Tag: Woodbine

Jack Christopher destroyed his Woody Stephens competition by 10 lengths last out. He is the 3/2 second choice to win the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes. That's the fourth leg of this week's Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Coglianese Photos)

All-Stakes Cross Country Pick 5 Features the Haskell, UN, Caress

The Grade 1 Haskell Stakes, its Grade 1 turf undercard United Nations, and a salty Grade 3 filly turf sprint finale at Saratoga headline this week’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5. This week’s Cross Country Pick 5 features stakes races coming from Monmouth Park, Saratoga, and Canada’s […]

Safe Conduct and Irad Ortiz Jr. turn aside Riptide Rock (back) and David Moran to win the 162nd Queen's Plate at Woodbine Racetrack. The card produced the second-best betting handle in event history. (Image: Michael Burns Photo)

Woodbine Rides Safe Conduct’s Queen’s Plate Win to Strong Handle

Spurred by Safe Conduct’s Queen’s Plate victory, Woodbine Racetrack registered the second-highest wagering handle for Queen’s Plate Day in event history. Bettors wagered $16,122,170 on Sunday’s 13-race card at the suburban Toronto, Ontario, Canada track. That ranked second only to 2018’s Queen’s Plate Day handle of $18,005,973. Meanwhile, it surpassed […]

Munnyfor Ro put her Woodbine Oaks rivals in the rear-view mirror. She comes back on three weeks rest trying to do the same in the Queen's Plate at Woodbine. (Image: Michael Burns Photo)

The Attards Set a Family Table for This Year’s Queen’s Plate

There’s something of a Kevin Attard feel to this year’s Queen’s Plate, the opening jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown. A Kevin Attard feel that defines flooding the zone. The trainer sends out four horses – nearly a third of the 13-horse field – for Sunday’s Queen’s Plate on Woodbine’s […]

Reigning Champion Turf Male Channel Maker will try giving trainer Bill Mott his record-setting fifth Bowling Green title in this week's finale of the Cross Country Pick 5. (Image: Janet Garaguso/NYRA Photo)

Cross Country Pick 5 Takes to the Stakes This Week

Four stakes races up and down the graded-stakes ladder highlight this week’s New York Racing Association Cross Country Pick 5. The horizontal exotic once again brings you races from Monmouth Park, Saratoga, and Canada’s Woodbine. The minimum bet for the three-track, five-race wager is 50 cents. The Cross Country Pick […]

Mighty Heart and trainer Josie Carroll strike a pose before last year's Breeders' Stakes. The reigning Canadian Horse of the Year headlines the seven-horse field in Woodbine's Dominion Day Stakes. (Image: Michael Burns Photo)

Mighty Heart, Canada’s One-Eyed Darling, Heads Dominion Day Field

Remember Mighty Heart, the reigning Canadian Horse of the Year? The now-4-year-old headlines the field in the Grade 3 Dominion Day Stakes, Woodbine’s flagship race on Canada Day. The July 1 Dominion Day Stakes takes its contestants 1 1/16 miles over Woodbine’s all-weather Tapeta surface. Waiting for Mighty Heart are […]

Pink Lloyd won the 2020 Jacques Cartier Stakes at Woodbine last June. The 9-year-old Canadian-bred gelding goes for his fifth Cartier title Sunday. (Image: Michael Burns Photo)

Canadian Champion Pink Lloyd Ready for His Swan Song Season

Given his horse’s cute name, trainer Robert Tiller explained Pink Lloyd’s future plans without a trace of irony. The 9-year-old gelding will head to a Canadian retirement farm for Thoroughbreds sometime this year. Emphasis on the “sometime.” “He’ll be a movie star there after being a rock star on the […]

This year's Breeders' Cup World Championships return to Del Mar for the first time since 2017. There are 84 Challenge Series events offering berths in the 14 races. (Image: Getty)

Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series Offers Record Nine Spots for Classic

The Breeders’ Cup World Championships announced its 2021 Challenge Series race schedule, which features a record nine Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” races to the event’s flagship Breeders’ Cup Classic. The $6 million Classic is an All-Star race, capping the two-day, 14-race, $31 million Breeders’ Cup. This year’s Breeders’ […]

Betting on single games, like this NHL grudge match between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, could finally be legal for Canadians. Two bills permitting legal sports wagering on single games are winding their way through Canada's government. (Image: Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Canadian Single-Game Betting Gets Big Parliamentary Push

