Woodbine: Check Your Soul gets final Queen's Plate tune-up

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Check Your Soul, impressive winner of the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial on June 5, breezed five furlongs in 1:01.60 here Wednesday morning in preparation for Sunday’s $1 million Queen’s Plate.

A field of 16 or 17 is expected when the entry box closes at 8:30 a.m. Thursday for the Queen’s Plate, the 1 1/4-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds that is being run for the 152nd time.

Check Your Soul, under Patrick Husbands, went in company with older stablemate Simmard and exercise rider Darren Fortune.

“It was a bit easier than I wanted it to be,” trainer Roger Attfield said after watching the workout while aboard his pony, Daddy Cool.

“They actually worked three furlongs. The first quarter was a little sleepy.”

Attfield caught the opening quarter in 25.80 seconds, but the pace picked up with the final quarter going in 24 before the pair galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.40.

“They finished well,” Attfield said. “It was all right.”

Simmard is headed for Sunday’s Singspiel, a 1 1/2-mile turf race that offers Grade 3 status and a purse of $150,000.

Daddy Cool won the first running of the Singspiel in 2005.

One Big Gator drills three furlongs

One Big Gator also tuned up for the Queen’s Plate here Wednesday, going three furlongs in 35.60 after tracking stablemate Kwik Costa, who finished in 36.20.

Jim McAleney, who has picked up the mount on One Big Gator for the Queen’s Plate, was climbing aboard the colt for the first time.

“I was very happy to kind of familiarize myself with him, and he had a nice breeze,” McAleney said.

“The horse has a wonderful disposition; he’s quite sensible. He’ll certainly handle all the goings-on and the atmosphere of Plate Day.”

One Big Gator won his maiden in his last start, a 1 1/16-mile Ontario-sired race here June 10.

Seawatch still on bubble for Plate

Seawatch breezed four furlongs in 49.20 under jockey Slade Callaghan here Wednesday and remained on the bubble for the Queen’s Plate as of Wednesday morning.

“The breeze went well,” said Josie Carroll, who trains Seawatch for the Donver Stable of Donna and Vern Dubinsky.

“I’ll talk to Mr. Dubinsky later in the day, and we’ll decide.”

Seawatch is coming off a respectable fifth-place finish here in the June 12 Victoria Park, a 1 1/8-mile race that was just his second start of the season and fourth career appearance.

The colt is currently not eligible for the Queen’s Plate and would have to be supplemented at a cost of $25,000.

Carroll and the Dubinskys also will be represented in the Queen’s Plate by Inglorious, winner of the 1 1/8-mile Woodbine Oaks on June 5.

◗ Entrants in the Queen’s Plate will be subject to the terms of Woodbine’s stakes race surveillance program and must be onsite by 11 a.m. Friday. Blood samples will be taken, under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Racing Commission, and entrants will be subject to random checks from that point.

Beginning Sunday morning, entrants will be under full surveillance until they start the walk over for the Queen’s Plate.