Empress Club – 1993 Gr1 Queen’s Plate
The Hollywoodbets Gr1 Gold Challenge was headlined as the Greatest Mile In Decades after trainers Glen Kotzen and Mike de Kock had their say on Michele Wing’s Racing News preview earlier this week.
Seems we stirred up some old racing men who didn’t agree and took issue with our headline.
‘I have been fortunate to watch this race for over 40 years and also the Queens Plate and I can assure you that this is nowhere near the greatest mile race in decades far from it,’ wrote Hilton Witz.
We took Glen Kotzen’s comments literally and even Mike de Kock said ‘it’s a helluva race’. These are credible professionals and we value their opinion.
Reader Mark Dean came to the rescue and says we’re all right.
‘This is by no means the greatest mile in decades – it’s not that long ago that we had that ridiculous finish in the Green Point with Legal Eagle, Do It Again, Undercover Agent and Rainbow Bridge, and I can name several other candidates. But in the same breath, it’s going to be a brilliant race in it’s own right and it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to be the best race of Champions Season this year. So, no harm in building it up and ensuring it gets its due profile. For what it’s worth, I’m more excited about this race than the Hollywoodbets Durban July.’
Mark continues:
“As an aside, the best mile race I’ve seen is 1993 Queen’s Plate with Empress Club beating Flaming Rock at WFA – and I say that because the runner-up was a miler of such high quality, a true champion over the distance in his own right.’
Let’s agree that Saturday’s Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge is going to be a helluva race!
Enjoy the snippet of the replay that we found:
