The Queen's Plate is Canada's oldest Thoroughbred horse race, having been founded in 1860. It is also the oldest continuously run race in North America. It is run at a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles for a maximum of 17 three-year-old Thoroughbred horses foaled in Canada. The race takes place each summer at Woodbine Racetrack in Etobicoke, Ontario. It is the first race in the Canadian Triple Crown.
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 ever win a Breeders' Cup race. She was inducted into both the Canadian and American Racing Halls of Fame.
Josie Carroll is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse trainer, who in 2006 became the first woman trainer to win the Queen's Plate, the oldest thoroughbred horse race in Canada and Canada's most prestigious race. She also won the Queen's Plate in 2011 and 2020, the Prince of Wales Stakes in 2016 and 2020, and the Breeder's Stakes in 2014
The Breeders' Stakes is a stakes race for Thoroughbred race horses foaled in Canada, first run in 1889. Since 1959, it has been the third race in the Canadian Triple Crown for three-year-olds. Held annually in August at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, the Breeders' Stakes follows the June running of the Queen's Plate and the July running of the Prince of Wales Stakes. At a distance of one-and-a-half miles, the Breeders' Stakes is the longest of the three Triple Crown races and is the only jewel raced on turf.
Deputy Minister was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred horse racing Champion. At age two, he won eight out of his nine starts and was voted both the Sovereign and Eclipse Awards for Champion 2-Year-Old in Canada and the United States respectively. He also received Canada's Sovereign Award for Horse of the Year. Although his three-year-old campaign was restricted by injury, Deputy Minister rebounded at age four with several major wins.
Smart Strike was a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse. The son of the Champion sire, Mr. Prospector, and out of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame mare Classy 'n Smart, Smart Strike is a half-brother to 1991 Canadian Triple Crown champion Dance Smartly.
Flaming Page was a Canadian Thoroughbred who was a Champion racehorse and then an outstanding broodmare. She is best known as the dam of English Triple Crown winner Nijinsky. She was elected to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1980.
Northernette was a Canadian Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse. A Canadian champion at both ages two and three, she was also a Grade I stakes winner in the United States.
Canadiana (1950–1971) was the first Canadian-bred racehorse to earn more than $100,000 Canadian. She was bred by E. P. Taylor at his National Stud near Oshawa, Ontario. Sired by Taylor's stallion, Chop Chop who would go on to sire three more Queen's Plate winners, her dam Iribelle was also owned by Taylor. Canadiana's British-born damsire Osiris was the Leading sire in Canada in 1938, 1940, 1942, and 1947.
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.
Perfect Shirl is a Thoroughbred racemare who won the 2011 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf in a 27-1 upset. She was foaled in the United States but her connections were Canadian.
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.
Tepin is a retired Thoroughbred racehorse who was named the American Champion Female Turf Horse of 2015 and 2016. She showed very promising form as a two-year-old in 2013 when she won the Delta Princess Stakes on the dirt. After a disappointing three-year-old season when she failed to win in four starts, she emerged as a top-class turf performer in 2015. Her wins as a four-year-old included the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes, Just A Game Stakes and First Lady Stakes before recording her biggest success when defeating male opposition in the Breeders' Cup Mile. In 2016, she won her first four starts and was then sent to England, where she defeated a field of leading European milers to win the Queen Anne Stakes. On returning to North America, she extended her winning streak to eight in the Woodbine Mile. The streak included three Grade/Group 1 wins against male horses in three different countries. Although Tepin finished second in her next two starts including an effort to defend her title in the Breeders Cup Mile, she was still named the Champion Female Turf Horse for the second year in a row. Tepin was inducted to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2020 and the US National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2022.
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.
Caren is a retired Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse. A multiple stakes winner at ages two and three, she was named the 2016 Canadian Horse of the Year. She finished her career with a record of 9 wins from 17 starts, and earnings of US$821,790.
Wonder Gadot is a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes, the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown, in 2018. As a two-year-old, she was named the Canadian Champion Two-Year-Old Filly after winning the Mazarine and Demoiselle Stakes. At age three, in addition to beating the colts twice in Canada, she was second in the Grade I Kentucky Oaks to Monomoy Girl. She was named the 2018 Canadian Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Filly.
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 one Grade II races and four Grade I races. At the Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, Contreras won the Queen's Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes, and Breeders' Stakes. His 2011 wins made him 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.
South Ocean (1967–1989) was a Canadian Thoroughbred Hall of Fame mare raced by Charles Taylor. She was bred by Charles's father E. P. Taylor, Canada's preeminent name in Thoroughbred racing and in world breeding history.
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.
