Carroll tabs Pizarro to ride Wilcox in Queen’s Plate

Wilcox could give his trainer a second straight Queen’s Plate victory (Courtesy of WEG/Michael Burns Photography) Trainer Josie Carroll, the only female trainer to win the Queen’s Plate, will be gunning for a third victory in the “Gallop for the Guineas” when she saddles Melnyk Racing Stables’ lightly-raced Wilcox on Sunday. She announced Wednesday morning that her bay son of Giant’s Causeway will be ridden by Tyler Pizarro. Carroll first won the Plate with longshot Edenwold in 2006, then last year, directed Inglorious to a Sovereign Award-winning campaign as Canada’s top three-year-old filly with wins in both the Woodbine Oaks and the Queen’s Plate. This year, she is hoping Wilcox, a Eugene Melnyk homebred, can spring an upset. “I think it would be a mistake not to try this horse (in the Plate),” Carroll stated. “I know he’ll go the distance. He’s comfortable enough on the (Polytrack) surface. We’ll see if he’s good enough, but he’s definitely a horse who will get the trip. And that’s nine-tenths of it, getting the mile and one-quarter. If things set up the right way, this horse is going to be running at them. I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t think I had a live horse.”

Melnyk will have two chances to win the Plate this year. His other
silk-bearer is Golden Ridge, trained by Mark Casse. Melnyk won the 1998 Plate
with Archers Bay, a colt he co-owned with R. Bristow Farm.

The “draft” style post position selection process will be utilized for
Sunday’s 153rd running of the Queen’s Plate. The draft draw, first utilized for
the 1998 edition of the Plate, allows the owners and trainers of each runner in
the race to choose their horse’s post position. The order of selection will be
established by a random draw that is identical to the “pill pull” method used to
determine Plate post positions before 1998.

After the selection sequence is drawn, owners and trainers will have a five
minute consultation period to discuss their choice. The “connections” will then,
in order of the random draw, announce their post position selection.

Mark Tewksbury, Canada’s Chef de Mission for the 2012 Summer Olympics in
London, is the honorary drawmaster for this year’s Queen’s Plate Post Position
breakfast draw, Thursday at Woodbine.

He will assist in determining the post position draft order and speak briefly
of his participation in horse racing at the 9:30 a.m. (EDT) media conference. 

Thursday’s Queen’s Plate morning draw from the Woodbine walking ring will be
streamed live at
queensplate.com. Further information and event details for Plate day are
available there as well.

In other Queen’s Plate news:

In honor of Queen’s Plate week, multiple Hall of Fame jockey Sandy Hawley,
along with executives from Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG), joined Tim
Babcock, director, Listed Issuer Services, TSX Venture Exchange, to open the
Toronto Stock Exchange, Wednesday morning. 

“On behalf of Woodbine Entertainment Group and the Queen’s Plate, it was an
honor to open the TSX,” Hawley said. 

Hawley, who captured the Queen’s Plate on a record four occasions, enjoyed a
remarkable career that spanned 31 years, garnering 6,450 wins. His final victory
came on October 18, 2008, at Santa Anita Park, when Hawley, at the age of 59,
steered Tribal Chief to victory in a Living Legends Race.

The veteran rider was inducted into the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame in 1986,
the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1992 and Canada’s Sports Hall
of Fame in 1998. After his retirement from racing, Hawley began a new career as
a public relations ambassador for WEG and is currently an on air host for
in-house programming and Bet Night Live on The Score. 

Hawley resides in Pickering, Ontario, with his wife, Lisa, and sons, Bradley
and Russell. His Plate winners are Almoner (1970), Kennedy Road (1971),
L’Enjoleur (1975) and Regal Embrace (1978).

To watch Hawley open the market, click
here.

Canada’s most famous horse race will be center stage on CBC Television Sunday
at 4:30 p.m. The Queen’s Plate is North America’s longest continuously-run
stakes race and the first jewel in Canada’s Triple Crown.

Scott Russell hosts the Queen’s Plate on CBC, delivering Canadians all of the
excitement from the country’s most revered horse race. The running of the
Queen’s Plate will be shown live in high definition on CBC Television. Russell
will be joined by Brenda Irving and Elliotte Friedman and racing analysts Jim
Bannon and Renee Kierans.

Canadian jockey legend Sandy Hawley, with 6,450 wins and more than $88
million in purse earnings, will also offer his insight and analysis. Woodbine
track announcer Dan Loiselle, the voice of Canadian Thoroughbred racing, will
once again be in the booth to call the race for the 26th consecutive year. 

Highlights of the one and a half hour broadcast include features with Carroll
as well as Justin Stein, rider of one of this year’s Queen’s Plate favorites,
Strait of Dover.

Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com