IMHOTEP added to Plate field…..2 for Pletcher in 17 strong field..EMMA-JAYNE WILSON to ride OH CANADA….- PLATE BAR B Q SHOWCASES PLATE ENTRANTS!
PHOTO 1 – GETTING GOOD
SIGNALS…Trainer David Bell owns half of OJIBWAY SIGNAL, a son of Niigon, who will love the Plate distance. Gus Vlahos from Alberta also owns the attractive fellow.
Shots taken from today’s Plate barbecue.
photo 2- WHO IS THE HEAD HONCHO OF THIS GROUP?
Why it’s that handsome bay fellow in the middle surrounded by his peeps. HEAD HONCHO will be a longshot in the Plate but owners Rocco d’Alimonte (far right) and Frank Annechini (second from right) came oh-so close to winning the Plate a couple of years back with MR. FORICOS TWO U. Catherine Day Phillips (light blue) trains the Strut the Stage gelding.
STRIKE OIL could strike it rich in the Plate for owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse.
Inglorious confirmed for Plate, attracting a ton of attention from fans and bettors…Plate Barbecue, a long standing tradition started some 40 years ago by top media publicicst Bruce Walker is today, many horses to be paraded…
On this day, JUNE 20, 1964, Northern Dancer won the Queen’s Plate in Toronto. He’s the only horse to win both the Plate and the Kentucky Derby.
PLATE POSSIBILITIES
BOWMAN’S CAUSEWAY – 2nd Plate Trial, best Beyer 85
CHECK YOUR SOUL – Plate Trial winner, 89
CURGONE – winner, 70
ENDURING STAR – WINNER 81 (TURF)
HEAD HONCHO – 2 wins, 68
HIPPOLYTUS – 2 wins, 74
IMHOTEP – maiden
INGLORIOUS – Oaks winner, 83
MAPLE LEAF KITTEN – winner, 71
OH CANADA – WOODSTOCK winner, 83
OKIYAMA – winner 68
OJIBWAY SIGNAL – winner, 68
ONE BIG GATOR – winner, 76 (sprint)
PENDER HARBOUR – stakes winner, 74
QUEEN’SPLATEKITTEN – Plate Trial, 84
SEAWATCH – WINNER, 78, needs to be supplemented for $25,000
STRIKE OIL – CORONATION WINNER, 79
INGLORIOUS, has big cheering section
Dave Landry photo
Louisville connections looking at Queen’s Plate
Posted on June 19, 2011 by Jennie Rees
Ben Creed/photo courtesy River Downs
A River Downs press release of local interest:
Maple Leaf Kitten, representing the leading owner and trainer at River Downs, is pointing towards the $1,000,000 Queen’s Plate at Woodbine. He will have a public workout at the track on Sunday between the first and second race with Ben Creed in the saddle.
Only a few years ago it was highly unlikely that jockey Ben Creed would be riding in one of the world’s most prestigious races. If all goes as planned he’ll get that opportunity in the Grade 1 Queen’s Plate, aboard Maple Leaf Kitten in the first leg of the Canadian Triple -Crown. Leading River Downs trainer Joe Woodard conditions the 3-year-old colt for the track’s leading owner Billy Hays. Ben Creed celebrated his 28th birthday with a win aboard Maple Leaf Kitten and recently reflected on his strange path into the world of racing.
>After getting out of high school he worked in construction as a welder and heavy equipment operator and eventually signed on with UPS. “I had no contact with racing or horses. People were always telling me I was the perfect size to be a jockey, but I never really gave it much of a thought,” said the natural lightweight. It was a strange twist of fate that put the native of Louisville in a saddle. “Jockey Mark Guidry bought a condo from my father and we struck up a conversation about a friend of his that was thinking about starting a jockey school. About a year later I ‘Googled’ it and up came the North American Racing Academy, stated Creed. The friend of Mark Guidry turned out to be Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron, who founded the school. “UPS encouraged us to apply for college credits, so I joined N.A.R.A. and told Chris off the bat – I know nothing about horses,” recalled Creed.
http://blogs.courier-journal.com/racing/2011/06/19/louisville-connections-looking-at-queens-plate/
CBC COVERAGE ON PLATE – INGLORIOUS WORKS WELL
Inglorious will get her shot at Queen’s Plate glory.
The talented three-year-old bay filly was pronounced sound and ready by trainer Josie Carroll after her Sunday morning workout at Toronto’s Woodbine race track and will be entered in the $1-million plate set for June 26.
