By Ada van der Bent
This year marks the 164th running of South Africa’s premier mile race, the Gr 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate, when Hollywoodbets Kenilworth hosts what has become one of the Mother City’s social events not to be missed.
While some of the finest thoroughbreds take centre stage, the event is considered to be the most elegant on the racing calendar and invites guests to dress in the blue and white colours of wine estate L’Ormarins, who first sponsored the race all of 20 years ago.
Besides, it is one of a ‘win and you’re in’ races, where the winner is automatically guaranteed an entry into the Gr 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile contested in the States at the end of the same year.
As befits its name, the race has royal connotations for it dates back to the reign of Queen Victoria, and was first run in her honour in 1861. To many racegoers, the race has always been known as the Queen’s Plate, hence it was a bit of a culture shock when it became the King’s Plate in 2023, the year Prince Charles ascended the throne. After all, the majority of today’s racegoers have known no other British Monarch than the late Queen Elizabeth, albeit that during the reigns of Edward VII and George VI, the race was run as the King’s Plate and only reverted to its original name in 1953 after the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne.
First run at a mile under the present weight-for-age conditions on 30 October 1948, the winner was three-year-old Convalesce, who subsequently landed the Cape Derby.
Remarkably, in all its gloried history, only ten sophomores have been able to hold their own against their elders, the most recent being Jet Dark, who duly completed the double as a four-year-old and in the process became the twelfth dual winner, joining an exalted list which included the mighty Sea Cottage (1966/67), Sledgehammer (1975/76), Politician (1978/79), Wolf Power (1983/84) and Jet Master (1999/2000).
Only one horse has won the race on three occasions, that being the outstanding miler Legal Eagle, who completed the treble in 2018.
However, the ultimate record belongs to another legend of the turf, the incomparable Pocket Power. A son of dual winner Jet Master, the Mike Bass-trained champion utterly dominated the race four years running. A hallmark of his wins was his unrelenting whirlwind finish, which would take him from virtually last at the top of the straight to first at the winning post.
A dual Horse of the Year by the time he lined up for the fourth time as a seven-year-old, we had run out of superlatives and he went on to prove himself a horse for the ages with a one-length victory, thereby setting an unprecedented record which is unlikely ever to be broken.
Only three members of the fairer sex have won the race since it was contested under weight-for-age conditions: Wainui (1989), Empress Club (1993) and most recently Mother Russia (2011).
Empress Club, the ‘galloping goldmine’, was trained by Tony Millard, who also saddled Jet Master in his first of two Queen’s Plate victories, with brother-in-law Geoff Woodruff doing the honours twelve months later. Tony emulated his own father Terrance, who saddled his first Queen’s Plate winner Laddie shortly after being granted his trainer’s licence in 1954. The last of his Queen’s Plate winners was Mark Anthony in 1987.
The Millards were not the only father and son team to taste Queen’s Plate success. Sea Cottage, Politician and Yataghan were all trained by Syd Laird, whose son Alec won the 1997 renewal with the mighty London News.
Peter Kannemeyer claimed the race with Free My Heart in 2000 and again in 2002, while son Dean followed in his father’s footsteps with Capetown Noir in 2014.
In the modern era, Justin Snaith has sent out four winners, three more than father Chris, who saddled the brilliant Irish-bred champion Flaming Rock to victory in 1990. Justin first tasted success in 2012, when future champion stallion Gimmethegreenlight broke a 38-year drought to become the first three-year-old winner since Yataghan back in 1973. He was followed in 2018 by Do It Again, while future champion Jet Dark claimed the 2021 and 2022 renewals.
Last year, Candice Bass Robinson stepped into the history books when she became the first lady trainer of a L’Ormarins King’s Plate winner with Drakenstein homebred Charles Dickens.
