HAPPY QUEEN'S PLATE - 148

The word in most publications is DAAHER, DAAHER, DAAHER, oh yes,and INVASOR, his famous stablemate who was suddenly injured and retired yesterday,a terrible blow to the racing game in North America.

It seems as if Daaher will indeed be 4 or 5 to 1 today for the 148th QUEEN'S PLATE (at 4:37 p.m.). Many have picked him based on just 2 starts but a high 90 Beyer Figure in his maiden win and the fact that his sire won the Plate after 2 starts. Does that mean Daaher is as good as Awesome Again? Not sure. Not sure he needs to be.

This corner is not going to have that horse on the ticket, at least the exactor ticket. JIGGS COZ is very tough to beat but TWLIGHT METEOR, MARCHFIELD AND MIKE FOX have the tactical speed to stay close.

Big names on tap today include STRADIVINSKY in the Grade 3 Highlander. The speedy sprinter will have to hold off GANGSTER.

ROYAL CHALLENGER, delicate but fresh, is very strong in the SINGSPIEL STAKES, but French Beret has a chance if he handles the trip.

Two-year-old CUSTER is rumoured to be a good one in race 6.

The Charlie Barley Stakes is after the Plate - "Richie", or Get Rich Quick as he's formerly known, is a goodie in the one-mile grass race.

More Plate stories further down the Post..

WOODBINE SATURDAY
The ole grey mare runs 101 Beyer

What we may have learned about Polytrack yesterday is that is it quite fair, it’s fast for the good horses (FINANCINGAVAILABLE) and slow and tedious to watch for the slower ones.
Champion Financingavailable was up to some antics before the BARBADOS BALLADE STAKES yesterday (later we were told she does that in many of her races) as she froze and balked. But not in the race baby!
The grey mare chased the rapid pace set by Shot Guna Ela and then powered away while Todd Kabel did not turn his stick over. It was her first start of the year. K K Sengara was on hand to watch and trainer Lorne Richards seems to be on a roll now.
Oh ya, she ran a new top Beyer Figure of 101. SPEAK WISELY may not have beauty in her corner – well, she has a huge, long head to go with her long body, but the whispers about her were correct as she won her debut for Sam-Son farms with an 87 Beyer. She edged a stubborn MARTIN’S BAY, a Melnyk filly who is highly regarded and by Graeme Hall. Speak Wisely is by Smart Strike (who else) and is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Adieu. She is a Kentucky-bred. A nice 2yo filly seen yesterday could be MISS VAN GOGH, who had her ears up when she flew past her rivals to win the 5 furlong dash for owner/breeder Padua Stables. It was another winner for hot, young sire Vindication. She only ran a 53 Beyer Figure but those abbreviated dashes are a bit tricky to decipher Beyer-wise anyway we find. She is a Kentucky bred. Good and bad for SID ATTARD yesterday with a win – CAPTAIN RAUCOUS, for the Tucci Stable – and then recent claim SHIRLEY MARY N FLO breaking down in a grass race. The turf course seems to be a bit lumpy as horses have been stumbling out of the gate a lot. It is also very brown along the inside down the backstretch and at the eighth-pole.
PLATE STORIES
HAMILTON SPECTATOR
BY TED LEBANOWICH (a.k.a. THE KING)

Jiggs Coz, owned by Hamilton businessman Mel Lawson, is the 9-5 morning line favourite in tomorrow's $1 million Queen's Plate (TV: TSN 4-5 p.m.) at Woodbine.
Romping wins in his two starts this year, the Queenston Stakes and the Plate Trial, have propelled the strikingly handsome grey colt into the role.
Nine are entered in this 148th edition of North America's longest continuously-run stakes race. It's the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
Though not big in size this may be the strongest group ever assembled for the Canadian classic.
"I think there are probably seven that could win it," said Mark Casse, who was voted Canada's most outstanding trainer last year. "It's the (strongest group) I can remember. I mean, for the most part, these horses could go anywhere and be very competitive."
Casse, 57, is an American who began training at Woodbine nine years ago. In his resume he has captured training titles in Kentucky -- both at Turfway Park and at Churchill Downs. Casse trains Marchfield who, at 3-1, is the second favourite in the Plate.
Marchfield is owned by Eugene Melnyk who is well known as the founder of the pharmaceutical company Biovail and as the owner of the Ottawa Senators of the NHL.
Melnyk doesn't like being second. Gone, earlier this week, is John Muckler who was the Senators' GM. He took the brunt of the defeat of the Senators to the Anaheim Ducks in the recent Stanley Cup finals.
Melnyk, however, was delighted when his Marchfield finished second to Jiggs Coz in the Plate Trial June 3.
"(Marchfield) is going to win the Plate," said Melnyk at Woodbine following the Trial. "When we won the Queen's Plate with Archers Bay (in 1998) he had finished second in the Plate Trial."
Third choice of Woodbine's oddsmaker Jennifer Morrison at 4-1, is American-based Twilight Meteor.
The Ontario-bred is trained by high-profile Todd Pletcher who sent out Rags to Riches to upset Curlin in the Belmont Stakes two weeks ago.
Twilight Meteor has scored twice in stakes south of the border. He is a son of Canadian-bred Smart Strike -- one of the hottest sires in America.
Last year's Canadian champion 2-year-old, Leonnatus Anteas, who is owned by Knob Hill Stable and the estate of Steve Stavro, is listed at odds of 6-1.
With a chain of Knob Hill supermarkets Stavro was a giant in retail stores. And he was a former chairman of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team.
Although he recorded more than 50 stakes triumphs and bred two runners that went on win Horse of the Year honours (Benburb and Thornfield), a Queen's Plate conquest eluded him.
Stavro died 14 months ago. Team Stavro is now widow Sally and her four daughters.
Daughter Elaine, a professor of political philosophy at Trent University, became the administrator. Sally was too grief-stricken.
"I had a hard time for a year," said Sally who had returned to the races just this month.
Leonnatus Anteas, a winner in all his three starts last year, all stakes, has had but one start this year.
Serious training was delayed as a few minor problems surfaced during the off-season.
The colt performed brilliantly in his sole sojourn. He just failed to nail the winner of the 7-furlong contest for older runners at the wire.
The consensus is that more than one race is needed to prepare one for the gruelling test of 1 1/4 miles.

