The Story Behind the Silks: 166th King’s Plate Edition

Six owners participating in the upcoming 166th King’s Plate share the stories behind their racing silks—from tributes to Secretariat to deeply personal family connections, each design reflects a unique and meaningful inspiration.

Yawen Wu – Sedburys Ghost

Yawen Wu bred and owns Sedburys Ghost, trained by Barb Minshall. Wu started using her own set of silks in 2023, when Minshall began training her horses, and Wu previously had her horses run in another trainer’s silks. Wu’s silks are cream, with a black “YW” in cursive letters on the body, with pink hoops on cream sleeves, and a cream cap.

One of her daughters, Jamie, is an artist and helped Wu design her silks, which carry a personal meaning to represent her and her family. They initially brainstormed ideas together, with her daughter coming up with a few sketches and versions to choose from.

“I showed Barb and asked if she liked it, and she really liked it too. She (Wu’s daughter, Jamie) put a lot of effort and helped a lot for me to make a final decision.”

Wu wanted her silks to be classy and visible from a distance.

“I was talking to my daughter and she asked me what theme (I wanted). I’m going to focus on just a symbol. I don’t want too many colours. It can be very visible from a distance. White is always visible, but white is too sharp, so I’m going to get cream. I picked the base colour cream, but I wanted to have a contrasting colour, which will be my initial, the ‘YW’. My daughter said, ‘Hey Mom, black will be good with the cream, you can see it from a distance, so the initial will show.’ For the sleeves, she suggested having a softer colour. Pink is one of my favourite colours. I have three daughters, and when they were little, almost everything was princesses.”

As for the symbol of her initials, Wu preferred the traditional and classic look of cursive, which is how she chose the stylization of her initials.

“We just wanted it to be simple. I didn’t want it to be too much. And so, you can see it from a distance, it shows because of the contrasting colours. They may not see the initial, but they can identify that’s the horse.”

Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch – Scorching

Scorching is trained by John Charalambous and owned by Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch. Scorching runs in Braverman’s silks, which are royal blue and Kelly green blocks with a royal blue cap. Braverman designed his silks 46 years ago, first using them in 1979.

Braverman was inspired by Penny Chenery’s silks for Secretariat.

“I started going to the racetrack, I think in 1963, and Secretariat was 1973, and I really liked the silks, which were royal blue and white checks. I obviously didn’t want to copy hers, but I noticed a lot of silks had white in them, so I thought that if we had Kelly green, which I like, plus the royal blue check, it would be easy to pick up a horse against other silks that had white in them.

“I like both colours a lot, Kelly Green and the royal blue, and that’s just two of my favourite colours, so nothing more than that, other than I thought they would look good.”

Michael Lay – William T

Michael Lay, who is on the Board of Directors at Woodbine, owns William T, trained by Don MacRae. Lay’s silks are orange with purple diamonds, have a purple hoop on orange sleeves, with an orange and purple cap. Lay is inspired by the college football team, the Clemson Tigers.

“I have become a big Clemson football fan. Their colours are orange and purple. My wife, Jane, was in the fashion business, so I asked her to design the silks using orange and purple.”

John and Diana Russell – Watsonville Red

John and Diana Russell own Watsonville Red, trained by Michael De Paulo. The Russell’s silks are royal blue with white blocks, blue sleeves, and a fuchsia hoop with a blue cap.

For his silks, John Russell also took inspiration from Penny Chenery’s silks.

“I’m sure everyone would recognize that they’re very similar to Penny Chenery, who bred and raced Secretariat. I’ve always thought, and most people would agree, that he was the best racehorse of all time, so it was kind of always in the back of my mind. I thought that if I was in a position to be in this sport, I would want to utilize something similar but didn’t want to copy. That was the big motivating factor in the colours. It was important that they were not the same but were a memory of Secretariat and her.”

Russell shares that Secretariat’s success and ability were inspirational to him and a goal of his. He wanted to model his silks similar to Chenery’s for that reason.

“We took the blue and white checkered body of the jacket and made a change on the sleeves to put a fuchsia band on the arms. We wanted to give it a little identity for ourselves and wanted a personal zip. Diana has a very artistic way about her.”

Gary Barber – No Time / Ashley’s Archer

Gary Barber owns No Time and is in partnership with Archer Racing LLC for Ashley’s Archer, both trained by Mark Casse. Barber’s silks are hot pink with “BB” in a black circle. The sleeves are hot pink with a black cap.

Barber’s silks are personal and relate to his family history.

“Hot pink silks were a favourite of mine as a young kid going to the races in South Africa,” said Barber. “Then I added the three-dimensional ‘BB’ to represent Barber Bloodstock.”

Al and Bill Ulwelling – Faber / Mansetti

Al and Bill Ulwelling are a father-son ownership duo who have both Faber and Mansetti running in this year’s King’s Plate, trained by Kevin Attard. The Ulwellings’ silks are yellow with an orange “A & B,” with orange chevrons on sleeves, and an orange cap.

Al, who makes up the son part of the father-son ownership, discusses how their silks came to be, with their primary objective being extremely bright and visible.

“We need them to be bright so we could see them. We made them bright yellow with orange chevrons with A&B for us, the father-son team we’ve got. I thought we needed to add some class and sophistication to them, but at the same time, we needed them to be bright. They helped us, and we put our name on them because, ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s something that my father and I wanted to do together. Horses are a bond between my father and I. The significance of the A&B on there represents us together.”

*

Sophie Charalambous, for Woodbine