Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing

The Canadian Triple Crown is a series of three Thoroughbred horse races run annually in Canada which is open to three-year-old horses foaled in Canada. Established in 1959, the series is unique in that it shares the same distances as its American counterpart, but is contested on three different race surfaces.[1]

The first leg, the Queen's Plate, is contested at 1¼ miles on Tapeta at Toronto, Ontario's Woodbine Racetrack, whereas the July Prince of Wales Stakes is a 1³/16 mile event run on dirt at Fort Erie Racetrack in Fort Erie, Ontario. The final leg is the 1½ mile Breeders' Stakes in August which is run on Turf over one full lap of the E. P. Taylor Turf Course at Woodbine.

The Canadian Triple Crown shares another characteristic with its American counterpart—all of the races in both series are open to geldings. This differs from the situation in Europe, where many important flat races, notably the British and all but one of the French classics, bar geldings.

Since 2014, all of the races in the Canadian Triple Crown have been televised by TSN.[2]