ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Willie Armata’s first experience with Queen’s Plate glory had a bit of a hollow feeling to it when his father, Vito, won the $1 million event with 82-1 shot T J’s Lucky Moon 20 years ago. “When my dad won the Plate in 2002, we had five running that day and I had to run the horse in the race before and watch the Plate from the track kitchen,” Armata recalled. “We got lucky.” As the assistant to his father then, Armata missed out on the raucous winner’s circle celebration, but the affable 40-year-old has a chance to make up for it on Aug. 21, when he sends out multiple stakes winner Ironstone in the 1 1/4-mile classic for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds. Ironstone was a Sovereign Award finalist for Canadian champion male 2-year-old in 2021, during which he won the $201,200 Simcoe Stakes for graduates of Canadian yearling sales and the $150,000 Clarendon Stakes. His first try around two turns was a solid second to the future champion of the division God of Love in the Grade 3 Grey in November. Ironstone was third behind the talented shipper Nobals in his May 1 season debut in the six-furlong Woodstock Stakes. He went on to finish a close third behind The Minkster and Rondure in the seven-furlong Queenston Stakes for Canadian-breds on June 12. :: Queen's Plate: Get odds, comments, analysis, and news for the 163rd running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine Armata said he was happy with Ironstone’s effort in the Queenston, while frustrated that the colt was boxed in along the inside after breaking from the rail under Kazushi Kimura. “He was stuck on the inside of horses,” Armata recalled. “When he finally got daylight, he was running on late.” In Ironstone’s final Plate prep going 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 3 Marine, he established a clear early lead before tiring to just miss second, finishing 5 3/4 lengths behind the sharp winner, Rondure. “I felt he wasn’t comfortable the whole way,” Armata said. “He threw his head up the first part of the race. Once I saw that, I had to walk away from the TV for a little bit. I thought he was all-in at the quarter pole, but he still fought on and got beat a head for second, so I was happy with that.” There’s a seven-week gap between the July 2 Marine and the Plate, and Armata said he preferred going into the race with a fresh horse rather than run in the Plate Trial Stakes on July 24. He has given the call to leading rider Kimura, who has been sidelined with a back injury. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. Ironstone routinely works fast, doing so effortlessly. Armata said the son of Mr Speaker has begun to relax more in the early stages of his breezes, attributing the more laid-back approach to maturity and the addition of ear plugs, which he will wear in the Plate. “Last year, everything was all go, go, go for him,” Armata recalled. “But now, he’s started to take it easy. He’s relaxing a lot more in his workouts than he was last year.” Armata said he has been training Ironstone from the quarter-mile chute, where he will break from in the Plate. “In the mornings before the break, I back him up all the way to the Queen’s Plate chute and he starts off easy from there,” Armata said. “When Kimura and Patrick Husbands worked him, they said to me that he probably could have gone around again.” Ironstone, a bargain $7,000 yearling purchase, is owned by the partnership of Adrian Meli’s Tequesta Racing and his mother, Helen Bruno, who races under Jupiter Leasing. Meli’s 15-year-old son, Owen, is a top 20 junior hockey prospect who plays center for the York Simcoe Express. “Owen’s hobby is he loves the horses,” Adrian Meli said. “I always take him to the yearling sale, and he always picks out a horse. He picked out Owen’s Tour Guide, and we did really good with her. We also have Owen’s Souper Moon, who came back off an injury to win this year.” Armata went out on his own in 2007. His only stakes success before Ironstone was Bold Corky’s victory in the 2008 Classy ’n Smart. Waiting for the right horse, an iron horse to come along, the trainer is excited to be on the Queen’s Plate trail for the first time. “Obviously, you want a good result, but just to be a part of it is a thrill for me,” Armata said. “I went from training a lot of bottom-end claimers to having some nice horses this year that I’m happy about. Ironstone has taken me to places that I’ve never been to before. “I’m a little bit nervous and excited at the same time. Even if we finish third or fourth, it would mean a lot to me. It gives me a shot to move on to the next leg. If the dream does come true, we would make history 20 years later – father and son. That would be nice.”