Page 3 - March 2019 Thoroughbred Highlight
P. 3

Million-dollar Queen’s Plate and Ricoh Woodbine Mile
headline 2019 Thoroughbred stakes schedule
Woodbine’s new inner turf course scheduled to open this spring
Woodbine Entertainment unveiled its stakes schedule for
the 2019 Thoroughbred racing season. The grand opening of Woodbine’s new inner turf course this spring will add a new level of excitement and competition to the mix.
Woodbine’s $16 million-plus stakes schedule consists of 95 stakes, 41 of which are Graded, and will be contested over the course of the 133-day meet, running from April 20 to Dec. 15.
The 160th edition of the Queen’s Plate, the  rst jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown is scheduled for Saturday, June 29.
With an increased purse guaranteed at $1 million for the 2019 running of the Ricoh Woodbine Mile, the Grade 1 stakes event will mark the start of Woodbine’s championship turf season. One of three Breeders’ Cup ‘Win and You’re In’ events on the stakes calendar, the Ricoh Woodbine Mile is set for Saturday, Sept.
14 with a strong undercard including the G1 $300,000 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes.
The $250,000 Natalma Stakes and companion Summer Stakes, both Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series races for two-year-olds, will follow on Sunday, Sept. 15. Woodbine will offer a pair of new $100,000 stakes for two-year-olds on the undercard that day called the Ontario Racing Stakes and the Woodbine Cares Stakes for  llies on the turf.
The G1 $800,000 Pattison Canadian International will be contested at the height of the fall stakes season on Saturday, Oct. 12. The G1 E.P. Taylor Stakes, with a purse increased to $600,000, is among the usual supporting features that day and will serve as the  nal leg of Woodbine’s new Ladies of the Lawn Series, which offers $75,000 in bonuses to the top performers based on points accumulated in the designated graded turf routes for  llies and mares. The series also includes three Grade 2 Stakes, the $175,000 Nassau, $175,000 Dance Smartly and the $250,000 Canadian.
The $500,000 Woodbine Oaks Presented by Budweiser
will headline the track’s  rst signature race day of the meet
on Saturday, June 8 as Canadian-bred three-year-old  llies begin their bid for the Triple Tiara. The Woodbine Oaks will
be accompanied by the Plate Trial Stakes in addition to a 6-1/2-furlong stakes race to be held on the turf for three-year-old  llies, which will be named in 2019 in honour of the late William D. Graham, a long-time Woodbine Entertainment Director and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame breeder who passed away in January.
Canadian Millions Night is another annual highlight of the season that will showcase the top Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Yearling Sales graduates over six stakes with a total of $750,000 in purses up for grabs on Wednesday, Aug. 28.
The Charlie Barley Stakes, G3 Ontario Colleen, Eternal Search (formerly called the Victoriana), Vice Regent and Ontario Damsel will shift over from the E.P. Taylor Turf Course to the new inner turf course.
The Achievement Stakes has been retitled the Greenwood Stakes to celebrate the second annual trackside social affair hosted by The Social Concierge.
Woodbine’s popular Turf Endurance Series will return this year with $40,000 in bonuses available for the top performers competing in the four legs from July through October. New competitions this year include a Turf Sprint Series on the new inner course with quali ers and semi- nals before culminating in a $75,000  nal under the lights on Wednesday, August
21. Woodbine will also present a $50,000 Early Bird Starter Handicap on Wednesday, May 29.
Woodbine will again be offering its Graded Stakes Bonus Program in 2019 with increased bonuses up to $75,000 for incoming graded stakes winners. Horses that have won a Grade 1 or Grade 2 stakes race in the current year will receive a $50,000 bonus for winning a Grade 2 stakes race at Woodbine and $75,000 for winning a Grade 1 stakes race at Woodbine.
To view the complete stakes lineup for Woodbine’s 2019 Thoroughbred racing season, visit Woodbine.com
Catherine E. Willson
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