Attfield Makes Bid at Eighth Queen's Plate

Trainer Roger Attfield, who has saddled seven Queen's Plate winners, is planning to send Twice Bid to the post for the 1 1/4-mile race on June 23. On Wednesday, with jockey Mickey Walls aboard, Twice Bid worked a mile over Woodbine's main track in 1:42.

"I thought it was a very solid work," said Attfield. "I was very happy with it. He handled the track well and he was very straight after the work. I think I'm going to run in the Plate. It depends how he trains on the next two or three days. He'll work again probably on Wednesday (June 20), maybe five-eighths."

There'll be one major difference for Attfield, though, should Twice Bid win the Plate. He's also a co-owner of the son of Ascot Knight, along with partners Cam Allard and Bill Werner. His seven Plate wins have been for owners Kinghaven Farms (Market Control, With Approval, Izvestia and Alydeed), Norcliffe Stable (Norcliffe), Earle Mack (Peteski), and No. 1 Stable (Regal Discovery).

Attfield will try to equal Harry Giddings Jr.'s record mark of eight Queen's Plate wins in the 143rd running of the race.

Shaws Creek, one of the favorites for next Sunday's Queen's Plate, worked seven furlongs over Woodbine's main strip Wednesday morning in preparation for the 1 1/4-mile race.

The three-time stakes winner, including the Plate Trial earlier this month, went 1:27 3/5, handily for trainer John Ross and the Jam Jar Racing Stable.

"Shaws Creek is a great horse to be involved with. He's a joy to be around," Ross said. "He's training well."

Shaws Creek also won the Queenston Stakes in May and as a 2-year-old tallied the Clarendon Stakes.

Trainer Reade Baker, who was hoping to have a pair for the Queen's Plate, will now only saddle Classic Mike, second-place finisher in the Plate Trial, after stablemate Wolverine was injured in a workout on June 11, a five-furlong move in 1:01 1/5, handily.

"He breezed probably the best he's ever breezed in his life," Baker said. "I was thinking that if the Plate was a mile and a sixteenth, he'd never get beat. He had a fractured cannon bone. It was a bad break. But Dr. (Darryl) Bonder has done the operation and he's extremely happy with the way it came together. We have high hopes for him to return to the races next year."

Lightly-raced Wolverine, which Baker also co-owns with Derek Cornelius, battled on the frontend in the June 1 Plate Trial, before giving way in mid-stretch and finishing fourth, 2 1/2 lengths behind Shaws Creek.

Terra Farm's Classic Mike is scheduled to work six furlongs on June 17 in his final Plate preparation.