16-mile GIII Marine Stakes in June, Sedburys Ghost was given just a 7-1 chance to win the Plate Trial at an extra half-furlong July 20. Wu admitted she wasn't sure herself how the strapping chestnut would do in the...

Unraced since November, last year's King's Plate winner and Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) returned in great style to Woodbine Saturday, winning the GIII Belle Mahone Stakes to open her 2025 season. Having beaten the boys in the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the filly, named for WNBA player Caitlin Clark, returned to facing her own gender Saturday having been third behind She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland and fourth in the GIII Maple Leaf to...

The 166th running of the King's Plate will be held Aug. 16 at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. Tickets for the race day will go on sale Thursday at KingsPlate.com and on Ticketmaster. General Admission tickets, starting at $35, include grandstand and apron access, and entry to the Hats & Horseshoes Party that features live music, and photo ops. Premium dining, party, and trackside reserved packages are available in limited quantities. Details can be viewed on KingsPlate.com, and waitlist space can be reserved via kp.reservations@woodbine.com.

It was quite a few days for Canadian-based trainer Kevin Attard. On Saturday, he won his first Breeders' Cup race with Moira (Ghostzapper) in the GI Maker's Mark Filly & Mare Turf and some 48 hours later she went through the ring for $4.3 million. Knowing he'd have plenty to say, we invited Attard to join us on this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He admitted that saying goodbye to the best horse he has ever trained was difficult. "Well, right now it's extremely difficult, no doubt...

Stronach Stables's Vitality (Street Boss), sixth at 38-1 in the King's Plate Stakes Aug. 23, jumped up significantly in his dirt debut to deliver a powerful win in Tuesday's Prince of Wales Stakes, the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. Having just broken his maiden two starts back for trainer Harold Ladouceur at Woodbine July 19, the chestnut gelding lined up as a 9-1 shot here. Drawn just outside of the filly Airosa (Uncle Mo), he settled in the second flight of runners past the wire for the first...

The King's Plate race card, rescheduled to Friday following torrential rains on its originally scheduled date last Saturday, produced total wagering handle of $11.6 million. The three-day weekend total handle was $24.5 million. "After Mother Nature had other plans for us last weekend, Friday was picture perfect for the King's Plate and the racing was outstanding," said Michael Copeland, CEO of Woodbine. "We couldn't have pulled off such a memorable day without the tremendous support of our racing fans, racing participants and entire Woodbine team." With the original King's Plate...

Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) deserves all the credit in world for her game performance in the GI DraftKings Travers Stakes. Facing off against one of the toughest Travers fields in memory, she beat everyone but Eclipse Award winner Fierceness (City of Light), losing by a diminishing head. She finished ahead of the GI Toyota Blue Grass winner and GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and GI Belmont S. and GI Haskell S. winner Dornoch (Good Magic) and four other males. It was a special effort by a special...

Perhaps done in by a two-week turnaround when just beaten in the July 20 Woodbine Oaks, Siena Farm and WinStar Farm's Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) proved possibly the biggest beneficiary of the six-day postponement of the C$1-million King's Plate, clawing her way past heavily favored My Boy Prince (Cairo Prince) in the final 40 yards. The $375,000 OBS April breezer was off at 9-1 in the King's Plate--a race in which the fillies had more than held their own against their male counterparts--and took up a forward position from between horses...

Friday is shaping up to be quite a stakes-laden slate as the rescheduled King's Plate card from last weekend at Woodbine joins the GI Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga and a pair of pricey Grade IIs from Charles Town. TDN's full coverage of the races that were forced to move because of a deluge in Toronto can be found in Patrycja Szpyra's preview, plus a piece on the King's Plate by Bill Finley. As for the Spa feature, it boasts a set of intriguing match-ups between four of the runners...

SARATOGA SPRINGS - When one of Bob Baffert's horses is doing well, the Hall of Fame trainer expects a big effort. That's why 'TDN Rising Star' Prince of Monaco (Speightstown) has made his second cross-country trip in the last two months. That's why he is right here, in Saratoga, getting ready to run in the $500,000 GI Allen Jerkens Memorial on Saturday. "It's a tough race, there are no easy spots," Baffert said by phone from his summer base at Del Mar in California. "Anytime you have a Grade I,...