Woodbine has made it official. The date for this year’s 166th running of the $1 million King’s Plate is Saturday, Aug. 16.
Tickets for the opening leg of the Canadian Triple Crown go on sale March 6 on Ticketmaster and at Kingsplate.com. General admission starts at $35, which includes grandstand and apron access, along with entry to the Hats and Horseshoes party that features live music and photo ops.
In addition to his two horses entered for the Tampa Bay Derby, trainer Chad Brown is pointing seven others to stakes on Saturday at Tampa.
In the Grade 2, $225,000 Hillsborough for older turf females on turf, a race Brown has won six times, he plans to run Saffron Moon and Venencia, who ran first and third in the Grade 3 Endeavour on Feb. 1. Additionally, Brown intends to start Spaliday, the 2024 Sands Point winner. The Hillsborough is also expected to attract Sparkle Blue, who won this race last year for trainer Graham Motion.
The 4-year-old Nysos and 5-year-olds Fort Bragg and Speed Boat Beach, all stakes winners, are nearing comebacks for trainer Bob Baffert.
Baffert declined to state race goals for the trio on Sunday morning, but did say, “I’ll have some nice horses this spring.”
Nysos, unbeaten in three starts by a combined 26 3/4 lengths in 2023 and early last year, worked five furlongs in 1:02.40 at Santa Anita on Saturday, his fifth workout in as many weeks.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Trainer John Sadler will be after his first stakes win since early November when Alpha Bella starts in Saturday’s Grade 1 Beholder Mile for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
Alpha Bella was withdrawn from the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes on turf at Santa Anita last Saturday. A 5-year-old, Alpha Bella worked a half-mile in 47 seconds on Sunday for the $300,000 Beholder Mile.
“She looked beautiful,” Sadler said. “She’s run well on both surfaces and we wanted to look at both races.”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While Todd Pletcher’s 3-year-olds still have more to prove to make it to the Kentucky Derby, the Hall of Fame trainer will undoubtedly have a major impact in this year’s older dirt male division.
The performances Saturday by Locked in the Santa Anita Handicap and Mindframe in the Gulfstream Park Mile served as reminders as to just how much talent these 4-year-olds possess.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – After watching Sovereignty and River Thames finish first and second, respectively, just a neck apart, in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, it’s only natural for everyone to be clamoring for a rematch later this month in the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby. As of Sunday, however, neither camp was ready to commit to the prestigious Kentucky Derby prep just yet.
Flood Zone, the 3 1/4-length winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, was expected to return to trainer Brad Cox’s stable at Payson Park in Florida this week while his connections map out his next start.
ARCADIA, Calif. – For a trainer who spent Saturday afternoon trekking to the Santa Anita winner’s circle three times after graded stakes and four times overall, both personal bests, Michael McCarthy had a typical morning overseeing his stable on Sunday.
Thorpedo Anna, the reigning Horse of the Year, will launch her 4-year-old season from the rail Saturday as part of a field of seven fillies and mares for the Grade 2, $400,000 Azeri at Oaklawn Park.
Post positions for the 1 1/16-mile race were drawn Sunday. The race will go as the 10th on an 11-race program that begins at 12:30 p.m. Central. The approximate post time for the Azeri is 5:25 p.m.
