The Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, set to be run at Kenilworth next year on January 7th, is one of South Africa’s oldest and most prestigious races.Currently run over 1600m, the race was first run in 1861, when the winner took home a prize of 500 sovereigns and a silver plate donated by Queen Victoria.

Today, the LQP is run for total prize money of R1.5 million, and is annually contested by South Africa’s very best performers.While last year’s winner Legal Eagle (Greys Inn) went on to capture the title of South Africa’s Horse Of The Year, he is but one in a long and illustrious line of champions to have won the Queen’s Plate.

Originally run over 3200m, the Queen’s Plate was run over a mile for the first time in 1948, when it was won by Convalesce (Asbestos II).The brilliant Black Cap (Denturius) won the Queen’s Plate in 1950 and 1951, while another dual winner of the race in that period was Top Secret (Kipling). However, the latter won the race in 1949 and 1952.Laddie (Canopsus), who won the Queen’s Plate in 1954, provided future champion trainer Terrance Millard with the first major win of his training career –despite having to overcome a hobday operation. Millard would later go on to land the Queen’s Plate on three more occasions, with Roderick (Noble Chieftain), Peter Beware (Noble Chieftain) and Mark Anthony (Royal Prerogative).

The race has been won by many legends –few, if any, greater than Sea Cottage (Fairthorn), who triumphed in both 1966 and 1967. A winner of 20 of his 24 outings, Sea Cottage (who was shot in the hindquarters as a 3yo) also went on to score a historic dead-heat in the 1967 Rothmans July Handicap, and is regarded by many as one of the greatest racehorses in South African turf history.

Other great horses to win the Queen’s Plate include such multiple winners as Sledgehammer (Stunning), Politician (Oligarchy), and Wolf Power (Flirting Around), as well as the likes of legendary racemare Empress Club (Farnesio), and ill-fated champion In Full Flight (New South Wales).

Past winners of the LQP have also gone on to make their mark at stud, with Foveros (victorious in 1982) and Jet Master (who won in both 1999 and 2000) two of the finest sires ever to stand at stud in South Africa. Jet Master’s son Pocket Power, a triple Horse Of The Year, won the LQP on no fewer than four occasions and was one of the finest racehorses to grace the South African turf this century. Another LQP winner to make his mark at stud, albeit in the USA, was Wolf Power- who is the broodmare sire of dual US Horse Of The Year Wise Dan (Wiseman’s Ferry).

Queen’s Plate winners have also gone on to enjoy major international success, with both London News (Bush Telegraph) and Variety Club (Var) going on to land major prizes overseas. Few South African fans will ever forget watching London News storm home to win the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong back in 1997, while Variety Club made history himself when he became the first international visitor to lift the G1 Champions Mile in Hong Kong in 2014.