King's Plate Day and a Grade 1 Renamed for Clement

North of the Border, and a Name on the Board at the Spa

The best race this Saturday needs a passport. The 167th King's Plate goes at Woodbine, $1 million at a mile and a quarter for Canadian-breds, the oldest continuously run race in North America and the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. Twelve sophomores drew in, and the one they all have to catch is a filly. Luster, Josie Carroll's daughter of Knicks Go, romped by five and a half lengths in the Woodbine Oaks on July 19 in 1:50.99, and she landed post one at 1-1 on the morning line with John Velazquez back aboard. She carries 121 pounds under the race's weight allowance while the colts shoulder 126, and Carroll, already a three-time Plate winner, said the Oaks exceeded what she expected.

She will not have it easy. Dixie Law, the other filly in the field, was second in the Oaks but beat Luster in the Ruling Angel back in May, and she owns a Mazarine (G3) and a Cup and Saucer from last season. Brachetto, at 5-1, rallied to win the Marine (G3) at 18-1 and would become the first Manitoba-bred ever to take the Plate. Highwaytothemoon has won the Queenston and the Plate Trial back to back for trainer Dale Desruisseaux and gets Rafael Hernandez, who already owns three Plate trophies. Mark Casse sends Military Time at 12-1, and Kevin Attard, winner of three of the last four runnings, saddles two. Plate post time is 6:12 p.m. Eastern off a 12:30 first post, with a card that also carries the King Edward (G2), the Canadian (G2), the Bold Venture (G3), the Soaring Free and the Catch a Glimpse. If you play one card front to back this weekend, make it that one.

Saratoga answers with something quieter and heavier. The race we have called the Sword Dancer since 1975 runs Saturday as the Christophe Clement Turf, its 52nd edition and its first under a name honoring the trainer who won it a record five times, and who was inducted into the Hall of Fame on August 7. Seven go at a mile and a half on the inner turf for $750,000, three of them shipping in from Europe, and the winner books a spot in the $5 million Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland on October 31st. Program Trading looks the class after Chad Brown's ridgling swung eight paths wide to take the United Nations (G2), though 12 furlongs is new ground for him. Ole Crazy Bone beat Fort George by a nose in the Bowling Green and they meet again. Survie ran off with the Glens Falls (G2) on August 2nd. And then there is Tawny Port, trained by Miguel Clement, who won the Hall of Fame with Bottas and the Fourstardave with Deterministic last weekend and now goes for a personal triple in his father's race. The story is irresistible. The form is more stubborn, since the 7-year-old is winless in 10 tries at 12 furlongs and sits at 8-1. Saturday's card kicks off at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

Monmouth Park adds a rematch worth watching. The Philip H. Iselin (G3) brings back East Avenue and Bishops Bay, separated by a nose in the Salvator Mile, with Brad Cox's Bishops Bay the 7-5 morning line choice. Chunk of Gold sits at $921,511 in career earnings, and the $90,000 winner's share would make him a millionaire. Out west, Del Mar fills Saturday with the $150,000 Solana Beach at a mile on the Jimmy Durante turf and the $100,000 CTT and TOC at a mile and three eighths.

Sunday belongs to the Pacific Northwest and the sprinters. The 91st Longacres Mile headlines Championship Sunday at Emerald Downs with a field of eight, Wesley Ward's Touchy drawing the rail at 7/5. Del Mar cards the Rancho Bernardo (G3), where Sweet Azteca returns to defend a title she has won the last two years on the way to a Breeders' Cup campaign. Saratoga offers the Mahony (G3) at five and a half furlongs on grass, run alongside the second annual Corgi Cup, which is exactly as good as it sounds.

Two weeks from now, the Travers. Golden Tempo, winner of the Derby and the Belmont, arrives there off a lung infection that wiped out his prep, meaning the best 3-year-old in the country walks into the Mid-Summer Derby cold. Consider this the last quiet weekend before the Spa gets loud.