In The Money Telegraph
Sunday, August 16, 2026 · By ITM Staff
Luster Reigns: A Filly Rules the King’s Plate
She was the one they all had to beat, and none of them came close. Luster delivered on every bit of her even-money billing Saturday evening at Woodbine, powering clear to a 7¼-length romp in the 167th King’s Plate and becoming just the 40th filly to win North America’s oldest continuously run race. Sent off at 1-5, the Josie Carroll trainee settled fourth into the far turn under John Velazquez, tipped out for room on the second bend, and simply took off — drawing off through the lane to stop the clock in 2:02.01, the fastest Plate since Paramount Prince in 2023.
It was a second King’s Plate for Velazquez, whose first also came aboard a filly — Wonder Gadot in 2018. “I’ve been very lucky and very blessed with the fillies,” the Hall of Famer said afterward. For Carroll, a member of the Canadian Hall of Fame, it was a moment she’d seen coming: she told co-owner Andrew Rosen a year ago that this daughter of Knicks Go would carry the Gainesway Stable and Rosen colors into the winner’s circle on Plate day. The filly, unbeaten in her stakes work this year, made the prediction look easy.
Survie Beats the Boys in the Clement
Down at the Spa, the day belonged to another female. In the first running of the Grade 1 Christophe Clement Turf Stakes — the mile-and-a-half feature renamed this year to honor the late Hall of Fame horseman — the George Boughey–trained mare Survie took on males and ran them down, unleashing a long, sweeping rally on the yielding inner turf to beat the boys by about a length. It was a fitting result: a lady’s day in a race honoring a trainer synonymous with turf class.
Just 13 days after her stakes score in the Glens Falls, Survie improved to two-for-two on this side of the Atlantic for owner Michael Tabor, and earned her first career Grade 1 — along with a “Win and You’re In’’ berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland in October. “When I asked her to go she just took off with me,” said winning rider Manny Franco, in the midst of a career meet at Saratoga, “and I was just the passenger after that.”
Sunday’s Cards
The action rolls on Sunday, and the ITM team has you covered. At Del Mar, Dean Keppler makes Whynotanotherone in Race 6 his best bet on a card that also brings back the multiple graded-stakes winner Sweet Azteca, a dominant winner of this same race a year ago. Eric Solomon has a Monmouth card with five of eight on the turf. And Mikee P is up early with a look at the full Saratoga card, tied to a TwinSpires tournaments qualifier.
Del Mar → · Monmouth → · Saratoga →
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The Road to the Breeders’ Cup
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More all week at inthemoneypodcast.com and on the ITM YouTube channel, with premium coverage on ITM Plus.
