"The decision was not automatic," Jim Lawson told the Toronto Sun.
It may be a shock to the system for many Canadian sports fans, but after 70 years, the country’s most prestigious horse race will again be known as The King’s Plate.
From 1952 until 2022, the 1 1/4 mile Woodbine Racetrack race, which features the top three-year-old Canadian-bred thoroughbreds, has been known as The Queen’s Plate, in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The race has historically been named after the reigning British monarch.
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With the Queen’s death on Sept. 8, and her son Charles ascending to the throne, the race again becomes The King’s Plate.
The decision to revert the event back to The King’s Plate certainly was not taken lightly by the Woodbine Entertainment (WE) board and CEO Jim Lawson. Lawson said that WE contacted John Warren, the Royal bloodstock and racing advisor, to ask King Charles III about reverting Canada’s most important horse race back to The King’s Plate.
Lawson said Warren spoke to the King on Monday and Charles agreed to the change.
“We wanted to make (the King) aware that this announcement was going to happen on Wednesday morning, and to gain his support,” said Lawson. “And we did. They were supportive of it.”
When Queen Elizabeth II died, media outlets almost immediately began asking Lawson if the Queen’s Plate would become the King’s Plate once again. Lawson and the board spent considerable time discussing the issue before making the final decision.
“The decision was not automatic,” Lawson told the Toronto Sun. “I said right from the beginning that this was a much bigger decision than Jim Lawson can make and I’d have to discuss it with our board. And really our board felt that more than anything it was about the long and storied history of being connected to the monarchy.”
The Queen’s Plate story began in 1859 when the president of the Toronto Turf Club, Sir Casimir Gzowski, petitioned for an annual horse racing prize awarded by Queen Victoria to Canadian-bred horses. The prize from the British monarchy, which continues to this day, is the value of 50 guineas (a defunct British gold coin no longer minted).
Following the succession of King Edward VII in 1901, the event changed its name to The King’s Plate (and would remain so during the reign of George V, Edward VIII, and George VI), before once again returning to The Queen’s Plate in 1952 after the death of Princess Elizabeth’s father, George VI, and it remained The Queen’s Plate for the last 70 years.
“It was all to promote horse racing in Canada and to have sponsorship from the British monarchy,” said Lawson. “And quite frankly it’s been a positive run for 163 years.”
Queen Elizabeth II was a huge advocate for horse racing and was, in fact, heavily involved in breeding and racing and owned a considerable stable of fine thoroughbreds. The Queen had travelled to Woodbine four times (1959, 1973, 1997, 2010) to watch the race named in her honour. Her mother, the Queen Mother, visited Woodbine seven times. Lawson spent considerable time with the Queen during her last visit in 2010 and believes that she would have strongly agreed with the decision to revert the race back to The King’s Plate upon her passing.
The Plate, run annually at Woodbine Racetrack in Etobicoke, is North America’s longest continuously run stakes race with a purse of $1 million. The 2023 King’s Plate will run on Sunday, Aug. 20 — the 164th running of the event.
The Plate is the first of leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, followed by the Prince of Wales Stakes run at Fort Erie Race Track, and the Breeders’ Stakes run back at Woodbine. The 2022 Queen’s Plate was won by the spectacular filly Moira, who is trained by Kevin Attard, ridden by Rafael Hernandez and owned by -Men Racing, Madaket Stables LLC and SF Racing LLC.
“The Plate is one of the most celebrated events in horse racing, and we’re proud to celebrate its history while starting a new chapter under the banner of The King’s Plate,” said Lawson.
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