Field for the 148th Plate
For Three-Year-Olds, Foaled In Canada One Mile and One-Quarter
All to carry 126 pounds
PP HORSE OWNER TRAINER JOCKEY ODDS
1/ Cobrador Graph-Racing LLC Richard Scherer Emile Ramsammy 20-1
2/ Daaher Shadwell Stable Kiaran Alan Garcia 15-1 McLaughlin
3/ Include Us Mickey Canino, Roger Attfield Robert Landry 20-1
W. Werner & R. Attfield
4 Alezzandro Knob Hill Stable KevinAttard Todd Kabel 15-1
Estateof Steve Stavro
5 Twilight Peachtree Stable Todd Pletcher John Velazquez 4-1
Meteor
6 Jiggs Coz Jim Dandy Stable Sid Attard David Clark 9-5
7 Marchfield Melnyk Racing Mark Casse Patrick Husbands 3-1
8 Leonnatus Anteas - scratched
9 Mike Fox D. Morgan Firestone Ian Black Emma-Jayne Wilson 12-1
Probable Favourites: Jiggs Coz - Marchfield - Twilight Meteor
Total Purse $1,000,000
Winner to receive $600,000, 2nd $200,000,
3rd $110,000, 4th $60,000
TV: TSN, 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET

TORONTO STAR..SMALLEST FIELD IN 30 YEARS

The scratching of Leonnatus Anteas yesterday morning from today’s Queen’s Plate has left just eight 3-year-olds to race for $1 million, the smallest field in 30 years.
Sound Reason defeated seven rivals over a sloppy track in 1977.
Two other times the field was as short as eight horses (since the race moved to Woodbine in 1956) was 1962 and ’64 when Victoria Park and Northern Dancer, respectively, won as heavy favourites.
Leonnatus Anteas, owned by Knob Hill Farms and the late Steve Stavro, had to be sent to Guelph Equine Centre yesterday morning when the colt’s pastern (the bone just above the hoof) became infected.
The colt had been on a crash course to the Plate and had just one race this year. He was to be ridden by Jono Jones.
"Obviously it is a big blow and horrendous timing, but we've made a decision to be cautious and prudent here," said trainer Kevin Attard. "He's a good horse and the key is getting him better."
The team will still be represented in the Plate by 15 to 1 longshot Alezzandro.
Despite the small field, most believe this is the deepest Plate group in many years.
“I think it’s very competitive,” said trainer David Bell, who has started eight horses in previous Plates. “A horse could run its race and still end up fifth or sixth.”
“It’s better as a small field sometimes – you don’t want to have five or six others in there that don’t belong and get in the way.”
There doesn’t seem to be any real reason why the field is so small this year – the Canadian foal crop was up almost one per cent from the previous crop and it continues to rise.
The presence of this year’s favourite, Jiggs Coz, the winner of three consecutive stakes races including the Plate Trial may have scared some owners into not running.
“The good thing is that there are horses coming from other places and that makes the race intriguing,” said Woodbine C.E.O. David Willmot, whose Kinghaven Farms’ bred Twilight Meteor.
There are three Plate starters invading from the United States including the lightly raced Daaher, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, conditioner of Horse of the Year Invasor.
The bright chestnut 3-year-old colt has a deep, Canadian pedigree as a son of Sam-Son Farms’ homebred Smart Strike (a half-brother to Queen’s Plate winner Dance Smartly) and One Over Prime, a daughter of Queen’s Plate and Canadian Triple Crown winner With Approval.
And while the colt’s owner, John Fort of Peachtree Stable, and trainer Todd Pletcher, are not expected to make the trip to Woodbine, the tradition of the Plate is not lost on either man.
“We are very honoured to be in the race, it would a great achievement for us,” said Fort. “I know how important the race – I’m just not one to lead my horses into the winner’s circle anyway. It is the horse that does the running after all.”
Ginny DePasquale, and assistant to Pletcher, has traveled to many big races and won them without her boss ever having made the trip.
“Our horse might be strictly a grass horse but he handled the Woodbine Polytrack well this week,” said DePasquale.
This is the first Queen’s Plate to be run over a synthetic surface. Polytrack was installed at Woodbine last summer.

