Sunday, June 26, 2011
Alex
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| Three-year-old filly Inglorious, ridden by Luis Contreras, beat the boys and won the 2011 Queen's Plate. Courtesy: WEG / Michael Burns Photography |
As the field broke from the gate, Curgone, Oh Canada and Okiyama immediately broke for the lead, with Hippolytus trailing in just behind in a quick opening quarter of 23.86. Through the first turn, the leading trio began to open up a five-length advantage on a second group of horses headed up by Hippolytus and Bowman's Causeway. The favoured trio of Check Your Soul, Queen'splatekitten and Inglorious, were tightly grouped together throughout the backstretch, about a length off of Hippolytus. After a half mile time of 47.66, the second group of horses began to catch up to the leading trio, setting up a memorable stretch run.
Patrick Husbands, on Check Your Soul, began to make his clear run at the wire in the three-wide path and found himself right at the front as the field hit the top of the stretch. But the filly and Contreras followed his every move, and drew off Check Your Soul in the four-wide path. From there Inglorious exploded towards the wire, passing Hippolytus before crossing the finish line in 2:02.63, just four tenths of a second off of the track record of 2:02.18, set by Pachattack on November 6th, 2010.
Hippolytus, ridden by Tyler Pizarro, finished second. Chantel Sutherland returned to Woodbine and rode Pender Harbour to a third place finish, while Bowman's Causeway and Eurico Rosa Da Silva finished fourth. Favourite Check Your Soul faded to seventh.
Woodbine's leading rider, Luis Contreras, was making his first career start in the Queen's Plate and finished it off with a big victory.
"This is great," said Contreras after the race. "She's amazing. Everything is just amazing."
"I wasn't in a hurry off the start," he added. "I was watching the film before the race and it worked out that I followed the favourite (Check Your Soul) and it worked out. She gave me everything."
Trainer Josie Carroll became the first female trainer to win the Queen's Plate in 2006 with Edenwold, and she notched her second career Queen's Plate victory with Inglorious in 2011.
"It feels overwhelming," said Carroll after the race. "I thought we had a shot when he got on (favourite) Check Your Soul's back, then half way down the lane I thought we had a big shot."
Alberta-based Donver Stable started their first two Queen's Plate horses in this year's race (Inglorious and Seawatch) and now have their first winner thanks to their great filly.
"I'm thrilled to death, I still can't believe it," said Vern Dubinksy, owner of Donver Stable. "Just before the finish line (I thought we were going to win). This is just a dream and I still don't believe it yet."
The next race for Inglorious would likely be the Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, at Fort Erie on July 17th. However, when asked about it, Carroll wasn't sure when or where Inglorious' next race would be.
"We're going to see how she comes out of it (the Queen's Plate) and let her tell us what we're going to do."
"I said the same thing after the Oaks and it seemed to work out well for us," she added.
Inglorious became the 34th filly to win the Queen's Plate, but just the sixth to win the top prize for Canadian-bred three-year-olds since 1956. Inglorious was also just the fifth filly to capture the Woodbine Oaks and the Queen's Plate in the same season, joining Flaming Page (1962), La Lorgnette (1985), Dance Smartly (1991) and Dancethruthedawn (2001).
Purchased for $90,000 in the September 2009 Canadian Yearling Sale, Inglorious has now banked $1,250,000 in career earnings. She paid $11.00 to her backers and is now a perfect five-for-five on Woodbine's polytrack, all stakes victories.
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