Handicapping the Queen's plate Stakes with Jim Bannon

 On the day before the Queen's Plate Day at woodbine Racetrack, I found myself exhausted sitting in my car with my cell phone and notepad thinking of my next moves before calling it quits for the day.  It felt extremely hot on this so I poured another glass of cold water and sat back waiting for a sign to show itself.

Suddenly my phone rang with the vibration of the ringer buzzing me on the leg through the front pocket of my slacks.  I recognized the name on the phone and it was Jim Bannon calling.

Jim Bannon is a famous handicapper who is known for his in-depth knowledge and information about horses and their running styles within the thoroughbred world. 

https://bannonthoroughbred.com/about-jim

After exchanging a few pleasantries we got down to the real reason for the call and that was handicapping the Queen's Plate.

We both agreed that we liked the filly Moira and horses using the same path that Moira took to the Queen's Plate usually can do well.  We didn't agree on my pick The Minkster simply because Jim uses a formula he had created many years ago when handicapping the Queen's Plate Stakes and had ruled out the Minkster.  Jim thinks the Minkster is more suited for the grass but by the connections taking this path to the Queen's Plate last year, there is no turning back now for him.

I was curious about Jim's Thoughts about Rondure and the amount of attention that the horse is receiving at the moment.  We agreed that the horse has looked good leading up to the Queen's Plate but Jim was slightly skeptical of the connections' decision to skip past the Queen's Plate Trial Stakes.  I had never thought of that and I had just thought that they wanted a fresh horse on Queen's Plate Day.  I quizzed him also about Rondure's jockey Flavien Prat who will be flying in just to ride this race.  Jim didn't pay much attention to that.

So we went through different scenarios about the race and I asked Jim Bluntly who he liked.

Jim Thinks the best horse for this race will be Sir For Sure after winning the Queen's Plate Trial Stakes.

I had to agree with Jim this time about Sir For Sure being his top pick even though my top pick the Minkster holds a special spot within me.

It was nice speaking with Jim Bannon again and just hearing his voice just as he had done for several years on television.

You can see more about Jim and what he has been up to by clicking the link below or by copy-pasting the link.

https://bannonthoroughbred.com/about-jim