DePaulo expects Athenian Guard to rebound from adversity

Last time out in a 1 1/8-mile allowance tilt, Athenian Guard, trained by Mike

DePaulo for A&L Racing Stables, looked well on his way to victory at the top of

the lane when disaster struck.

"Justin Stein was on him and at the quarter-pole he was going to the lead,

racing in and around horses, and just as Justin was going to put the stick on

him, he ducked in. I don't know if he shied from the stick, but that's what it

looked like," DePaulo explained.

Stein came off Athenian Guard and ducked under the rail to safety while the

horse was soon gathered up by the outrider.

Fortunately, both horse and rider walked away from the incident and will be

back to race again in Sunday's $1 million Queen's Plate -- though on different

paths. Stein has been named aboard One Destiny, while Omar Moreno takes over on

Athenian Guard.

"The horse didn't fall, but he stumbled a little, righted himself and

finished the race. He got a good mile out of the race anyway," DePaulo said.

"We'll take his blinkers off and that should settle him for the Plate."

In his final prep for the Plate, Athenian Guard breezed five furlongs in 1:02

1/5 last Sunday, working in company with the well-regarded Pender Harbour, who

finished third in the 2011 Queen's Plate before taking the remaining two-thirds

of the Triple Crown.

"They went head and head with no issues," DePaulo said. "Pender was on the

inside and Athenian Guard was on the outside, with Omar on him, and they went

together the whole work. I was hoping some of Pender's ability would rub off and

that Athenian Guard might learn a little bit from an old pro. They both needed

the work and it was a good fitness work for both of them."

A win in the Plate would be a meaningful one for DePaulo.

"It would complete the Triple Crown for me as we've won the Prince of Wales

twice and the Breeders' once," DePaulo said. "This is the biggest race for

Canadians and it would be great to win it. His last race is hard to go by, but I

think he was going to win fairly comfortably. Hopefully he can improve again and

be right in the picture and get a big piece of it."

The "draft" style post position selection process will be utilized for the

154th running of the Queen's Plate on Thursday morning. The draft draw, first

used for the 1998 edition of the Plate, allows the owners and trainers of each

runner in the race to choose their horse's post position.

The order of selection will be established by a random draw that is identical

to the "pill pull" method used to determine Plate post positions before 1998.

After the selection sequence is drawn, owners and trainers will have a short

consultation period to discuss their choice. The "connections" will then, in

order of the random draw, announce their post position selection.

Thursday's Queen's Plate morning draw (9:30 a.m. [ET]) from the Woodbine

walking ring will be streamed live at www.queensplate.com.

Further information and event details for Plate day are available there.

The weather forecast for Queen's Plate day in Toronto is mostly sunny skies

with a high of 83 degrees.

Sixteen Canadian-bred sophomores are expected to enter the 1 1/4-mile test on

Polytrack.

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