The 2025 King's Plate Stakes, Canada's equivalent of the Kentucky Derby for 3-year-olds foaled in Canada, belonged to Mansetti, who dominated the historic $725,444 ($1 million Canadian) event Aug. 16 at Woodbine.

Owned by the American father and son team of Bill and Al Ulwelling, active supporters of Canadian racing for the past decade, Mansetti is named after the owners’ favorite restaurant in their home state of Minnesota. Trained by Woodbine-based Kevin Attard and ridden by meet-leading jockey Pietro Moran, Mansetti utilized an inside draw to dare the 12 other horses in the field to catch him. None could.

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Shedding early leader Scorching entering the first turn of the 1 1/4-mile Plate after an opening quarter in :22.93, Moran lulled Mansetti into a slower pace down the backstretch going :47.45 for the half mile and 1:12.48 for six furlongs before busting open the race with approximately three furlongs to go. Hitting the mile marker in 1:36.78, Mansetti cruised home 2 1/2 lengths in front of belatedly rallying runner-up Tom's Magic. Mansetti was clocked in 2:03.68 for the distance on Woodbine's all-weather Tapeta surface.

"He was just so relaxed, and I just talked him the whole way," said the 20-year-old Moran. "And when I chirped at him around the turn, he gave it to me, and I took a peek back down the lane, and I saw no one was coming, and I couldn't stop screaming to the wire."

The only graded stakes winner in the field, Mansetti slipped past many bettors, returning $38.70 to win.

Distance was a question for Mansetti coming into the Plate, as his longest race had been at 1 1/16 miles when he won his preceding start in the June 28 Grade 3 HPIbet Marine Stakes over Scorching. Attard acknowledged having initial doubts about Mansetti over a classic distance.

"This horse really changed from (age) 2 to 3 when he got back to Woodbine this season to start his 3-year-old campaign. He was just acting different," said Attard, the reigning Sovereign Award-winning trainer, who now owns a trio of Plate wins since 2022.

Mansetti. (Michael Burns/Woodbine)

Favored Notorious Gangster rallied to grab third. Scorching was fourth.

Both the show and runner-up finishers battled traffic in a bunched field, with Tom's Magic facing a near-impossible task while still in 12th after a mile.

No Time, seeking to become the 40th filly to win the King's Plate in the race's 166-year history, weakened to ninth after stalking the pace between horses.

The winner was bred in Ontario out of the Sky Mesa mare Gidget Girl by Jungle Racing, the equine operation of sports radio talk show host Jim Rome. The Ulwellings purchased the colt in 2024 for $40,000 from Eddie Woods' consignment to the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.

The Canadian Triple Crown continues with the Sept. 9 Prince of Wales Stakes at 1 3/16 miles on dirt at Fort Erie and will conclude with the Sept. 28 Breeders' Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Woodbine.