As Woodbine gears up for the 167th King’s Plate on August 15, two past Plate winners, plus a Prince of Wales winner, headline an interesting renewal of the $175,000 Seagram Cup on August 1. The Seagram Cup, first run in 1903, is one of Woodbine’s oldest races and it is named in honour of Joseph Seagram, who won eight consecutive Queen’s Plates between 1891 and 1898.
Run at 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta, the Seagram has been won by Mark Casse-trained horses four times in the last 11 years. PARAMOUNT PRINCE, the 2023 Plate winner for Michael Langlois and Gary Barber, won the Seagram in 2024 and finished third in the race last season. The 6-year-old by Society’s Chairman has not won a stakes race since the Seagram score, but he came close in the nine-furlong Dominion Day (G3) on June 27 when caught by a neck by RUNAWAY AGAIN (Hard Spun). Paramount Prince, who went over $1 million in earnings recently, is a front runner who does his best when he is not challenged early. Fraser Aebly will ride him again from post nine.
Runaway Again, from the red-hot Sid Attard stable, is the ‘now’ horse as he has worked fast since his Dominion Day win under Ryan Munger. The Dominion Day win was the 4-year-old’s first stakes win since the Prince of Wales score over 2025 Plate winner MANSETTI.
Mansetti has been second three times since his 18 to 1 upset in the Plate. He was second to Paramount Prince in early May in a seven furlong sprint but then got into a speed battle with that rival in another allowance/optional claiming race in late May, also at seven furlongs, and both horses folded. The Kevin Attard-trained Mansetti has been working long and hard for this return.
SEDBURYS GHOST, second in his latest at nine furlongs behind front runner LUCKY GUEST, won the Plate Trial last year and he could be sitting on a strong run for Yawen Wu and trainer Barb Minshall. Stakes winners RAPID TEST and NOTORIOUS GANGSTER are in decent form and TWIN CITY and WAR COURT complete the field. Lucky Guest and War Court were supplemented to the field at a cost of $2,500.
Josie Carroll is going for a record 5th Seagram as is Casse. Carroll trains Notorious Gangster who would benefit from a pace battle.
The Seagram has been won by many Canadian champions including Canadian Triple Crown winner NEW PROVIDENCE, who won the race as a 3-year-old season in 1959. At that time, the Seagram was on the turf and was run on that surface until the early 1990s.
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