- Black and white negative of a photograph of a print of the running of the Queen’s Plate that appeared in the Canadian Illustrated News on 18 June 1870.
Horses are racing around a track while people watch from the centre of the track. There is a large covered grandstand on the right side of the image.
- Notes:
- The Queen’s Plate, Canada’s most noted horse race, was run at Whitby in May 1870. The track was located on the west side of McQuay Street north of Dundas Street.
The race was attended by John Sandfield Macdonald, Attorney General of Ontario, and records state that there were more than ten thousand people present.
The race was won by Jack Bell.
- Date of Original:
- 18 June 1870
“Today is your day” – Shania Twain
And whose day will it be today? Of course it’s everyone’s day for those who love the business of horse racing – the celebrations and the big crowd, the races, the big event. It’s all there for us to enjoy today.
Will the race be won by Americans?
Will it be small stables that have been around for a while?
Will it be a favourite?
The storylines are plentiful and certainly Roger Attfield going for an incredible 9th Plate win is a main one:
ROGER’S PLATE WINS…
2008 Not Bourbon
1995 Regal Discovery
1993 Peteski*
1992 Alydeed
1990 Izvestia*
1989 With Approval*
1987 Market Control
1976 Norcliffe
*Triple Crown winner
Bowman’s Causeway – EVEN OF THE YEAR PHOTO
QUEEN’S PLATE COVERAGE
TORONTO STAR RACE ANALYSIS
NATIONAL POST
by Matthew Scianetti
TORONTO — Sunday at Woodbine is a race day. Some time in the morning, jockeys, trainers, owners and punters will walk into Canada’s largest racetrack. Those placing bets will consume themselves with odds and superstitions, while those directly involved with the horses will go about familiar routines.
Owners Donna and Vern Dubinsky will watch their horses Seawatch and Inglorious prepare. It is not just observing an investment — Dubinsky paid $90,000 for Inglorious— it’s about commitment. Donna made her husband buy back their first horse, a cheap claimer named Harley’s Choice, because she did not want to lose him.
Trainer Roger Attfield will prepare three horses to race. He might spend a little more time with Check Your Soul, the morning-line favourite.
And jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva will be close to the horse he will ride, Bowman’s Causeway, trying to establish a connection he has had with hundreds of horses in his near 20-year career.
Come 5:36 p.m. ET, before the 10th race of the day
read more http://sports.nationalpost.com/2011/06/25/inglorious-aims-for-history-among-fillies/
TORONTO STAR
DAVE FESCHUK
“Sometimes, the guys are a little jealous,” Contreras said. “You come to different places and start winning races, it does make the other guys angry. But that’s the sport. A lot of jockeys help me, too, about the track, explaining to me about everything. It’s not a bad place.” – Luis Contreras
In the life of a thoroughbred horse jockey, disappointment comes in daily doses. Even the best rider at any given track loses something in the order of eight out of 10 races.
And for a few weeks in the spring of 2010, Luis Contreras, the Woodbine jockey from Mexico City, felt like he might not win one in the next thousand. He was on a losing streak so severe, his chief employer, the U.S.-based trainer Steve Asmussen, informed Contreras that his services would no longer be required. For Contreras, a 25-year-old from Mexico whose racetrack-based livelihood supports a wife and two pre-school-aged sons, getting fired was devastating.
His work permit only allowed him to ride foreign-bred horses, which severely limited his chances of finding mounts at Woodbine, where the vast majority of the thoroughbreds are made in Canada. While he and his wife, Alma, wanted to remain in Toronto, Contreras thought he might be best served to return to California’s Golden Gate Park, where the purses are smaller but his job prospects were brighter.
“It was a very scary time for me and my family,” Contreras said. “We wanted to stay here in Canada, and we didn’t know if we would be able to…
http://www.thestar.com/article/1015200–the-daily-life-struggles-of-a-horse-jockey
SATURDAY STARS
wOODBINE RELEASES
COURT OF THE REALM – 93
TU ENDIE WEI – 85
CLEMENT ROCK 83
Court of the Realm, ridden by Eurico Rosa da Silva, notched his first stakes win in his first stakes start Saturday at Woodbine in the $250,000 Grade 2 King Edward Stakes, presented by TVG.
And it was certainly no easy spot. It was a deep field for the one mile turf stake, with last year’s winner Grand Adventure, recent Eclipse Stakes winner Fifty Proof, 2-1 favourite Society’s Chairman and multiple
stakes winner Workin for Hops in the 11-horse field.
