Breeders' Stakes
Woodbine - 27th September 2026
If we needed any more proof about the strength of this year’s King’s Plate form, it came on Sunday evening as FIRE AND WINE ran out a very impressive winner of the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine. The final leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Breeders’ Stakes run over a mile and a half, gave us one final chance to examine the strength of the best 3-year-old form and it did not disappoint.
We haven’t seen Luster since she demolished the field in the King’s Plate back in August, but the 2nd placed Military Time won the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie earlier this month, the 4th placed Dixie Law won the Wonder Where Stakes at Woodbine 3-weeks ago and now Fire and Wine, 3rd in the King’s Plate, has added this impressive display to boost the form. The switch to the turf really seemed to suit this son of Lexitonian, who received a brilliant front-running ride from Jalon Samuel. Quickly into stride, the pair covered the opening half a mile in 50.73s and had built up a significant advantage by the time that they headed into the back straight. As much as 2.13s ahead of the beaten favourite and eventual 5th Katie’s Grace at halfway, Samuel allowed his mount to take a breather as they approached the far turn and the field closed to within 0.11s as they turned in. It looked at that point as if Fire and Wine was going to be swallowed up and had paid for setting such a fast early pace, but Zeljko Krcmar’s charge was simply being allowed time to conserve his energy and when asked to stretch in the home straight, he responded readily to record the fastest late speed figure in the field at 58.9 km/h as he ran out a comfortable winner.
By allowing his mount time to recover from his early exploits at halfway, dropping his average stride frequency to 1,97 strides per second in the back straight from a race average of 2.06, Jalon Samuel had allowed Fire and Wine to conserve energy over this longer trip at a time when all of his rivals were using theirs to close the gap. It was a brilliant piece of race riding that enabled the pair to see out the 12 furlong distance with relative ease and Samuel was rightly rewarded from a superb piece of skill in the saddle.
Fire and Wine has quite a pronounced action with his front legs and the firm ground may well be the reason that he appeared to roll around slightly when asked for maximum effort in the home straight. However, given the manner of this victory and the way that he was able to assert himself in the final furlong, he would certainly be a horse to note on the turf in the future. Barbadian jockey Jalon Samuel said after the race “This is the biggest win of my career. I’m very excited to be riding here in Canada at Woodbine”. (Source: Canadian Thoroughbred) Samuel, who has ridden the winner of the Gold Cup in Barbados a record 7 times, deserves all the plaudits imaginable for this victory in the Breeders’ Stakes. Luster is rumoured to be heading to the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland next month and after this latest round of the Canadian Triple Crown, she goes there with the weight of the Woodbine form book firmly on her side.