“Looking Forward to the Challenge”: Trainer Kevin Attard Eyes the Canadian Triple Crown

The King’s Plate, previously known as the Queen’s Plate, is North America’s oldest continuously run horse race, and it’s around the corner. To celebrate, VM Sports sat down with Kevin Attard, one of Canada’s leading award-winning horse trainers, to discuss his time as a trainer and the King’s Plate.

Kevin Attard has dominated the $1,000,000 2 km-long race over the previous few years, winning three out of four of the races, and has it down as his favourite race of the season, adding that it’s because “it’s rich in history, it’s Canada’s race, very hard to win, and it’s a special day with a big crowd where everyone dresses up.”

Kevin Attard is the trainer of two horses in this year’s King’s Plate. Baaeed Alynna with jockey Sahin Civaci, and Very Special, with jockey Romero Maragh.

In this interview with VM Sports, we ask Kevin Attard about the upcoming King’s Plate and the Canadian Triple Crown, which includes the King’s Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes, and Breeders’ Stakes.

At the time of this interview, the horses to be chosen for the King’s Plate were not known publicly, so questions regarding the chosen horses could not be asked.

You’ve won many big races. Is there one race that stands out as being the most memorable for you?

Obviously, winning the Queen’s Plate with Moira was very special. It’s a race I’ve always wanted to win. We’ve come close before, but never succeeded. And then to see her do it in track-record time on top of it, it was pretty, pretty special, pretty surreal.

Could you walk us through the experience of training Mansetti to win last year’s King’s Plate?

I think training him was probably one of my best accomplishments as a trainer, just because he was suspect going that long. We kind of stayed away from the tradition of running in the Plate Trial Stakes, gave him a little bit more time in between races, and I thought he trained really well leading up to that race. Obviously, we had a lot of luck on our side in a sense. Everything went smoothly leading up to the race, and then on race day, he got a great ride by Pietro Moran, and everything just came together, and it was just an unbelievable feeling.

Canada has what many race fans call the hardest triple crown in the world, with three different surfaces and distances. Is there something that you think is the key to winning this triple crown?

So it’s definitely hard in that aspect because you’re definitely dealing with three different surfaces, so you need a very special horse. I haven’t been able to kind of get that horse that’s been able to compete in all those legs successfully like that, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and hope that one day I could have my name beside a horse that’s a Triple Crown winner.

What does it mean for you to have horses in the King’s Plate every year?

It’s something that we strive for and work for every year. I like to think of us as bringing in young horses and developing them for this particular race in a sense. I have clients that either breed or buy with the specific goal of trying to win the King’s Plate. And it’s, like I said, Canada’s historic race, it’s the longest continuous race run in North America. There’s so much history to it. And to kind of have your name engraved on that trophy, it’s surreal.

Is there anything different you do when training for the King’s Plate?

They definitely react differently to the crowd, that’s for sure. They’re not used to seeing that many people, it’s a lot louder that day. The post parade’s a lot longer, so they have to kind of endure a lot of that. So there’s definitely, definitely a lot of difference in that aspect. At the end of the day, you learn as you go along what it takes, what things you need to do or not do. We’ve competed in the King’s Plate or Queen’s Plate many times and each year has taught me a little bit more of what it takes to get to the winner’s circle.

Do you feel confident going into this year’s race?

I always feel confident when I go in. I have a lot of faith in my horses. I have a lot of faith in my team and myself. This year, we might not be the favourite or gaining the attention that some of the other horses have, but I do have some horses that I think are kind of shaping up and developing at the right time, to put their best foot forward on this particular day.