Fifty Proof, the 5-1 third choice, went immediately to the front, but was pressed throughout by Grand Adventure, as the pair clicked off fractions of :24.02,:47.18 and 1:10.72. The final running time was 1:35.86.
Straightening for home over the long E.P. Taylor Turf Course, Court of the Realm moved to challenge the leaders and the trio engaged in a prolonged battle to the wire. At the finish, Court of the Realm, a four-year-old son of Powerscourt, had managed to prevail by a half length over a dead game Fifty Proof, with Society’s Chairman closing
quickly in the centre for third, just a neck further back.
Artic Fern, making his turf debut, nosed out Hailstone and Grand Adventure for fourth.
“The first race he ran this year he was a little bit rank,” explained da Silva. “He wanted to take the lead and get the job done. But today,when I warmed him up, he was very relaxed. I had a chance to take him
back. He relaxed in the race for me and he did everything well.”
Trained by Peter Berringer for owners Aurora Meadows and Oxbridge Farm, Court of the Realm was winning his fifth race in a row, including finishing off his 2010 season with three victories.
“I really like this horse. He’s been through a lot. And he just gets better and better,” said Berringer. “He’s bred for the turf and did run twice last year on the turf. We really had nowhere to go but we had to
run so we said we’d give it try and see what he can do in the future. He’s the best (I’ve ever had). We’ll take a break for a month. I’ll talk to the owners and see what they want to do and make a decision.”
It was just the eighth career outing for Court of the Realm, who was fifth in his debut last summer, then second and third, before putting his five-race win streak together.
A 12-1 outsider, Court of the Realm earned $150,000 and paid $26.10 to win.
WEEEEEE! TU ENDIE WEI…
85 bEYER fIGURE IN DEBUT SCORE
This filly is more than special,” said McAleney. “This (performance) was unbelievable. When I came back and saw the tote board and how quick she’d run, I thought there had to be a mistake. We (including Baker) both believe she’s very, very talented.”
After retrieving jaws that fell when HOPE FOR A WIN ran 2furlongs in a bizare :20 3/5 in the My Dear Stakes yeserday at Woodbine, they fell again when beginner TU ENDIE WEI, a half sister to Horse of the Year Biofuel, blew past the field and won in hand in 56.91, good for an 85 Beyer Figure.
The bright bay started from post 13 in a 14 horse field but it didn’t matter, she’s the real deal.
Tu-Endie-Wei State Park is located at the confluence of the Kanawha River and the Ohio River in downtown Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The park commemorates the Battle of Point Pleasant, fought between the settler militia of Virginia and the forces of Shawnee Chief Cornstalk on October 10, 1774. The militia victory by the settlers weakened the alliance between native forces and the British and freed settlers from western Virginia to cross the Allegheny Mountains and join in the Revolutionary War.
The name “Tu-Endie-Wei” refers to the Wyandot Indian phrase meaning “the point between two waters” in English.[2]
TRILLUM STAKES
Arlington Park shipper Upperline, patiently handled by Emma-Jayne Wilson, got up in the final sixteenth of a mile to win the $100,000 Trillium Stakes, one of four stakes at Woodbine on Saturday.
The 2010 Arlington Oaks winner survived a poor start to the 1 1/8-mile event which forced Wilson to change her game plan in the compact five-horse field.
“We didn’t get away too cleanly,” said Wilson. “I anticipated being a little closer, sitting second off of Oil Painting. We got relegated to a shuffled back position off of the break.”
Oil Painting, under jockey Jesse Campbell, led the field through fractions of :25.1 and :50.2 with Luis Contreras aboard Bubble Gum keeping a close eye in second position. Milwaukee Appeal, the 2009 Woodbine Oaks winner, making her first start for new trainer Ralph Biamonte stalked from third position on the rail.
Oil Painting led the field through the turn but was soon swallowed up by Bubble Gum at the top of the stretch. The studious Wilson waited patiently behind horses until mid-stretch before angling out Upperline to surge to the wire first in a time of 1:50.64, 3 ½ lengths ahead of Bubble Gum. A rallying Milwaukee Appeal was another ¾-length back in third.
“I watched some of her races on video and I knew that she comes home real strong,” said Wilson. “When we started turning for home, I knew she was in a good spot and she just had to power home like she did in the past, and she did.”
Conditioner Michael Stidham was impressed with the ability of his Maria’s Mon-Snowflake filly to handle the Woodbine polytrack.
“She won a Grade 3 last year at Arlington (Arlington Oaks) at the same distance on the ‘poly’ so she’s really been consistent on both surfaces, but I think she does really well with the synthetic,” said Stidham.
