The King’s Plate Mohawk watch party builds excitement for Wellwood, Peaceful Way elims.

by Melissa Keith

Before regally-bred 2-year-old trotters take to the track at Woodbine Mohawk Park this Saturday (Aug. 17) night, the Campbellville, ON grandstand will play host to a different breed of racing royalty.

Eliminations for the William Wellwood (open) and Peaceful Way (filly) stakes for freshman trotters bring Grand Circuit action back to Mohawk for the first time since June 27 and 28, when Tompkins-Geers Stakes divisions for 2-year-olds of both gaits were raced there for the first time.

The Wellwood and Peaceful Way elims will follow the biggest race in Canadian horse racing: the 165th running of the King’s (formerly Queen’s) Plate, taking place at Woodbine Racetrack on Saturday afternoon.

While many harness tracks celebrate Kentucky Derby Day with on-track festivities to accompany the simulcast, Woodbine Mohawk Park is taking the 2024 King’s Plate to another level.

Woodbine Entertainment’s senior manager of communications told HRU that bringing the Woodbine Racetrack party to Woodbine Mohawk Park was a concept many months in the making. 

“It came up during the planning, over the winter months,” said Mark McKelvie. “When we were looking ahead to this year’s King’s Plate at Woodbine, it was being run on a Saturday. It’s often been run on Sundays, when we’re not racing at Mohawk, but because it’s on a Saturday, we have racing at Mohawk that night, which means that we could add a viewing party at Mohawk.”

McKelvie said racegoers in Milton and surrounding area might be unable to travel to Woodbine for the King’s Plate card, which has a 12:25 p.m. (ET) first-race post time, “but if they wanted to be at Mohawk… they can still enjoy Canada’s most prestigious horse race.”

The $1-million King’s Plate itself has a 6:10 p.m. (ET) post time. Mohawk’s viewing party will run all afternoon, with grandstand doors opening at noon. There is no admission fee.

“We’re one company,” said McKelvie. “It made sense to add a little something out at Mohawk to make the day a bit more special.

“It’s an opportunity for fans to dress up as if they were going to the King’s Plate, so wear your best, whether that’s the hats, the fascinators, the three-piece suits… Whatever you would wear to [Woodbine] on King’s Plate Day, we want you to get in that spirit at Mohawk.”

There will be live music from 4 to 6 p.m., with a to-be-announced location McKelvie called “weather-dependent.”

“We’re just trying to create that party-like atmosphere that people on-site at Woodbine would be experiencing,” McKelvie said. “We’re just trying to replicate that at Mohawk.”

McKelvie recommended that customers make reservations for the Mohawk Harvest Kitchen and Trackside Bar & Patio in advance.

“The restaurants will both be open,” he said. “Typically, the restaurants would only be open during the live racing hours. There are going to be special drinks being served and some additional dining options that wouldn’t be available on a regular day.

“For the hardcore horseplayer, they can reserve their carrels as well.”

Carrels can be booked by calling 647-394-8319; restaurant reservations can be made online at woodbine.com/mohawk/dining-at-mohawk/.

While Mohawk’s simulcast area is open every Saturday, McKelvie said staff were anticipating greater numbers than usual.

“I would expect a lot of people will probably come out a little later in the afternoon, closer to when the King’s Plate happens, and then stay for live [harness] racing,” he said.

Tickets for King’s Plate Day at Woodbine Racetrack have been selling briskly.

“We’re in a pretty good spot with ticket sales,” McKelvie said on Monday (Aug. 12). “We’re probably 80 per cent, if not more, sold out at this time. We’re expecting a really good crowd.”

The Mohawk watch party is presented as a crossover event with something for followers of both breeds represented by Woodbine.

“There is a pretty strong following of the Woodbine product, whether that’s standardbred or thoroughbred,” said McKelvie. “I’m in a unique position where I work on both breeds. I find that on a Saturday, when the thoroughbreds wrap up around 7 p.m. and Mohawk starts, there are still a lot of horseplayers around who’ve been there all afternoon and start wagering on Mohawk as well.”

Arriving on the heels of 2022 Queen’s Plate champion Moira’s victory in the $500,000 Beverly D. Stakes, on Aug. 11 at Colonial Downs, this year’s King’s Plate is expected to draw a strong viewing audience. Her stakes-record 2:01.48 victory in the mile-and-a-quarter Canadian Triple Crown jewel came in the last Queen’s Plate. It was renamed for King Charles after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

“It’s worth mentioning that we’ve got network [television] coverage of the King’s Plate, a two-hour broadcast on Sportsnet and Citytv this Saturday from 4:30 to 6:30, so we’re going to use that to show everything going on around the King’s Plate,” said McKelvie. “It’s a lot more than a horse race.”

The King’s Plate draws people who may otherwise spend little time at any racetrack. McKelvie said that makes the broadcast a powerful outreach tool for Ontario racing in general.

“I think anytime we’re on-air with any racing, whether it’s thoroughbred or standardbred, it’s definitely raising awareness for people to get out to their local tracks,” he said. “Whether it’s through Ontario Racing’s ‘Unfiltered’ show, or the ad campaigns they’re doing, there’s been a big push through television to get people out to their local tracks.

“A race like the King’s Plate or the North America Cup, they’re opportunities to get people out to the track, to put on a big party, a big event. I think whether you’re a thoroughbred fan or a standardbred fan, you could go to either of those and have a blast, so I think that’s where the crossover is: Just getting people out to the track, one way or another.”

A good horse might just be a good horse, with more commonalities than differences among their followers today. Moira, Canada’s 2022 thoroughbred Horse of the Year, won the Queen’s Plate for X-Men Racing, an ownership group which included prominent standardbred owners John Fielding, Robert LeBlanc, Clay Horner, Daniel Plouffe, and David Anderson.

“I get a kick out of it when I talk to trainers and drivers at Mohawk,” said McKelvie “They pay attention to what’s going on, on the thoroughbred side, and even vice-versa. There are quite a few people on the thoroughbred side, whether they’re owners or trainers, who, if they’re from Ontario, typically have that exposure to harness racing, just with the number of [harness] tracks in different parts of the province, compared with only two thoroughbred tracks and one quarter horse track.”

After the King’s Plate party, harness racing returns to center stage at Mohawk.

“We’ve seen really healthy crowds on-track all summer long,” said McKelvie. “Saturday night is kind of the start of the Grand Circuit meet: We have the Wellwood and Peaceful Way eliminations. So we see an uptick in our sales and our wagering and our on-track attendance, really from this Saturday right through to the Mohawk Million [Sept. 21].”