ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Two key local stakes preps for the $1 million Queen’s Plate will be contested Sunday at Woodbine, with the running of the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks and $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes, but most of the key contenders for the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown appear to be comfortable training up to the Aug. 22 race. The Woodbine Oaks and Plate Trial Stakes will be contested over 1 1/8 miles on Tapeta, but the only horse from Daily Racing Form’s Queen’s Plate Watch Top 10 list that will be competing this weekend will be at Saratoga on Saturday, when Weyburn will run in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes. A good start there may rule Weyburn out of Queen’s Plate consideration altogether, as his connections will likely opt to run in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 28 at Saratoga. :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more. Locally, the Oaks has attracted a field of 10 Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies, but just Curlin’s Catch is among the 45 horses nominated to the Queen’s Plate. At least one Woodbine Oaks starter has run in the Queen’s Plate every year since 2008. Four of those fillies have gone on to win the Queen’s Plate – Inglorious, Lexie Lou, Holy Helena, and Wonder Gadot. Inglorious, Lexie Lou, and Holy Helena completed the Oaks-Plate double, while Wonder Gadot finished second to Dixie Moon in the 2018 Woodbine Oaks before going on to win the Queen’s Plate. Curlin’s Catch finished fifth last October in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes, but she had a productive start to her winter with back-to-back wins in a maiden event at Gulfstream Park in January and the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in February. Following a pair of fifth-place finishes in graded stakes, Curlin’s Catch finished third in the Fury Stakes behind Lorena and Astrological over seven-furlongs here July 10. Trainer Mark Casse believes the daughter of Curlin will fare much better with the added distance in the Oaks. Rafael Hernandez has a return call on Curlin’s Catch. “I thought [the Fury] was going to be a little short for her,” Casse said. “She got held up a little and came running. Rafael came back and said those two won’t beat her again.” Lorena is the morning-line favorite for the Oaks after remaining undefeated with her victory in the Fury. She earned a 76 Beyer Speed Figure in her gate-to-wire score, which followed an allowance win to begin her season June 19. Trainer Stuart Simon said he wishes Lorena would have more than three weeks between starts. “I honestly think there’s no doubt that she’ll two-turn,” Simon said. “My only concern is three weeks, three weeks, three weeks. In a perfect world, I’d rather have another week.” Simon said he felt Lorena did well to overcome a closers’ bias in the Fury. “Other than another winner who laid second, they came from the clouds all day,” he said. “The track was dead and slow, and she was still able to gut it out and win.” Other key contenders in the Woodbine Oaks include the undefeated Jilli Marie, who won the South Ocean Stakes last season; Grade 3 Selene Stakes runner-up Munnyfor Ro; and Fury Stakes fourth-place finisher Il Malocchio. The Woodbine Oaks is the eighth race on Woodbine’s 11-race Sunday card, with post time set for 4:46 p.m. Four to start in Plate Trial The Plate Trial Stakes attracted just four horses, led by Avoman and Derzkii. Avoman has the top last-out Beyer Speed Figure in the field, an 83 earned in his third-place finish against older horses in an allowance on July 3 over 1 1/16 miles on Tapeta. The race was his first in seven months. Derzkii finished off his 2-year-old campaign with a 5 3/4-length victory over a mile and 70 yards in November, and made his seasonal debut in the six-furlong Woodstock Stakes on June 20, finishing sixth. He comes into the Plate Trial off of a runner-up finish in an allowance on July 3, a race won by King Causeway, who has since come back to win with an 86 Beyer on the turf. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Rounding out the Plate Trial field are a pair of Kevin Attard trainees in H C Holiday and Truffle King, both of whom are maidens. H C Holiday did cross the finish line first in a June 13 maiden race, but was later ruled ineligible for that race by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario – the ruling body for horse racing in the province – and was disqualified. He finished fourth behind Avoman in his last start in that July 3 allowance event. Truffle King has finished second or third in his last three starts and was most recently third behind Dolder Grand in a maiden race on July 4. He’ll add blinkers for this start. The Plate Trial is the third race on Sunday’s 11-race card at Woodbine, with post time set for 2:07 p.m.