- Woodbine’s Saturday card carries three $250,000 guaranteed Pick 5 pools plus mandatory payouts on the Pick 6 and Jackpot Hi-5.
- Last year’s 13-race Plate card drew more than $17 million in all-sources handle, third-highest in the event’s history.
- Luster is the even-money morning-line favorite in a 12-horse field for the $1 million King’s Plate.
- Six stakes races and more than $2 million in total purses fill Saturday’s program, with first post at 12:30 p.m. ET.
TORONTO – Woodbine Entertainment will offer $750,000 in guaranteed Pick 5 pools and two mandatory payouts on Saturday’s 167th King’s Plate card, the program that drew more than $17 million in all-sources wagering a year ago. The $1 million race goes at 1 1/4 miles on Woodbine’s main track before a field of 12 drawn Tuesday.
Three Guaranteed Pick 5s And Two Forced Payouts
Woodbine’s wagering menu for the 167th Plate runs an Early, Middle and Late Pick 5, each guaranteed at $250,000, alongside Early, Middle and Late Pick 4s and a $5 Woodbine Stakes Pick 3. The Power Pick 6 and the Jackpot Hi-5 both go as mandatory payouts.
Those two wagers are the ones that move handle. A jackpot bet normally pays its full pool only to a single unique ticket and carries the rest forward. On a mandatory-payout day, the accumulated money must go to the day’s winning tickets, which pulls in bettors chasing money put up on earlier cards.
The guarantees work in the other direction. If a $250,000 pool does not fill, Woodbine covers the shortfall itself.
Handle is not a vanity number in this business. Pari-mutuel takeout is deducted from the pools before payouts and funds purses and track operations, so the betting menu is the revenue plan for the day as much as the field is.
Last Year’s Card Drew $17 Million, Short Of The Record
The 166th Plate card generated more than $17 million in all-sources wagering across 13 races, the third-highest total in the event’s history. The record is $18.1 million, set in 2023 and bolstered by a large Jackpot Hi-5 carryover, the same wager going as a mandatory payout on Saturday.
More than $4 million of that was bet on the Plate race itself, and on-track handle was the highest since before the pandemic in front of a sold-out grandstand. The card also produced the highest dollars wagered per starter of any Plate program.
“The King’s Plate is truly the event of the summer and we want to thank our entire racing community for putting on a great show,” Woodbine chief executive Michael Copeland said after last year’s running.
Saturday’s program carries six stakes races and more than $2 million in total purses. Alongside the Plate are the $200,000 Canadian Stakes, the $200,000 bet365 King Edward Stakes, the $175,000 Bold Venture Stakes, the $150,000 Catch A Glimpse Stakes and the $150,000 Soaring Free Stakes. That stakes density is what separates Plate day handle on the regulated Ontario gambling sites from an ordinary Woodbine card, and it is why the day carries three Pick 5 guarantees rather than one.
A Filly At Even Money, Carrying Five Pounds Less
Luster drew post one and was installed as the even-money morning-line favorite. The daughter of Knicks Go is trained by three-time Plate winner Josie Carroll, ridden by John Velazquez and owned by Gainesway Stable and Andrew Rosen. She is 4-0-1 from five starts, and her July 19 win in the Woodbine Oaks came by 5 1/2 lengths in 1:50.99 at 1 1/8 miles.
She is one of two fillies in the field, with Dixie Law, and both carry 121 pounds against 126 for the 10 colts and geldings.
| Post | Horse | Jockey | Morning line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luster | John Velazquez | 1-1 |
| 2 | Fire and Wine | Jalon Samuel | 30-1 |
| 3 | Baaeed Alynna | Sahin Civaci | 30-1 |
| 4 | Imyourmedicineman | Luis Contreras | 20-1 |
| 5 | Dixie Law | Pietro Moran | 10-1 |
| 6 | Don Ique | Emma-Jayne Wilson | 30-1 |
| 7 | Magical Factor | Jose Campos | 10-1 |
| 8 | Highwaytothemoon | Rafael Hernandez | 6-1 |
| 9 | Brachetto | Ryan Munger | 5-1 |
| 10 | Very Special | Romero Ramsay Maragh | 30-1 |
| 11 | Bond Market | Xarel Forde | 30-1 |
| 12 | Military Time | Fraser Aebly | 12-1 |
Brachetto is the 5-1 second choice for trainer Julia Carey. Plate Trial winner Highwaytothemoon is 6-1 for Dale Desruisseaux, and a win would give Rafael Hernandez, who has three Plate trophies, a fourth. Kevin Attard, also a three-time Plate winner, saddles Baaeed Alynna and Very Special at 30-1 apiece.
Racing’s One Big Day Now Shares The Calendar
Plate day is built to concentrate a year’s worth of betting attention into a single afternoon, and it now runs against a market that operates every afternoon. The regulated books take sports and casino wagers from the same customers on the same Saturday, and unlike the pari-mutuel pools those online gambling sites for Canadians set their own prices and hold.
Woodbine’s answer is scale and scarcity: one card a year with six stakes, guaranteed pools and forced payouts, aimed at a betting audience that otherwise has a sportsbook open on a phone all week.
The competition widened again this summer, when Alberta’s online gambling market opened to private operators.
The King’s Plate is the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown. First post for the card is 12:30 p.m. ET Saturday, and the Plate itself is televised on Citytv at 4:30 p.m. ET.
