150-year-old Queen's Plate boasts rich heritage

Milwaukee Appeal competes in the landmark 150th Queen's Plate
today.  She will attempt to join the list of 33 other fillies to have won
the historic race.   Photo courtesy Norman Files

Today, the Canadian racing world eagerly anticipates the 150th Queen’s Plate Stakes, at Woodbine Race Track in Toronto. Our northern neighbors’ version of the Kentucky Derby, it excites Canadian fans just as much as the Derby does Americans, and involves comparable tradition. It is the oldest continuously run race in North America, having never suffered an interruption since its inception in 1860. The Queen’s Plate boasts a rich, fascinating history and evolution.  This year's landmark running inspires a brief look into that treasured past and its thriving present.

The Queen's Plate was named in honor of Queen Victoria, ruler of Britain at the time, while Canada was still under British authority. Canada did not become its own nation until seven years after the inaugural Queen’s Plate.

The race has been run under several different conditions and distances over time. Its name has even varied: it was known as the King’s Plate from 1902 to 1951, while Victoria’s male heirs ruled Britain. After Elizabeth II took the throne, Canada’s most prestigious event reverted to the Queen’s Plate moniker.

For the race’s first eight runnings, the winner was determined through heats, a common practice at the time, of one mile each. From 1868 to 1956, the race was run at varying distances from 1 1/8 miles to 2 miles, before retaining its current distance of a mile and a quarter in 1957.

The Queen’s Plate age restrictions have also fluctuated during its history. Before 1938, the race was open to horses aged three and up, though after the 1900 edition the winners were most often three-year-olds. The oldest winner, according to available records, was Palermo in 1862 at age nine. After being contested for three-and four-year-olds in 1938, the race was restricted to three-year-olds in subsequent runnings. The Canadian Triple Crown was inaugurated in 1959, and the Queen’s Plate, already a 1 ¼ mile race for sophomores, was made the first leg of the series.

The race has always been limited to Canada-breds, but until 1944 only horses born in Ontario were eligible. And before 1959, competitors were also required to be Canadian-owned.

The latest alteration to the race’s conditions began when Woodbine unveiled its Polytrack surface in 2006. This will be the third edition of the Queen’s Plate contested on the synthetic surface. The change has made Canada’s unique Triple Crown even more distinctive. Before 2007, the Plate and the Prince of Wales Stakes were run on dirt, while the final leg, the Breeders’ Stakes, was contested over grass. Now that Woodbine’s inner course has been converted to Polytrack, the Triple Crown is run over three different surfaces.

In terms of competitors in the race’s history, fillies’ and geldings’ success has been especially noteworthy. Whereas fewer than three dozen fillies have even run in the Kentucky Derby (three have won), they have enjoyed great success from the outset in the Queen’s Plate. Only last year, Frank Stronach’s filly Ginger Brew lost a heartbreaker by a head to the colt Not Bourbon. In all, 33 fillies have won the race; the last to date was Dancethruthedawn, a daughter of the great mare and Canadian Triple Crown winner Dance Smartly, in 2001. This year, Woodbine Oaks winner and runner-up, Milwaukee Appeal and Tasty Temptation, respectively, each attempt to become the 34th female to win the Plate.

Geldings have also had much better luck in the Queen’s Plate than in the Derby, though they have also competed in this race much more regularly. Thirty-four have won. In fact, the first three winners were geldings. The most recent to win was TJ’s Lucky Moon in 2002. Geldings have the colts well outnumbered this year—seven are set to compete, compared with just four colts.

The Queen’s Plate has featured several top-notch winners over the years. The best include 1998 Breeders’ Cup Classic champion Awesome Again; the aforementioned Dance Smartly, a Canadian and U.S. champ who won the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Distaff; and most famously Northern Dancer, the 1964 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, who was also progenitor of one of the world’s all-time great sire lines.

Many other intriguing Queen's Plate facts and statistics abound--they are too numerous to discuss here.  But clearly, Canada’s proudest tradition in horse racing is one full of absorbing history, and also of change. But through its many formats, the Queen’s Plate has remained a constant in the ever-changing racing scene. Today, we salute the Queen's Plate and its foremost position among North America's oldest and most storied events.

For more info: 

Queen's Plate winners

The Queen's Plate, 148 consecutive years of glory