No Manitoba-bred racehorse has ever won the King’s Plate. That could change Saturday at Woodbine in the 167th running of the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.
Each week a panel of media members, horseplayers, and Breeders’ Cup World Championships officials release a poll tabulating their votes on the nation's top contenders for the 2026 Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic. The rankings are a weekly rating of the top 10 horses in contention and are determined by each voter ranking their top 10 horses with points assigned on a descending 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Canada takes center stage in North American Thoroughbred racing on Saturday, Aug, 15, for the $1 million King’s Plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown as well as that country’s oldest Thoroughbred horse race.
Founded in 1860, the King’s Plate is the oldest continuously run race in North America. It was held as the Queen’s Plate from 1952 to 2022 in honor of then-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II, the race was renamed the King’s Plate for 2023 after the ascension of King Charles III following his mother’s passing.
A fever knocked Sovereignty out of a planned start last fall in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic but he nonetheless took home Eclipse Awards as Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male based on a resume of five wins and one second in six 2025 starts, including a pair of victories in Triple Crown races.
Rebounding from a pair of losses to begin his 4-year-old campaign, reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty closed from the back of the pack to wallop the opposition in the $1 million Grade 1 Whitney Stakes Aug. 8 at Saratoga Race Course.
