ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Heading into Sunday’s important prep card for the $1 million King’s Plate at Woodbine, there was significant Plate news coming from south of the border. New York-based Grade 2 winner Kalik is training up to the Aug. 20 King’s Plate, according to trainer Chad Brown, and Grade 3 winner Mission of Joy will bypass the King’s Plate after skipping Sunday’s Woodbine Oaks, according to trainer Graham Motion. Large fields are on tap for both the $500,000 Oaks and the $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes on Sunday. Both are 1 1/8-mile Tapeta events for Canadian-breds that will help determine who will go on to the 1 1/4-mile King’s Plate, North America’s oldest annually run stakes. Off her dominating score in the June 10 Fury Stakes, the Mark Casse-trained Ticker Tape Home should be favored in the Oaks, but there may be some chinks in her armor. She set moderate fractions under Patrick Husbands in the seven-furlong Fury before coasting home on top by four lengths while earning an 85 Beyer Speed Figure. A daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, Ticker Tape Home was well beaten in all three of her two-turn starts, which includes stakes on dirt and turf at Tampa. “She’s training very well,” Casse said. “She’s a very talented filly. It’s whether she can get the distance. Her pedigree says she should, but nobody knows a mile and an eighth until you do it.” :: Bet the races with a $250 First Deposit Match + $10 Free Bet and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. Casse also sends out Elysian Field and Me and My Shadow in the 68th running of the Oaks. Elysian Field graduated in her penultimate start before finishing four lengths back in second in the Fury. “I thought she ran really well in the Fury,” Casse said. “She’s training very well heading into this. I expect her to run a big race.” Me and My Shadow was a belated third in the Fury and is adding blinkers Sunday. “I felt early on this year that she wasn’t training as well as she has in the past, but that’s changed in her last couple of breezes,” Casse said. “The lights have come on, and I expect a big effort.” Trainer Kevin Attard entered Delphia, Wickenheiser, Fashionably Fab, and Courtly Ro in the 14-horse Oaks. Delphia received a 70 Beyer when landing her only start in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special on June 15. “If she improves off her debut win, she should be a contender,” Attard said. “I thought she did it in a professional manner, and you would expect her to move forward off that.” Wickenheiser ran fourth in both the Grade 1 Natalma and Princess Elizabeth Stakes at 2. In her only outing this year, against male allowance opposition on June 4, she rallied for second behind Simcoe. “I’ve always liked her a lot,” Attard said. “I just had so much bad luck with her this spring and early summer. She had setbacks here and there. It’s just a matter of if I have her fit and tight enough for a mile and an eighth. She’s definitely a horse with a lot of ability. I was very pleased with her first start back.” Fashionably Fab figures to help set the pace in her first venture around two turns. She faded to fifth in the Fury after a stalking trip on the outside. Brown ships in turf expert Big Brass Bed, a maiden winner two back at Monmouth Park who’s coming off a wide fourth in an allowance route at Belmont Park. “She got a bad trip and took a bad step in the stretch,” said Brown, regarding her last race. “She’s recovered okay, and we’ll just draw a line through it.” Trainer Mike DePaulo sends out the improving Tito’s Calling, who is exiting a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Selene. Plate Trial In the 12-horse Plate Trial, DePaulo saddles the favored Stanley House. Currently ranked No. 1 in Daily Racing Form’s King’s Plate Watch, Stanley House has run three consecutive solid races over 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta. After graduating at Gulfstream Park in March, the son of Army Mule ran second here behind future stakes winner Tyson in a May 6 allowance before beating older allowance opposition most recently June 18. “Ideally, it would be nice to win this race and not take too much out of him,” DePaulo said. “There are some people that say his sire means he won’t be able to get the Plate distance of a mile and a quarter, but Army Mule ran three times and won all those starts, including a Grade 1, and he’s from the A.P. Indy sire line. The mother is by Unbridled’s Song, and there is plenty of stamina with Unbridled, so we’ll just have to show them.” Stanley House breezed five-eighths in 1:00.40 last Sunday under jockey Luis Contreras. “He was out three-quarters in around 1:14,” DePaulo said. “He’s feeling good and looks great. He put some weight on.” Attard has a four-pack for the Trial – Philip My Dear, Tiburon, Velocitor, and the supplement Pat’s Gamble. Philip My Dear, last year’s Canadian champion male juvenile, raced wide after a tardy start when eighth in the June 11 Queenston Stakes. “A mile and a quarter isn’t going to be a problem for him,” Attard predicted. “I think he can run all day long. He’s arguably better on turf, but there’s not a lot of horses who want to go 10 furlongs either. He’s trying the Plate Trial first, and then we’ll go from there.” :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Tiburon, by Good Magic, the sire of Kentucky Derby winner Mage, earned his diploma second time out in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special on June 10. “He’s a big, heavy-set horse,” Attard said. “He’s just figuring things out. I was happy with the way he broke his maiden. He’s had a couple of good stamina works in the interim. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can take another step forward in the Plate Trial.” Simcoe, trained by Katerina Vassilieva, and the Stuart Simon-trained Twin City each had excuses most recently when out of the money in the Grade 3 Marine. “He had a bit of a rough trip last time out,” Vassilieva said. “He got walled-in behind horses and stuck on the inside rail. I noticed that he galloped out really well, and that meant it wasn’t a case of the horse getting tired or not getting the distance.” Casse sends out Queenston runner-up Paramount Prince, who could be the pacesetter in his first start around two turns, and outsider Gran Spirited. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.