“We really didn’t make up our minds until today, [based] on how she came out of her workouts this week,” said Carroll, to CBC Sports. “She went back to the track [Saturday] and jogged, and today she galloped off of her work and that’s when we made the final decision.”
The filly turned heads on June 5 when she won the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks by just under a length, coming from off the pace as she likes to do under a strong ride by Luis Contreras.
Owner Vern Dubinsky and Carroll both said at the time they wanted to see how the next couple of weeks went before they committed Inglorious to the Run for the Guineas.
At 1 ¼ miles (10 furlongs), the Queen’s Plate distance can be a challenge for fillies, but Carroll, who already has a Plate victory as a trainer, isn’t concerned.
“Not with the way she’s been running,” she said.
Inglorious has bloodlines filled with speed and strength, including grand sire Storm Cat and through there to Storm Bird, Northern Dancer and Secretariat, plus dam sire Smart Strike and the classic Mr. Prospector.
Carroll knows how to see distance when others might be skeptical. She became the first female conditioner to win the Plate in 2006, sending out Edenwold, a horse some thought might not have 10 furlongs in him.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/story/2011/06/19/sp-filly.html#ixzz1PoSWNIAG
POOL PLAY – HEADED TO BREEDERS’ CUP
Mark Casse’s decision to run William Farish Jr.’s POOL PLAY (Silver Deputy) in Saturday’s 30th running of the Stephen Foster H. (G1) at Churchill Downs was not a wild stab or a whim, as racing fans across the country discovered when the six-year-old stormed through the stretch to edge Mission Impazible (Unbridled’s Song) by a neck at 36-1 odds.
A three-time winner of the Sovereign Award that annually honors Canada’s top trainer, Casse sent Pool Play to the Foster with a specific mission — to determine how the distance-loving horse, after 27 races on synthetic and turf courses, would fare on a dirt course. If he ran as well over the Churchill Downs dirt as Casse hoped, a bid for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at the Louisville, Kentucky, track on November 5 could be in the works.
read more…
http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/editorial/news/article.cgi?id=22632
And so some of my readers are not upset, the latest Hot Canadian-breds lists is out (although I will put Sad Cove back on there again)
Hot Canadian-breds of 2011
1. Pool Play (100)
2. Rahy’s Attorney (98)
3. Embur’s Song (100)
4 Society’s Chairman (95)
5. Stunning Stag (100)
6. Essence Hit Man (88)
7 Check Your Soul (89)
8. Queen’splatekitten (84)
9. Joyful Victory (83)
10. Paso Doble (92)
SUNDAY WOODBINE
‘JENNA’S WABBIT WINS THE WACE” – Dan Loiselle, track announcer
Champion SAND COVE is a winner again – he took the STEADY GROWTH stakes for the 2nd consecutive year, although from this viewpoint, it sure looked as if J J FOR DAVE should have won the race with blinkers on for the first time. The 5yo Whiskey Wisdom gelding set the pace and was not going very fast and he had Sand Cove glued to him; When the champ took the lead off the turn. J J For Dave seemed to not really notice until he spottedhim in front and then he came back on and galloped out well in front.
Tough loss for the J and J Stable runner, a homebred.
Two-year-old JENNA’S WABBIT became the zillionth (it seems) winner for the sire OLD FORESTER this season. The colt gelding was making his 2nd start of his career for Ralp Biamonte and Danny Lococo. Biamonte bred the son from his mare In The Buff.
Congrats to trainer MARK MESIC who won his first race of the season with CROATIAN DIVA, who rallied late to win the 1st race yesterday for maiden $32K fillies. The 3yo is by Fusaichi Pegasus and is owned by Mesic and Anthony George.
The ELLE BOJe stable SIMPLY DOES NOTHING BUT WIN RACES. Joe, Jim and Ellen MacLellan have celebrated huge scores by RAHY’S ATTORNEY this year, a recent allowance win with Niigon’s Princess and yesterday, their 4yo REGAL RING, a $10K yearling, won a maiden allowance on grass in his 14th start. Ridden by apprentice Ryan Pecho, the Where’s the Ring 4yo led through the long stretch and held off Mist Opportunity to win.
Don Myers’ homebred ETERNAL RULE came off a long layoff and won an allowance race to stay unbeaten in his career. The ONtario bred by Tribal Rule led all the way for trainer Sid Attard.
