For the fifth time in the last 11 years, a filly has proven to be best in Canada’s most famous horse race, the $1 million King’s Plate. Two days after reaching up and edging champion colt My Boy Prince to win the 165th Plate, CAITLINHERGRTNESS (Omaha Beach – Belatrix by Giabnt’s Causeway) was quietly munching on hay with her blanket of flowers hung near her stall at Kevin Attard’s barn.
Caitlinhergrtness is the 39th filly to win the Plate and the second filly trained by Attard to win the 1 1/4 mile classic in the last three years following Moira in 2022. And both fillies were ridden by ace jockey Rafael Hernandez, who now has three Plate wins since he made Woodbine his permanent workplace in 2016. Tony Esposito has been his agent since he arrived.
The story of this year’s Plate, however, was not as much the stirring stretch run of Caitlinhergrtness running at Gary Barber’s fabulous grey My Boy Prince as the fact that the race was delayed six days and run on a Friday afternoon after heavy rain curtailed the Plate card on August 17.
