Some 13 hours before the 164th King’s Plate, grooms, hotwalkers, exercise riders, trainers and their assistants are organizing their barns at Woodbine for Sunday morning training. Indeed, those with horses in the 164th King’s Plate today likely made sure the workload was a bit lighter this Sunday morning since post time for the day’s racing card is early and Plate horses will be doted on until the walk to the paddock.
This is the first running of the King’s Plate since 1951. It had been known as the King’s Plate from 1901, after the first 40-plus runnings as the Queen’s Plate, inaugurated in 1860.
The first winner of the King’s Plate, in 1902, was William Hendrie’s LYDDITE, fittingly a filly, since fillies have won five of the last 12 Plates and almost always acquit themselves well.