A QUEEN’S PLATE … IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!
A QUEEN’S PLATE … IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE! 7 February 2020 The L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Racing Festival is one of the highlights of the racing year in South Africa – and, positioned as it is in early January, it sees a large contingent of international owners and breeders gracing the lawns, private boxes, and marquees of Kenilworth, on, what, one hopes, will be two glorious summer days of superb racing. The premier event of the two-day racing festival is, of course, the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate itself – a race first run in 1861, with a purse of 500 Sovereigns and a Silver Plate presented by Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The trophy that everyone wants to win (photo: LQP) In light of the name of the race, and the ‘Royal’ terminology, one might think that the Cartier Sceptre Stakes – which is on the under-card, and highlights the first day of the Festival, is actually named after one of the ‘Crown Jewels’ of the United Kingdom – the ‘Sovereign’s Sceptre with C...