Canada moved one step closer to legalized single-game sports betting this past week when its House of Commons overwhelmingly passed a private measure bill, 303-15. The bill, authored by Conservative MP Kevin Waugh (Saskatoon-Grasswood), would open the windows for legalized single-event sports wagering throughout Canada. Much as the May 2018 […]

Justin Stein and Starship Jubilee's victory in the Woodbine Mile was one of Woodbine's enduring racing images this year. The Canadian flagship track closed three weeks early due to a provincial government lockdown. (Image: Michael Burns Photo)

Weather, COVID-19 Puts an Early End to Woodbine’s Racing Season

Mere hours after announcing the premature end of its Thoroughbred meet due to provincial COVID-19 restrictions, Woodbine Racetrack abruptly ended its meet on Sunday due to inclement weather rolling through the Province of Ontario. Track officials canceled the last seven races after a storm front brought snow and mixed precipitation […]

Jockey Daisuke Fukumoto and Mighty Heart raise the hopes of race fans that they can win Canada's first Triple Crown in 17 years. The one-eyed horse, who wears a ball over his missing eye, is the even-money favorite in Saturday's Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine. (Image: Nathan Denette)

From One Eye, Mighty Heart Sees a Path to the Canadian Triple Crown

Many eyes on Saturday will be on one-eyed Mighty Heart, focused to see if the small 3-year-old can run to his name and become the first Canadian Triple Crown winner in 17 years. Mighty Heart, your even-money favorite, headlines Saturday’s Breeders’ Stakes from Woodbine Racetrack outside Toronto. The 1 ½-mile […]

Gretzky the Great won the Soaring Free Stakes to give his sire, Nyquist, his first progeny stakes winner. Gretzky the Great goes for his hat trick in Sunday's Summer Stakes. (Image: Michael Burns)

Gretzky the Great Gunning for Hat Trick in Summer Stakes

Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse won the Grade 1 Summer Stakes three consecutive years from 2013-2015. Now, he sends Gretzky the Great out in search of his own hat trick in one of Woodbine’s two Grade 1 races Sunday. The Grade 1 Summer Stakes sends seven 2-year-olds a mile […]

Clayton, seen her prevailing by a head in the Plate Trial Stakes, is the 2/1 morning line favorite to win Canada's Queen's Plate. (Image: Michael Burns Photography)

Will Clayton Pick Up Queen’s Plate? Or Will One of the Girls Steal It?

Think of the Queen’s Plate as Canada’s Kentucky Derby. It’s got the century-and-a-half pedigree, the same 1 ¼-mile distance, and the same historical entrée and bragging rights for the 3-year-old who wins the $1 million race at Woodbine. For Canadian-breds, this is the race everyone wants on their resume. Even […]

Because of the coronavirus, Monmouth Park won't have this many fans watching its biggest racing day of the summer. But the New Jersey track will play an active role in an international Pick 5 of all graded stakes races Saturday. (Image: Monmouth Park)

Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 Presents Bettors High Stakes Choices

You have your cross country Pick 4s and Pick 5s, which demand you pick winners from different tracks around the country. But the latest betting novelty for horseplayers takes the Cross Country Pick 5, boosts its class, and takes it international. Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 gives bettors a swing […]

Wonder Gadot beat the boys to win the 2018 Queen's Plate, the oldest continuously run stakes race in North America. It moves to September this year due to the coronavirus. (Image: Woodbine Entertainment)

Canada’s Queen’s Plate Pushed From June to September

The first leg of Canada’s Triple Crown, the $1 million Queen’s Plate, will run Sept. 12 at its traditional Woodbine home outside Toronto. The Queen’s Plate is North America’s oldest continuously run stakes race and a summer fixture in Canada. Originally scheduled for June 27, it moved to its new […]

Starting June 6, with provincial government approval, horses will hit the first turn at Canada's Woodbine Racetrack. (Image: Woodbine)

Canada’s Woodbine Joins the Racetrack Reopening Parade

The reopening momentum sweeping across racetracks in the United States caught a wave in Canada with the announcement that Woodbine outside Toronto will reopen June 6. Woodbine Entertainment said it plans to open Mohawk Park for harness racing on June 5, and Woodbine for Thoroughbred racing the following day. Due […]

Queen Elizabeth II presents winning jockey Eurico Rosa Da Silva with the Queen's Plate at Woodbine in 2010. (Image: Michael Burns Photo Ltd.)

Queen’s Plate, Canada’s Most Prestigious Race, Postponed Indefinitely

Following through on an expected decision, Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson confirmed the 2020 Queen’s Plate race – Canada’s most prestigious horse race — is postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to postpone the June 27 race came less than two weeks after Woodbine announced it was […]