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The Gallop for the Guineas
Photo by Andrew Z.
There are few emotional highs like watching your horse galloping down the homestretch to win by a nose in a blur of colour and kicked-up dirt. Even losing money when your wing-and-a-prayer long shot leads the race only to falter badly in the final turn isn’t so disappointing when you consider the entertainment value of riding an emotional roller coaster. Once a sporting and cultural institution, horseracing has lost some of its cachet in recent years. Its shimmer has been worn away by sport-wide insinuations of drugs, and tragedies like the fate of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby. Sunday’s Queen’s Plate—a race for three-year-old thoroughbreds foaled in Canada with a million-dollar purse—is one occasion when the horse track regains its importance as a social institution. It’s the perfect opportunity for new fans to head up to Woodbine and discover the excitement of a day at the races.
Now in its 149th year, the Queen’s Plate is the oldest continuously run stakes race in North America. It was run for the first time in 1860, after the Toronto Turf Club petitioned Queen Victoria to donate a fifty-guinea plate as an award for an Ontario horse race. (In reality, it’s actually a small trophy.) For the first twenty years, the race moved from town to town, until the Toronto-based Ontario Jockey Club secured a royal presence at the event in Toronto when in 1883 the Marquis of Lorne brought his wife, Princess Louise. Afterwards, Lord Lorne, the Governor General of Canada, urged the Queen make Toronto the race’s permanent home. Lent credibility as the “sport of royalty,” the Plate became the summer highlight of the city’s sporting calendar. Nowadays, with the Prince of Wales Stakes in Fort Erie, and the Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine in the fall, the Plate is the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
With no undisputed favourite in the field, and with the largest number of entrants in years, Sunday’s race promises to be a wide-open contest. Among the fifteen contenders, Not Bourbon may have history on his side. If he wins, trainer Roger Attfield will tie Harold Giddings Jr. for the most career Plate wins. Another horse, named for a football legend, D. Flutie, also benefits from proven experience in his stable despite still looking for his maiden win. In 2003, D. Flutie’s owner Gus Schickendanz and trainer Mike Keogh guided Wando to become the last winner of the Canadian Triple Crown.
Since the days when under-the-table wagering rankled the moral sensibilities of Victorian Torontonians, gambling and horseracing have gone hand in hand. By investing the outcome with emotional gravity, wagers, however small, are what separate a horse race from a mere trot in the park. Yet unlike easy-to-use gambling options like slots, the advance knowledge and skill necessary for success at the track can seem a barrier for newcomers.
If you want to grind out a career at the track, there are lots of books to help you figure out the essentials of sound handicapping and effective money management. But if you’re just out on a lark, all you need is a small sum of money you won’t mind losing, a sense of fun, and a willingness to learn. You may start the day picking a horse because of its name, starting position, or the colour of silks worn by its jockey. But, with a little practice deciphering the race program, you’ll begin assessing a horse’s past performances, and the success rates of its jockey and trainer. There are also guides, like this one [PDF], that cut through the confusion of different types of wagers and how to place a bet. By the end of the day, you’ll discover that, without dropping yourself into debt, an afternoon’s day at the races can offer more than its money’s worth in excitement.
Photo by saltyseadog.