Mark Tewksbury, Canada's Chef de Mission for the 2012 Summer Olympics
in London, was the honourary drawmaster at Thursday's Queen's Plate
Post Position breakfast draw Thursday, at Woodbine.
Tewksbury assisted with the draft style draw which allowed the owners
and trainers of each runner in the race to choose their horse's post
position. The order of selection was established by a random draw that
is identical to the "pill pull" method used to determine Plate post
positions before 1998.
Golden Ridge was assigned first choice in the field of 14
Canadian-bred three-year-olds and trainer Mark Casse opted for post
position seven for the Eugene Melnyk homebred.
"I think this is a really nice horse," said Casse of the chestnut son
of Distorted Humor-Indian Vale. "He's got a great pedigree. I think
he's come to the race in great shape, and I think he's going to be right
there."
Canyon Farms' homebred Strait of Dover, listed at the 3-1 morning
line favourite, will leave from post four under jockey Justin Stein for
trainer Dan Vella.
FIELD FOR THE 153RD QUEEN'S PLATE
POST / HORSE / JOCKEY / TRAINER / M-L
1 / River Rush / Jim McAleney / Reade Baker / 4-1
2 / Peyton / Julien Leparoux / Mike Doyle / 20-1
3 / Macho Whiskey / Emma-Jayne Wilson/ Reade Baker / 15-1
4 / Strait of Dover / Justin Stein / Dan Vella / 3-1
5 / Classic Bryce / Todd Kabel / Darwin Banach / 12-1
6 / Wilcox / Tyler Pizarro / Josie Carroll / 20-1
7 / Golden Ridge / Luis Contreras / Mark Casse / 6-1
8 / Ultimate Destiny / Steve Bahen / Mike Keogh / 20-1
9 / Colleen’s Sailor / Corey Nakatani / Roger Attfield / 15-1
10 / Dixie Strike / Patrick Husbands / Mark Casse / 8-1
11 / Making Amends / Eurico Rosa Da Silva / Mark Casse / 20-1
12 / Big Creek / Ramon Dominguez / Todd Pletcher / 10-1
13 / Washington Dash / Rajiv Maragh / Darrin Miller / 50-1
14 / Irish Mission / Alex Solis / Mark Frostad / 10-1