Plate Hopefuls Race in Two Stakes at Woodbine July 20

Four weeks before the Aug. 17 King's Plate Stakes, the historic CA$1 million race that kicks off the Canadian Triple Crown, 3-year-olds bred in the country will audition for a King's Plate opportunity in July 20 stakes at Woodbine.

Two 1 1/8-mile main-track races on the Saturday card—the appropriately named Plate Trial Stakes and the Woodbine Oaks—are likely to propel horses toward the 1 1/4-mile King's Plate, the oldest continuously run race in North America. The Plate Trial, which drew a field of seven led by 2023 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) show finisher My Boy Prince , carries a purse of CA$150,000, while the Woodbine Oaks for 3-year-old fillies is for CA$500,000 and lured 14 entrants in the body of the field, plus an also-eligible in Beautiful Sky . The latter is cross-entered in the Plate Trial.

Thirty-eight fillies have won the Plate over its 164 runnings. 

Inudation  and War Painter —1-2 in last fall's Princess Elizabeth Stakes—are two of five runners for trainer Kevin Attard in a contentious 69th renewal of the Woodbine Oaks. The others are Vucchella , My Girl Della , and Caitlinhergrtness .

Attard is a two-time Oaks winner, taking the 2021 race with eventual Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Munnyfor Ro  and the following year's edition with King's Plate winner and Canada's 2022 Horse of the Year, Moira .

"It's a race you hope to win once, and we have been fortunate to have done it twice," Attard said. "When you look back at the great fillies and horse people who have won the Oaks, it makes the achievement even more special."

Canuck Racing Club's War Painter (Danish Dynaformer ) and Siena Farm and WinStar Farm's Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach  ) both come off recent victories. The Oaks is the ninth race Saturday.

Twice a winner at Woodbine this year, My Boy Prince, a 3-year-old son of Cairo Prince   owned by Gary Barber and trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, will be heavily favored in the Plate Trial, which kicks off the stakes action as the sixth race

#6 MY BOY PRINCE ($2.70) dominated the $125,000 Queenston Stakes at Woodbine. @SahinCivaci was aboard the three-year-old colt by @AirdrieStud's Cairo Prince for trainer @markecasse. pic.twitter.com/jHHSovwCTd

— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) June 9, 2024

Saturday's card at Woodbine also features two graded stakes: the CA$135,000 Trillium Stakes (G3) at 1 1/16 miles for fillies and mares (race seven) and the CA$175,000 Connaught Cup Stakes (G2T) at seven furlongs on turf (race eight). The former contest, like the Woodbine Oaks and Plate Trial, will be run over Woodbine's synthetic Tapeta surface.

Terra Racing Stable's Fashionably Fab , on a five-race win streak for Attard, faces stiff competition in the Trillium from Canadian and American challengers, among them Glen Hill Farm's Ocean Club , who is unbeaten in three starts on synthetic tracks, and Shining Stable's Batucada , a 6 1/4-length winner of the June 22 Powder Break Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Tapeta.

R. M. Wanless and Mrs. J. M. Wanless' Flag Of Honour , 2-for-4 at Woodbine in 2023-24 since being imported from Australia, moves from synthetic to turf. Last year he won the Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) on the main track at Woodbine and most recently took the June 1 Jacques Cartier Stakes (G3) in fast time on Tapeta for trainer Julia Carey. His success in Australia came in turf sprints.

After twice bleeding there, the gelding was sent to Woodbine, where he can compete with the diuretic and bleeding-preventative Lasix, including in a graded race such as the Connaught Cup.