The King's Plate is Canada's oldest thoroughbred horse race and the oldest continuously run race in North America, having been founded in 1860. It is run at a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles for a maximum of 17 three-year-old thoroughbred horses foaled in Canada.
Sam-Son Farm is a Thoroughbred horse racing stable with farms located in Milton, Ontario (Canada) and Ocala, Florida (U.S.). Established in the 1960s by Ernest L. "Ernie" Samuel, it began as a home for competition hunter/jumper horses. One Sam-Son horse won the 1967 Pan-American Games Individual Jumping Gold Medal and was a member of the 1968 Team Gold Medal for Canada at the Mexico Olympics.
Dance Smartly (1988–2007) was a Champion Thoroughbred racemare who went undefeated in 1991 while winning the Canadian Triple Crown and becoming the first horse bred in Canada to win a Breeders' Cup race. She was inducted into both the Canadian and American Racing Halls of Fame.
Emile Ramsammy is a Canadian thoroughbred horse racing Champion jockey. He had more than 500 victories racing in the Caribbean before emigrating to Canada in the early 1990s.
Todd Kabel was a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. A native of McCreary, Manitoba, he began his career as a jockey at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in 1987 started competing at tracks in Ontario, moving to Toronto permanently in 1991.
Norcliffe (1973–1984) was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. He was sired by U.S. Hall of Fame Champion Buckpasser out of the mare Drama School by Northern Dancer.
Runaway Groom (1979–2007) was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse.
Canadian Champ (1953–1978) was a Canadian Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse who in 1956 won the three races that became the Canadian Triple Crown Championship in 1959. Sired by Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Windfields, he was out of the mare Bolesteo.
Carotene is a Canadian Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse who holds the filly or mare record for winning the most Sovereign Awards. Bred by David Willmot's Kinghaven Farms, she was a daughter of the British sire Great Nephew, who also sired Epsom Derby winners Grundy and Shergar. Carotene's dam was Carrot Top, a mare David Willmot purchased in foal from the Whitney family at the 1982 dispersal sale of their bloodstock in the United Kingdom.
Robert P. Tiller is a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. A resident of Brampton, Ontario, he has long been one of the top trainers at Toronto's Woodbine Racetrack. He has won four training titles at Woodbine Racetrack, earned three Sovereign Awards for Outstanding Trainer and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2008.
The Canadian Triple Crown is a series of three Thoroughbred horse races run annually in Canada which is open to three-year-old horses foaled in Canada. Established in 1959, the series is unique in that it shares the same distances as its American counterpart but is contested on three different track surfaces.
Classy 'n Smart was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred and raced by Sam-Son Farm, she won five of nine career starts, including two legs of what would later be known as the Canadian Triple Tiara. Although she was voted the 1984 Canadian Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, her primary legacy is as a champion broodmare.
Eye of the Sphynx is a Canadian Champion Thoroughbred racehorse and successful broodmare.
Key to the Moon (1981–1988) was a Canadian thoroughbred champion racehorse.
Barbara J. Minshall is a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse trainer and owner who has competed both in Canada and the United States. She is the widow of Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Aubrey W. Minshall, the successful breeder and owner of the 350-acre (1.4 km2) Minshall Farms near Hillsburgh, Ontario. Following her husband's death in 1993, Barbara Minshall, having been involved in the operation of the farm, continued the business and became a licensed trainer in 1999.
Mark E. Casse is a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer whose most notable horses include 2015 American champion turf mare Tepin and Canadian Horses of the Year Sealy Hill (2007), Uncaptured (2012), Lexie Lou (2014), Catch A Glimpse (2015) and Wonder Gadot. He has won thirteen Sovereign Awards for outstanding trainer in Canada and has been the leading trainer at Woodbine Racetrack 14 times. In 2019, he won his first American Classic with War of Will in the Preakness Stakes.
Lexie Lou is a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse. In 2014, she won the Queen's Plate and two legs of the Canadian Triple Tiara on her way to winning three Sovereign Awards. She has also won three graded stakes in the United States and Canada, and finished second to American Horse of the Year California Chrome in the 2014 Hollywood Derby. In 2019, Lexie Lou was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Luis Contreras is a Mexican jockey since 2006. After starting his career in Mexico, Contreras started competing in the United States and Canada during the late 2000s. For his graded stakes race career, Contreras has won thirty six Grade III races, twenty two Grade II races and four Grade I races. At the 2011 Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, Contreras won the Queen's Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes, and Breeders' Stakes. He became the first jockey to use two horses to win the Canadian Triple Crown. In 2014, Contreras came short of another Canadian Triple Crown after finishing tenth at the Breeders' Stakes following wins at the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales.
Mighty Heart is a one-eyed Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse who was named the 2020 Canadian Horse of the Year and Champion three-year-old colt after winning the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes, the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. His victory time of 2.01.98 in the Queen's Plate was the second-fastest since 1957, when it moved to its current length at Woodbine Racetrack. As a four-year-old in 2021, he won the Blame, Dominion Day and Autumn Stakes.
Moira is a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2022 Woodbine Oaks and Queen's Plate. She set a track record in the Queen's Plate while becoming the 38th filly to win the race.
