Talk about finding your Plate horse at the 11th hour.
When trainer Sid Attard saddled first-time starter Runaway Again for Woodbine’s second race on July 13, little did he know that just a month later he would have the royally-bred gelding (by Hard Spun and out of a Storm Cat half-sister to Queen’s Plate and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Awesome Again) entered in this year’s King’s Plate. Sure, Attard’s been in the big race plenty of times before ‒ 11 in fact ‒ and has even been second or third on four of those occasions, but now in the 49th year of his career, he’s still in search of that elusive first victory in Canada’s most prestigious race.
And when the field of 13 lines up in the starting gate on Saturday, the horse and trainer’s path into it will have already been quite the story.
As Attard was preparing to ship horses into his longtime home of barn 6 on Woodbine’s backstretch this past March, the veteran conditioner with over 2,100 career wins to his credit was doing so without a contender for this year’s running of the King’s Plate. When it seemed that he would spend another year watching from the sidelines, Attard received a call from veteran horseman and racing manager for Frank Stronach’s Stronach Stables, Daniel Vella.
“Danny called me and said ‘we have a very well-bred, unraced three-year-old (Runaway Again). He’s a handful and can be difficult to train, but if you can get him going, he could be a really nice horse.’ I told him of course we’ll take him, please send him in,” Attard said, adding “It took him some time to settle in, but then he started to train and work really well.”
Having trained 869 winners in a 38-year career highlighted by Sovereign Award wins in 1994 and 1995 as Canada’s Outstanding Trainer, and two Queen’s Plate victories with Basqueian in 1994 and Strait of Dover in 2012, Vella knows a thing or two about what it takes to win a Classic race like the King’s Plate. And when he decided to offer Attard the opportunity to train Runaway Again, it wasn’t without purpose and reason.
“Experience and temperament were big factors,” Vella said. “Sid’s very calm around his horses, and he’s got a lot of experience with these kinds of horses. And a person with the experience that Sid has, he doesn’t put the horse in any situation that he doesn’t think they can handle. So, the horse just gets better after that and gains confidence.”
By early July, Attard and Vella felt that Runaway Again was ready to make his first lifetime start. The gelding was set to debut on July 13 in a maiden allowance over Woodbine’s E.P Taylor turf course when either luck ‒ or perhaps a touch of fate ‒ stepped in. Rain the previous day and night led to the race being taken off the turf, and what had been a one-turn mile would now be a two-turn race going 1 1/16 miles on the Tapeta.
Sent off at odds of 8-1 with jockey Ryan Munger, Runaway Again trailed the field of eight in the early stages before finding his best stride with a half-mile to go. Making his way through the field, Runaway Again came to the leaders at the ¼ pole and opened up down the stretch to win easily by 9 ¼ lengths.
Attard admits that as well as the horse was training, he could have never predicted that kind of performance first time out.
“In the paddock before the race I said to Ryan [Munger], he could need a race and just in case he’s not ready, take care of him,” Attard said. “When he opened up like that so easily, I thought ‘we could really have something here.’ Ryan came back and said, ‘Sid, he’s the real deal.’”
The next morning, Attard was pleasantly surprised to see how well his horse had come out of the race.
“First thing, I always check the feed tub. He had eaten up all his dinner and breakfast, he was ice cold everywhere and it was like he didn’t even run,” Attard said. “He’s a good feeling horse, but I couldn’t believe going two turns first time out and running the way he did didn’t take more out of him.”
It was then that the connections began to believe they could have a horse capable of going the 1¼ mile distance that the Plate demands and after speaking with Vella and owner Frank Stronach, Attard confirmed that the plan was to point their new star towards the $1 million King’s Plate on August 16.
Just seven days after Runaway Again’s maiden victory, however, Ryan Munger guided Barbara Minshall’s Sedburys Ghost to a 1¼-length victory in the Plate Trial, meaning Runaway Again’s camp would have to find another jockey to ride their horse in the King’s Plate. With just about every one of Woodbine’s top jockeys having secured their mount for the “Gallop for the Guineas”, Attard immediately thought of a jockey synonymous with winning big races while donning the Stronach Stables silks, none other than Hall of Famer Javier Castellano.
“I know Frank [Stronach] likes Castellano a lot; he’s won a lot of races for him,” Attard said. “And I’ll never forget, whenever I brought horses to Florida, I always tried to give the best I had to Castellano. He won on one of Stronach’s fillies for us, Charming Delilah, by nine lengths at Gulfstream Park and I’ve always had good luck with him.”
It’s a sentiment shared by both trainer and jockey.
“We’ve been lucky together, thank God,” Castellano said. “In this game you have to click with trainers. Sid and I have had success together in the past in Florida at Gulfstream Park, especially for Frank Stronach. I think we have a really good connection and I have a lot of confidence in a horse that has potential. I hope we can get it done together.”
A formidable team on the biggest stage, the combination of Castellano and Stronach Stables captured the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Classic with Ghostzapper, Grade 1 victories in the 2016 Woodward Stakes and 2017 Santa Anita Handicap with Shaman Ghost, and the Woodbine Oaks in 2008 with Ginger Brew. Subsequently, Ginger Brew came within a head of pulling off the Woodbine Oaks/Queen’s Plate double that year and Castellano now looks to avenge that narrow defeat by picking up the mount this year with Runaway Again.
Sid Attard leads King’s Plate contender Runaway Again and exercise rider Nick Griffiths home after training in preparation for the $1,000,000 race on August 16. (Jamie Attard photo)
Though his mount in this year’s edition has just experienced one race, it was a win that impressed Castellano enough to take the day off from riding at Saratoga in New York and accept the mount.
“I was very impressed, I really like the way he did it,” Castellano said. “He seemed to me like a very professional, mature horse that had done it so many times. The way he ran and conducted himself in the race, he was very professional the way he finished. It seemed to me like he’s very smart and confident, I think he’s going to be a really good horse.”
The 47-year-old native of Venezuela has won just about every major race there is in North America and admits that at this point in his career, the King’s Plate is a race he’s focussed on adding to his already legendary resumé.
“I’m very fortunate and blessed to have won a lot of good races,” he said. “I’ve won the Triple Crown races here in the United States, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness twice, the Belmont Stakes, Breeders’ Cup races and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But I haven’t won the King’s Plate yet and that’s one thing that’s my target. Hopefully it’s going to be this year.”
Much like Castellano, Sid Attard has himself endured a heartbreaking loss for Stronach in the country’s biggest race, his closest finish to date coming in 2021 when a fast-closing Riptide Rock was beaten a head by winner Safe Conduct. Attard’s other top-three finishes in the Plate include a second with his first-ever entrant, Grand Hooley, 11 ½ lengths behind a romping Alydeed in 1992, third with favourite Jiggs Coz in 2007, and another third in 2016 with All On Red.
Attard has watched his brother Larry win the race as a jockey in 1983 aboard Bompago and nephew Kevin score two Plate victories in three years with fillies Moira in 2022 and Caitlinhergrtness in 2024. And even after an almost half-decade career, the 74-year-old’s desire to add his name to the history books is as strong as it’s ever been.
“When I first came to Canada, I remember watching horses like Kennedy Road win the Queen’s Plate and thinking, ‘this is the biggest race we have, everyone in Canada that’s involved in horse racing wants to win this race.’ It would mean everything to me to finally win it, too.”
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