Woodbine to Keep Queen's Plate in August

Woodbine announced Dec. 1 that the 163rd running of The Queen's Plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, will be held Aug. 21, 2022, at the Canadian track.

An annual showcase of the top Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, The Queen's Plate is one of the country's premier sporting events and North America's oldest continuously run stakes race. The CA$1 million race is over 1 1/4 miles on the track's synthetic Tapeta surface.

Following a successful August running during a COVID-19-delayed season this year, officials chose to keep it next year during the summer. The most recent edition generated the second-highest wagering handle in event history and saw Safe Conduct  defeat a dozen rivals to capture the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

First announced during a "Stronger Together" discussion held Wednesday morning, Jim Lawson, CEO of Woodbine Entertainment, said the track had a deep field this year with an August date and speculated that the race might have been able to have 18 starters if the track gained approval to expand the race's field size. He noted the later date is beneficial to horses based year-round in Canada that might not have started elsewhere during the winter or early spring.

"It gives them a better chance to get ready in August than it does to go a mile and quarter in June," he said. "Anyone that has a 3-year-old, especially if they haven't run as a 2-year-old, to get them a couple of prep races going two turns is pretty darn hard by the end of June when we're starting in the third week of April. So I think it's fairer to move it back."

Woodbine will release ticket details for the 2022 Queen's Plate in the coming months.

The track also announced Wednesday it intends to run a 133-date Thoroughbred meet next season, scheduled from April 16-Dec. 11. Race dates for the 2022 season are currently being reviewed for final approval by the Alcohol Gaming Commission of Ontario.

Lawson said the benefit of Woodbine's long season is that it allows horsemen to settle in the region, but so many dates stretch the horse population. Though he said the track has maintained a healthy 8.9 starters per race, long term he expressed a desire for a reduction to the schedule.

"One-hundred-and-thirty-three days is a lot of racing. When I say a lot of racing, probably what I'm trying to say is it is too much racing," he said.

He added that he wants to cooperate with Fort Erie, another track in Ontario, in scheduling races to reduce competition for horses. He said 50 horses were claimed at Woodbine this year that ultimately raced at Fort Erie.

"That's not acceptable, either," he said.

He said Woodbine has seen its business grow this year with at-home wagering and simulcasting into the U.S. but has experienced a decline in wagering in the Ontario region. He envisions sports betting as a potential growth segment, with bettors of sports and horse racing sharing similarities.