$1-million Queen’s Plate again highlights Woodbine’s stakes schedule

TORONTO – The Queen’s Plate, North America’s oldest continuously-run stakes event, will be held July 6 at Woodbine Racetrack.

Woodbine Entertainment Group unveiled its 2014 stakes schedule Thursday, with the 155th running of the $1-million Queen’s Plate highlighting the 133-day thoroughbred meet.

The $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, the first leg in Canada’s Triple Tiara of Racing, will be run June 15, as will the $150,000 Plate Trial, the country’s top prep race for the Queen’s Plate.

The Queen’s Plate is also the first jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown, which will conclude with the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf event at Woodbine on Aug. 17.

The second Triple Crowne event, the Prince of Wales Stakes, will be held in late July at Fort Erie Racetrack.

Also on stakes schedule are the $1-million Ricoh Woodbine Mile — which has been won the last two years by Wise Dan, U.S. racing’s horse of the year — at Woodbine on Sept. 14.

And the Grade 1, $1-million Pattison Canadian International will be run Oct. 19, also at Woodbine.

Woodbine’s meet begins April 12 and will conclude Dec. 7.