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.
The storm, which hit just after race 1 on Plate day and pelted the Tapeta all-weather surface, lasted until race 5. By then, the water was not able to drain fast enough and the track was deemed unsafe. A very quick decision was made to bring back the Plate and important supporting stakes races on Friday the 23rd, which led to a significant backlash from horsepeople and fans who had tickets.
In the end, the races went off on a sunny and perfect afternoon, there was a good crowd and $11.6 million was wagered on the 12-race card from all sources.
There was some great horsemanship on display in the Plate. The Mark Casse team managed to have My Boy Prince (Cairo Prince) run a winning race despite the distance possibly being a bit too far. The colt had won the Plate Trial in determined fashion under Sahin Civaci and to most onlookers, he looked like an open-length winner when he took the lead on the last turn for home.
But Caitlinhergrtness and Hernandez had other ideas.
“I just wanted to save as much ground as I could around the first turn,” said Hernandez. “I thought if I could track the horses who would take me to the quarter-pole, I could let her swing out and let her do her job.”
Kevin Attard had only received Caitlinhergrtness, named for basketball star Caitlin Clark, in his Woodbine barn in early summer. Bred in Ontario by small-scale breeder Jesse Korona, the shiny chestnut filly had raced four times in 2023 for owners WinStar Farm LLC of Elliott Walden, and another Kentucky-based farm, Siena Farm, LLC, founded by the late Anthony Manganaro. Caitlinhergrtness won second time out at one mile on the dirt at Aqueduct and was fourth in two follow-up outings including a dirt sprint at Gulfstream in February.
As is the case with many Canadian-breds that begin their careers in the US (she was a $375,000 purchase from the Ocala April Two-Year-Old in Training sale in 2023), the Canadian classics became the focus point.
Attard had to bring his new student along quickly to have her make the Woodbine Oaks on July 20. He picked an inner turf, allowance/optional claiming race on July 6 and watched her power away from older mares to run a 79 Beyer Speed Figure. That told him enough and she ended up being the favourite for the Oaks. She ran a strong race, led in mid stretch but was caught by Kin’s Concerto. Her Beyer was 80.
It was more than a week later when news came that Caitlinhergrtness was going to try the Plate as one of Attard’s three-horse Plate team. Originally not eligible for the Plate, WinStar and Siena had to ante up $25,000 to supplement her.
On Friday, they received $600,000. It was superior training by Attard to have the filly peak in her third race off the layoff and while the time of 2:03.45 was one of the slowest in the last decade, she earned a career best 88 Beyer Figure, according to Daily Racing Form.
My Boy Prince lost no lustre in his runner-up placing and his stablemate Midnight Mascot was along for third for Manfred and Penny Conrad and trainer Mark Casse. Attard trainee Pierre, owned by Al and Bill Ulwelling, was a solid fourth at 40-to-1.
Canadian Thoroughbred will catch up with the owners and trainer and breeder of Caitlinhergrtness and others this week to find out who might come back in 18 days for the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie on September 10.
