{"id":8258,"date":"2025-08-13T09:09:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodbine.com\/kingsplate\/2025\/08\/13\/the-story-behind-the-silks-166th-kings-plate-edition\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T09:09:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T13:09:22","slug":"the-story-behind-the-silks-166th-kings-plate-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodbine.com\/kingsplate\/2025\/08\/13\/the-story-behind-the-silks-166th-kings-plate-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story Behind the Silks: 166th King\u2019s Plate Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six owners participating in the upcoming 166th King’s Plate share the stories behind their racing silks\u2014from tributes to Secretariat to deeply personal family connections, each design reflects a unique and meaningful inspiration.<\/p>\n

Yawen Wu \u2013 Sedburys Ghost<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s silks are cream, with a black \u201cYW\u201d in cursive letters on the body, with pink hoops on cream sleeves, and a cream cap.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI showed Barb and asked if she liked it, and she really liked it too. She (Wu\u2019s daughter, Jamie) put a lot of effort and helped a lot for me to make a final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wu wanted her silks to be classy and visible from a distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my daughter and she asked me what theme (I wanted). I\u2019m going to focus on just a symbol. I don\u2019t want too many colours. It can be very visible from a distance. White is always visible, but white is too sharp, so I\u2019m going to get cream. I picked the base colour cream, but I wanted to have a contrasting colour, which will be my initial, the \u2018YW\u2019. My daughter said, \u2018Hey Mom, black will be good with the cream, you can see it from a distance, so the initial will show.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just wanted it to be simple. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sedburys Ghost. Michael Burns Photography<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch – Scorching<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scorching is trained by John Charalambous and owned by Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch. Scorching runs in Braverman\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Braverman was inspired by Penny Chenery\u2019s silks for Secretariat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Scorching. Michael Burns Photography<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michael Lay \u2013 William T<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Lay, who is on the Board of Directors at Woodbine, owns William T, trained by Don MacRae. Lay\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u00a0silks\u00a0using orange and purple.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
William T. Michael Burns Photography.<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John and Diana Russell \u2013 Watsonville Red <\/strong><\/p>\n

John and Diana Russell own Watsonville Red, trained by Michael De Paulo. The Russell\u2019s silks are royal blue with white blocks, blue sleeves, and a fuchsia hoop with a blue cap.<\/p>\n

For his silks, John Russell also took inspiration from Penny Chenery\u2019s silks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure everyone would recognize that they\u2019re very similar to Penny Chenery, who bred and raced Secretariat. I\u2019ve 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\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell shares that Secretariat\u2019s success and ability were inspirational to him and a goal of his. He wanted to model his silks similar to Chenery\u2019s for that reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Watsonville Red. Michael Burns Photography<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gary Barber \u2013 No Time \/ Ashley\u2019s Archer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gary Barber owns No Time and is in partnership with Archer Racing LLC for Ashley\u2019s Archer, both trained by Mark Casse. Barber\u2019s silks are hot pink with \u201cBB\u201d in a black circle. The sleeves are hot pink with a black cap.<\/p>\n

Barber\u2019s silks are personal and relate to his family history.<\/p>\n

\u201cHot pink silks were a favourite of mine as a young kid going to the races in South Africa,\u201d said Barber. \u201cThen I added the three-dimensional \u2018BB\u2019 to represent Barber Bloodstock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
No Time. Michael Burns Photography<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Al and Bill Ulwelling \u2013 Faber \/ Mansetti<\/strong><\/p>\n

Al and Bill Ulwelling are a father-son ownership duo who have both Faber and Mansetti running in this year\u2019s King\u2019s Plate, trained by Kevin Attard. The Ulwellings\u2019 silks are yellow with an orange \u201cA & B,\u201d with orange chevrons on sleeves, and an orange cap.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mansetti. Michael Burns Photography<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

*<\/p>\n

Sophie Charalambous, for Woodbine<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six owners participating in the upcoming 166th King’s Plate share the stories behind their racing silks\u2014from tributes to Secretariat to deeply personal family connections, each design reflects a unique and meaningful inspiration. Yawen Wu \u2013 Sedburys Ghost Yawen Wu bred and owns Sedburys Ghost, trained by Barb Minshall. Wu started using her own set of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":8266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[468,469,470,471,472,106,473,474,452,475,476,477,467,228,478],"class_list":["post-8258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-woodbine-news","tag-al-and-bill-ulwelling","tag-clemson-university","tag-gary-barber","tag-jockey-silks","tag-john-and-diana-russell","tag-kings-plate","tag-michael-lay","tag-paul-braverman","tag-scorching","tag-sedburys-ghost","tag-timothy-pinch","tag-watsonville-red","tag-william-t","tag-woodbine","tag-yawen-wu"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Story Behind the Silks: 166th King\u2019s Plate Edition - Kings Plate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/woodbine.com\/kingsplate\/2025\/08\/13\/the-story-behind-the-silks-166th-kings-plate-edition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Story Behind the Silks: 166th King\u2019s Plate Edition - Kings Plate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Six owners participating in the upcoming 166th King’s Plate share the stories behind their racing silks\u2014from tributes to Secretariat to deeply personal family connections, each design reflects a unique and meaningful inspiration. 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