Stake Saturday: Queen's Plate highlights weekend action

Throughout the year, the NTRA will provide a guide to the best stakes races in North America and beyond. Races are listed in chronological order (all times Eastern). Full entries can be found through the link for each race.

Saturday September 12

4:27 p.m.—$500,000 Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Stakes at Kentucky Downs on TVG

Trainer Chad Brown, the future Hall of Famer who is a presence at this meet for the first time, has 9-5 favorite Regal Glory in the Ladies Turf Stakes for fillies and mares. Regal Glory is a multiple graded-stakes winner, taking last year’s Lake Placid (G2) and Lake George (G3) at Saratoga, along with two other stakes at age 3. In two starts this year she was second to her talented stablemate Newspaperofrecord in Belmont’s Intercontinental (G3) and fourth to her in the Just a Game (G1). Brown also entered 5-1 Tapit Today, who finished most recently was a good fourth in Monmouth Park’s Matchmaker (G3).

4:51 p.m.—$250,000 Grade 2 Canadian Stakes at Woodbine on TVG

Art of Almost and Elizabeth Way, both trained by Roger Attfield, will take on eight rivals, including multiple Grade 1 winner Cambier Parc, in Saturday’s $250,000 Canadian Stakes. Cambier Parc, who last raced nearly a year ago, has won three of her past four starts – including back-to-back Grade 1 triumphs – for OXO Equine and trainer Chad Brown. The four-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro took the Del Mar Oaks last August and followed it up with a victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup in October.

4:59 p.m.—$500,000 Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint Stakes at Kentucky Downs on TVG

The Ladies Sprint provides a scintillating showdown among Grade 1 winner Got Stormy, the 2-1 favorite in the overflow field of 15, and Kimari. The Mark Casse-trained Got Stormy has consistently been tough competing against males in Grade 1 races, including winning last year’s Fourstardave at Saratoga and finishing second in her title defense this year, along with a second in last year's Breeders' Cup Mile. Now she'll sprint for the first time in her glorious career that has seen her earn $1.6 million to date. Kimari, trained by Wesley Ward, has only been beaten once in the United States, and that was when fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.

5:32 p.m.—$500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint Stakes at Kentucky Downs on TVG

Trainer Wesley Ward has the two morning-line favorites in the Juvenile Turf Sprint in debut winner Outadore (2-1) and Fauci (5-2), who won a Keeneland maiden race on turf and was second in Saratoga’s Skidmore on grass.  Another interesting horse is 9-2 third choice County Final, who won his debut on grass at Churchill Downs then was second in the Bashford Manor (G3) on dirt. Transferred to Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, County Final romped in Monmouth Park’s off-the-turf Tyro Stakes.

5:41 p.m.—$1,000,000 Queen’s Plate at Woodbine on TVG

Plate Trial champ Clayton and multiple stakes-winning filly Curlin’s Voyage will take on 12 other Queen’s Plate hopefuls in the $1 million classic set for 1 ¼ miles. The 161st edition of the Queen’s Plate, North America’s oldest continually run race, is the first leg of the OLG Canadian Triple Crown, a tri-surface series for Canadian-bred three-year-olds. A son of Bodemeister, Clayton has three wins and one second from four starts for owners Donato Lanni and Daniel Plouffe. Trained by Kevin Attard, who also sends out the filly Merveilleux, the bay colt arrives at the Plate in sharp form, having won two straight, including the Plate Trial on Aug. 15.

6:04 p.m.—$1,000,000 Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Turf Stakes at Kentucky Downs on TVG

The Kentucky Turf Cup is headed by Michael Hui's 2019 winner Zulu Alpha and Donegal Racing's 2018 winner Arklow. Both became Grade 1 winners after their 1-2 finish a year ago at Kentucky Downs, with Arklow winning Belmont Park’s Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in his next start and Zulu Alpha taking Gulfstream Park’s $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf in January. Zulu Alpha, fourth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, has made a claim as being America’s best distance turf horse after winning the Pegasus World Cup Turf and tacking on Grade 2 victories in Gulfstream Park’s Mac Diarmida and Keeneland’s Elkhorn. Arklow is trying to regain his 2019 form, and trainer Brad Cox has been pleased how the 6-year-old horse has responded in training to the addition of blinkers.

6:36 p.m.—$700,000 Grade 3 Turf Sprint Stakes at Kentucky Downs on TVG

Totally Boss, winner of this race in 2019, looms the favorite in an overflow field for the Turf Sprint Stakes, whose winner will receive a fees-paid spot in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint as part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series’ “Win and You’re In” program.  Totally Boss has raced only twice this year, most recently rallying strongly only to lose Keeneland’s Grade 2 Shakertown by a head to his Rusty Arnold-trained stablemate Leinster. Totally Boss could join Hold the Salt (2008-2009) as the only repeat winner of the stakes.