30 Jan L’Ormarins King’s Plate Success
South Africa’s premier mile-long Weight For Age horse race, the L’Ormarins King’s Plate (formerly Queen’s Plate) took place at Kenilworth Race Course on January 7. It was the 162nd running of the event that was first run in honour of Queen Victoria after she gifted a silver plate and 500 sovereigns to the South African Turf Club. Held in April 1861, the inaugural contest was staged as The Queen’s Plate and the event has maintained its royal ties meticulously ever since. In keeping with the event’s traditional qualities of grace, elegance and – above all – tradition, L’Ormarins is proud to continue that legacy under the reign of King Charles III.
The Australian-bred Al Muthana caused a massive boil over at 80-to-1 when dashing along the outside rail to mug heavy odds-on favourite Charles Dickens on the line and take out the R2-million Grade 1 L’Ormarins King’s Plate over the 1 600-metre course. This was a great personal triumph for trainer Ricky Maingard who won this race decades ago with grey champion, Wolf Power. Big race rider, Bernard Fayd’herbe, so famously associated with Queen’s Plate legend Pocket Power, cleverly commandeered the outside rail whilst handling the victor with aplomb.
Defending champion Jet Dark closed ground to get third ahead of Kommetdieding as the top three in the betting filled the second, third and fourth slots. But few in the sun-soaked crowd anticipated Al Muthana’s stunning win. The son of Australian stallion Deep Field, Al Muthana horse won 7 of 17 starts heading into the King’s Plate, including a victory over the distance in the Gold Challenge at Hollywoodbets Greyville before a couple of other victories. The experienced and canny Maingard, who has recently relocated from Mauritius with a small string, must be commended on priming Al Muthana at his second start since a rest and switch of stables.
As usual, FMM displayed a number of cars from its collection at the venue, all with light blue colouring in keeping with the event’s colour code. The models on display were a 1928 Ford Model A, 1934 Mercedes-Benz 200 Cabriolet B, a 1950 Chevrolet Deluxe, 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air, 1956 BMW Isetta and 1963 GSM Dart.
The day’s race card included the first-ever ladies race, the Okapi Ladies International. South Africa’s biggest stars stepped out on the course looking their best in blue and white at this most prestigious and long-standing horseracing event. In the appearance competition, Jodi Scholtz was voted the Best Dressed Woman and won a trip for two to experience the Qatar Goodwood Festival – one of the undisputed highlights of the British racing season at the end of July 2023 – while Mzukisi Mbane took home the prize for Best Dressed Man. Celebrities later danced the night away to the sounds of international DJ Lora as the sun set, bringing the curtain down on another highly successful L’Ormarins King’s Plate.