CP STORY, WINNIPEG SUN..

TORONTO -- Being the leading jockey at Woodbine Racetrack the last two years hasn't earned Emma-Jayne Wilson the privilege of being on the buzz horse heading into the Queen's Plate.
In 2005, Wilson rocked the Canadian racing scene by winning 175 races and earning more than $7.4 million in purses en route to being named North America's top apprentice rider. Wilson became the first woman and only the third apprentice to win the Woodbine racing title in '05, yet she made her Queen's Plate debut in 2006 aboard Bridgecut, a 50-1 longshot that finished 12th in the 13-horse field.
Undeterred, Wilson finished the 2006 campaign leading all Woodbine riders in wins (144) and second in earnings (over $7 million) to again be named Canada's top apprentice.
Wilson will ride in her second straight Queen's Plate today (3:37 p.m., TSN), climbing aboard Mike Fox, a 12-1 early longshot in the 1o-mile race that's the crown jewel of Canadian thoroughbred racing.
"My horse might be considered 12-1 in the line, but as far as I'm concerned I'm on the best horse in the race," Wilson said confidently. "Every-time you get in the saddle, it's a horse race, whether it's a $12,000 claimer or a race of this magnitude."
It’s just different strategies, different techniques and sometimes just a bit more competitive or talented horses. But it's still a horse race when it all comes down to it."
The best-ever finish by a female jockey in the Plate was second by Francine Villeneuve aboard Wilderness Song in 1991.
Despite his long odds, Mike Fox heads into Sunday's race having won his last start by 1o lengths May 23 despite going off at 11-1 odds with Wilson aboard. That was a marked improvement over the seventh-place finish the pair registered just over two weeks earlier in the Queenston Stakes.
Mike Fox has a victory in three starts so far this season for earnings of $45,370. Overall, though, the three-year-old has made three trips to the winner's circle in seven career races for $150,550 in earnings.
But for the second straight year, Wilson will attempt to become the first female jockey to win the Queen's Plate starting from the far outside. On Sunday, Mike Fox and Wilson will break from the No. 9 post in the eight-horse field.
"It's a mile and a quarter and we've got a little over a quarter-mile to get position before we hit (the first turn)," Wilson said. "There doesn't seem to be too much pace in the race.
"You never know what happens once the gate opens but I feel we have enough ground to get position so we won't get hung wide or our trip will be compromised. But I don't think it (pace) is going to be a factor. My horse is going to run his race either way. It's a mile and a quarter and if it's slow, it just means my horse is going just as slow and will have just as much in tank as everybody else.
"I like the fact we're just outside of the three major players in the race and get a good view of what's going on there and make a plan from there."
Jiggs Coz, the Queen's Plate Trial winner, is the 9-5 early favourite for the Queen's Plate. Trainer Sid Attard is looking for his first career Plate win, and one of his chief rivals will be his nephew, Kevin, who is also a trainer. Kevin Attard will have one entry in the race fir Knob Hill Farm and the estate of Steve Stavro, that being Alezzandro, a 15-1 longshot who will be ridden by two-time Plate winner Todd Kabel. Attard and Knob Hill had a second entrant -- Leonnatus Anteas, the 6-1 fourth pick -- but Leonnatus Anteas was scratched Saturday due to an infection.
The field, in order of start with horse, jockey and odds, will be: 1) Cobrador (Emile Ramsammy, 20-1); 2) Daaher (Alan Garcia, 15-1); 3) Include Us (Robert Landry, 20-1); 4) Alezzandro; 5) Twilight Meteor (John Velazquez, 4-1); 6) Jiggs Coz; 7) Marchfield (Patrick Husbands, 3-1); and 9) Mike Fox.
Representing Queen Elizabeth on Sunday will be Ontario Lieutenant Governor James K. Bartleman.
The winning horse Sunday will earn his handlers a cool $600,000, of which about $30,000 goes to the winning jockey. But for Wilson, there's also the historical significance because no female jockey has ever won the Queen's Plate.
"The significance of this is huge," she said. "You don't get the prestige for a race like this because it's an easy race to win.
"I know there are jockeys out there who've been riding for many, many more years than I have who still haven't won it. To win it, I'm speechless. Let's cross that bridge when we get it."

Have fun.