HORSE RACING-King’s Plate, Woodbine Mile headline new Woodbine season

TORONTO, Canada, CMC—The storied million-dollar King’s Plate and Woodbine Mile will again headline the new Woodbine season, which begins on April 27.

In the stakes schedule announced Wednesday, the 165th running of the King’s Plate will be staged on August 17, while the Woodbine Mile, a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In,” will run off on August 28.

For the new season, the two races will be among 38 graded stakes, including four Grade 1 events.

“It’s exciting to have the dates locked and start working towards our major events,” said Woodbine’s vice-president of Thoroughbred Racing, Tim Lawson.

“We are proud of our entire stakes program and looking forward to what 2024 brings.”

The King’s Plate, won last year by Paramount Prince with veteran Barbadian Patrick Husbands aboard, will also launch the Triple Crown, with the $400 000 Prince of Wales Stakes on September 10 and the $400 000 Breeders’ Stakes on September 29, the remaining legs.

Less than two hours outside of Toronto, Fort Erie will stage the Prince of Wales Stakes.

Husbands will chase a record-equalling fourth King’s Plate this season, following previous victories with Wando in 2002 and Lexie Lou in 2014.

Meanwhile, the Woodbine Mile will headline Canada’s most lucrative day of horse racing as one of four Grade 1 events scheduled for September 14.

The Woodbine Mile, won last year by Godolphin’s Master of the Seas, will be run on the same card as the $750 000 E.P. Taylor Stakes, the $500 000 Natalma Stakes, and the $500 000 Summer Stakes.

Woodbine will also host another cash-rich day of racing on June 29, with the Canada Day Racing Festival fielding a program comprising the $200 000 Grade 2 Highlander Stakes and $175 000 Grade 2 Nassau Stakes, along with the Dominion Day Stakes, Selene Stakes, and Marine Stakes—all Grade 3, $150 000 events.

The half-million dollar Woodbine Oaks on July 20 will act as the first leg of the Triple Tiara, featuring the $250 000 Bison City Stakes on August 10 and the $150 000 Wonder Where Stakes on September 8.

Some 129 race days have been scheduled for the upcoming season, which wraps December 15.

Last season, the 50-year-old Husbands finished sixth in the Woodbine jockey standings with 62 wins, as Kazushi Kimura took the title with 161 wins.

Barbadians Keveh Nicholls, Rico Walcott, Juan Crawford, and Jason Hoyte were all part of the Woodbine colony last year.