The $1 million Queen’s Plate is the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown as well as that country’s oldest Thoroughbred horse race. In fact, founded in 1860, the Queen’s Plate is the oldest continuously run race in North America.

As arguably the most well-known and successful practitioner of sports talk radio, Mike Francesa has covered or discussed every major sporting event in the United States. Maybe the world.

Yet there’s something about a winning horse race, especially a Grade 1 stakes, that brings out the kind of smile he would flash whenever his beloved New York Yankees won the World Series.