One Bad Boy Sails to Queen's Plate Victory
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Photo: Michael Burns
One Bad Boy leads the field in the Queen's Plate at Woodbine
California raider One Bad Boy caught a flier from the gate and never looked back June 29 at Woodbine, taking the CA$1,007,200 (US$769,302) Queen's Plate Stakes with a game frontrunning effort.
With Flavien Prat aboard, the 3-year-old son of Twirling Candy set fractions of :24.42, :49.52, 1:14.18, and 1:37.83, then turned back a challenge from Avie's Flatter in the stretch to score by 3 1/2 lengths.
The 1 1/4-mile opening leg of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Canadian Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds was the first start north of the border for California-based trainer Richard Baltas, who conditions One Bad Boy for Sayjay Racing, Greg Hall, and Brooke Hubbard. The dark bay/brown ridgling came off a second-place finish in the Alcatraz Stakes over a mile on Tapeta at Golden Gate Fields.
"It was awesome, very awesome," said Hall. "We were a little worried about his ability to run the mile and a quarter, but you saw that … he started pulling away, so we're very excited about that."
Hubbard, a bloodstock agent who also acts as Sayjay's racing manager, also rejoiced in One Bad Boy's finest hour to date.
"It was hard to say anything up there or to even look," said Hubbard. "But the last (part), we were all so excited."
Racing with blinkers off, One Bad Boy became the 11th horse to lead throughout the Queen's Plate in its modern history and the first since Midnight Aria in 2013. His final time for 1 1/4 miles was 2:02.98 on the all-weather track.
Prat, winner of this year's Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) when Country House was elevated to first place, became the first jockey to win both the Kentucky Derby and Queen's Plate since Kent Desormeaux in 1998 with Real Quiet and Archers Bay, respectively. Bill Hartack also achieved the Derby-Plate double with Northern Dancer in 1964.
The complexion of the Queen's Plate was altered at the outset when Skywire, the 2-1 favorite starting from post 10, did not get away alertly and then was hampered badly by an inward-breaking Tone Broke. The stewards posted the inquiry sign to review the incident, but following brief deliberations left the result unchanged.
Avie's Flatter, Canada's champion 2-year-old male of 2018, worked out a good trip after beginning from the outside post 14 and raced second behind One Bad Boy throughout.
"(Avie's Flatter) was next to me, so I knew he was the horse to beat," said Prat, who rode his second stakes winner of the day after capturing the CA$100,000 (US$76,381) Charlie Barley Stakes with The Black Album. "By the eighth-pole, I asked (One Bad Boy) to re-engage, and he drove away. So from that point, I thought I was going to win."
"Second-best today," said Javier Castellano, jockey of Avie's Flatter. "Not much to say. Kept tracking the winner right there all the way on the lead. He never stopped, and he never came back to me. I was in perfect position in the race, the race was slow, and I was right next to (One Bad Boy), but I couldn't get by."
Tone Broke, racing on a synthetic surface for the first time, regrouped following his unfortunate beginning and loomed a threat around the final turn but failed to seriously threaten the top pair. He finished third, 3 1/4 lengths behind the runner-up.
One Bad Boy was bred in Ontario by Ron Clarkson out of the Stormy Atlantic mare Cumulonimble and is a half brother to the stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Blame filly Ms Bad Behavior, campaigned by the same connections. The mare produced a Palace Malice colt in 2018 and was bred to Vancouver for 2019.
The $400,00 Prince of Wales Stakes, a 1 3/16-mile race over Fort Erie's dirt oval July 23, is the next race in the Canadian Triple Crown series, which winds up with the $400,000 Breeders' Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on the E.P. Taylor turf course Aug. 17.
OLG is sponsoring a new $500,000 bonus for a series sweep. Wando, in 2003, was the last horse to sweep the series and the seventh since its inception in 1959.
One Bad Boy returned $9.70, $4.80, and $4.
Saturday's 13-race program produced a record handle for Queen's Plate day, totaling $18,005,929, up 23.1% from last year's $14.6 million total. Horseplayers wagered a record $4,620,092 on the race itself, with on-track handle growth of 14%.