Queen's Plate pedigree profile: The Minkster
The Minkster
English Channel – Cabriole, by Flatter
Bred in Ontario by Dr. Dan Hyka ($39,853 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario division yearling purchase by Ray Burke Sea Glass)
The Minkster, unbeaten winner of the Coronation Futurity and Queenston Stakes, is looking to add to the legacy of late leading sire English Channel, with whom trainer Danny Vella has a history. Vella trained another son of English Channel, Strait of Dover, to win the 2012 Queen’s Plate.
English Channel, who died last year following an illness, won six Grade 1 races during his racing career, highlighted by the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Turf to secure an Eclipse Award championship.
He went on to become a perennial leading turf sire, represented by 12 Grade 1 winners to date, including 2020 Eclipse champion Channel Maker. He also is the sire of six Sovereign Award Canadian champions, including Grade 1 winners Heart to Heart and Johnny Bear.
English Channel’s other top-level winners include popular Arlington Million winner The Pizza Man and fellow Chicago hero Two Emmys; Grade 1 winners Al’s Gal, Channel Cat, V. E. Day, Voodoo Song, and War Like Goddess; Singapore Group 1 winner Parranda; and Peruvian Group 1 winner Faenon.
Cabriole was a useful mare who was a six-time winner, on both dirt and synthetic surfaces, although all her victories came in claiming company, and never beyond seven furlongs. She is the dam of two winners from four starters, with stakes winner The Minkster joined by Sail At Noon, a three-time claiming winner in dirt sprints.
Cabriole is a half-sister to 2009 Manitoba Derby winner Smuggler’s Hold. This is the extended family of multiple graded stakes winner Newsdad, of graded-placed stakes winners Field Cat and Ujjayi, and stakes winners Accomodator and Estevan.
Flatter, by the legendary A.P. Indy, is the broodmare sire of 11 stakes winners, including, in the last calendar year, Grade 1 winners Juju’s Map and Taiba.