Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson (pictured with trainer Ian Black) became the first woman rider in 148 years to win Canada’s most famous horse race, the $1 million Queen’s Plate, when she steered 15 to 1 longshot Mike Fox to victory Sunday, at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.<\/p>\n
Last year, Josie Carroll became the first female to train a Queen’s Plate winner, when Edenwold emerged victorious. On June 9, Rags to Riches<\/a> became the first filly in over 100 years to win the famed Belmont Stakes in New York. But on June 24, it was 25-year-old Wilson’s turn to make history.<\/p>\n Last year, she rode in the Queen’s Plate for the first time, finishing 12th aboard Bridgecut. But she won back-to-back Sovereign Awards in 2005 and 2006 as Canada’s top apprentice, as well as a 2005 Eclipse Award for North America honors.<\/p>\n “It’s a wonderful thing,” said Ian Black, in just his second year as a trainer, after being farm manager for Kinghaven Farms, home of five former Queen’s Plate champions. “I’m just very honoured to be part of Emma’s great day.”<\/p>\n It was the biggest payday yet for Mike Fox, as he took home $600,000 for the win, his fourth victory in eight career starts. After dropping back behind the leaders in early in the stretch, the Morgan Firestone-owned colt got his second wind and nailed pacesetter Alezzandro in the closing strides to post a half-length victory in 2:05.45 for the mile and one-quarter classic.<\/p>\n The Queen’s Plate, inaugurated in 1860, during the reign of Queen Victoria, is North America’s oldest continuously run stakes race and the first leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-foaled three-year-olds. Next up is the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie on July 15, at 1 1\/16 miles; with the 1 1\/2-mile turf Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine, on August 5, as the third and final leg.<\/p>\n Woodbine is the only racetrack in North America capable of conducting Standardbred and Thoroughbred racing on the same day. It has a 7\/8-mile harness racing surface; a one-mile dirt track; and, encircling both dirt tracks, a 1 1\/2-mile turf course, that many consider the best in North America. The Grade I Canadian International, run\u00a0 in the fall on Woodbine’s E.P. Taylor Turf Course, carries a $1.5 million purse and is a part of the Emirates World Series Racing Championship.<\/p>\n Hall of Fame rider Ron Turcotte<\/a>, who rode Secretariat<\/a> for his American Triple Crown victories, got his start at Woodbine, and Secretariat made the last start of his career at the Canadian track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson (pictured with trainer Ian Black) became the first woman rider in 148…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}