Really, Woodbine, What Were You Thinking?

The RCMP at Last Year's Plate

It's Plate Day, and despite plans to be there, I am spending my afternoon watching my horses, painting, and keeping tabs on Horseplayer Interactive.  I'm not a happy camper with WEG at the moment.  Thanks to changes in the media department, I didn't snag a media pass as I have in past years.  The individual who was so kind as to make sure I had a pass in the past, so that I could take photos for paintings, was among the layoffs this year (thank you, Ontario Liberal Government).  The individual I had to deal with instead, has never been the least bit helpful to me at all.  I mean, let's face it, doesn't everyone at least deserve the respect of an answer to an email or phone call?  I really don't care if you've decided I'm a nobody.  If I ran my business that way, well, I'd be working at Tim Horton's or Starbucks because I would have no customers.  Anyway....I could whine and feel sorry for myself for quite a while about this, so I've been trying to distract myself by working on a painting of 2011 Plate winner Inglorious - from my *own* reference photos.  My thanks to that considerate individual, I hope he's got a better job and is doing well.

Anyway....this year, I guess the marketing Powers That Be decided they needed a signature drink for the Plate.  I mean, the Derby has always had the Mint Julep, right?  Trust WEG to be decades behind.   So what do they call this drink?  The Blue Diamond.  Um....what?  Okay.  It is pretty.  What exactly that has to do with the Plate, I have no idea.  Shouldn't it be called the Gold Sovereign?  I think they should have just hired me.  ;-) 

All right....enough griping!  Time to turn on the TV and watch the big race alone in the comfort of my studio.  There haven't been very many Plates I have missed attending in the last 35 years, and if things had come together with my friends, I still would have gone, but I didn't really relish battling the crowd solo when I know I can't get any decent race photos.  I must be getting old!

(Go Nipissing!  I hear it's pouring rain at the moment...at least that no longer affects the track surface...and it will cool things off for the horses!)

Canadian Content: The Queen's Plate

Last Sunday Woodbine celebrated the 150th running of the Queen's Plate, the longest continually-run stake race (and sporting event) in North America. A documentary was produced and aired on CBC, and has also been released on DVD. I watched it when it aired, and was really impressed. It hit the nail solidly on the head, explaining what this race means to Canadians, and why it is more important than even the Derby to us on this side of the border. It's supposed to be available for purchase, though I haven't found out yet exactly where! I gladly scooped a copy at the Plate week festivities. Canadians can probably catch it on demand at CBC.

Watching some of the older footage, I was reminded how some things have changed since I wrote my story. When I was a horse-crazy youngster attending the Plate each year, it seemed it was the exception when the track was fast. There were many, many muddy Plates.

A crack of thunder woke her — there it was, finally. She glanced at the clock — two AM. Short moments later the torrential downpour began, and her spirits sank still lower.

She rolled out of bed, the thin shirt sticking to her body, and reluctantly closed the window as the rain blew in through the screen. After so many weeks of dryness, it should have been welcome. She lay down again on top of the sheets, on her side staring out darkly at the brilliant flashes of light, coming now in quick succession.

Bloody rain. It was traditional as the fifty guineas.

Now, with the new Polytrack, that variable has been eliminated. The verdict is still out on whether or not Poly is a safer racing surface, but I have to say for the purposes of fiction, it's far less interesting!

Last Sunday was a model first day of summer - sunny, warm and clear - one of the nicer Plates I've been to. And to be standing in the paddock, for the first time connected to a starter - even being that close was special.