The $1,000,000 Queen's Plate

Woodbine will host the 151st running of the Queen's Plate on Sunday afternoon and the Queen herself will be in attendance. It is a field of thirteen Canadian-bred three-year-olds going 1 1/4 miles. Actually, it is a field of thirteen Ontario-bred three-year-olds. The 3-1 morning line favorite in the Plate is Hotep, one of two horses in the field that were nominated for the Triple Crown earlier this year. Hotep tried his luck in Louisiana before his Road To The Derby hit a significant roadblock and now he is back north of the border to try and win the most prestigious race in all of Canada. Here are the selections for the 151st Queen's Plate:

I will go with the winner of the Plate Trial over the Woodbine oval on June 13 and that is #5 Big Red Mike. As his races have been getting longer, he appears to be relishing them more and more. Eurico DaSilva gets the ride, as he did in the Trial and I really don't see anyone else in this field that could challenge Big Red Mike's efforts to get the early lead and set the tempo here. The only real other speed he might have to deal with is the filly stationed outside in post #13, Moment Of Majesty. For the second spot, I will throw a 20-1 morning-line longshot in there with #7 Ghost Fleet. He removes the blinkers for this try and his last two workouts in late June were five-furlong blowout bullets. He got a dreadful trip in the Trial and if anyone is going to make a great leap forward to contention at a price, this is it. I will put #11 Hotep next. He seems comfortable on the polytrack at Woodbine with two wins, a second, and a fifth in four career races over the synthetic. Canadian legend Patrick Husbands has the riding assignment on this A.P. Indy offspring for trainer Mark Frostad. Finally, I will wrap the top four with #9 Mobilizer, who posted Beyers in the 90s in the last two starts and ran second behind Big Red Mike in the Plate Trial. As opposed to #7, he is adding blinkers for this race and has never been worse than third in four lifetime starts. Here is the play for the 151st Queen's Plate on Sunday:

$5 WP #5
$1 EX BOX 4-5-7-9-11
TOTAL- $30

For the record, that is $30 before the exchange rate. They Are Off accepts no responsibility for any wagers made in conjunction with these selections. They are merely suggestions. Tune in again next week for more from They Are Off. For right now, I am Gone... GOODBYE!