First contested in 1860 (as the Queen's Plate, given that Queen Victoria was then the reigning British monarch), the King's Plate has the distinction of being the oldest continually contested stakes contest on the North American continent, beating the Belmont Stakes (G1) by seven years.
Its winners include Flaming Page (dam of Nijinsky II); Northern Dancer, the most influential stallion of the second half of the 20th century; Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) victor With Approval; and Awesome Again, winner of arguably the deepest edition of the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), and a major sire..
The 2025 Plate winner, Mansetti, might not ever rise to the heights of those luminaries, but he did deliver a memorable performance Aug. 16 to capture the 166th running of the race. Just a half-length off an aggressive opening quarter of :22.93 in the 1 1/4-mile race on Tapeta, Mansetti took command shortly after, and by the head of the stretch had opened a four-length lead. The bay's early efforts began to tell late, and he needed :26.90 for the final two furlongs of the mile-and-a-quarter trip, but still had enough of a margin to hold the late charge of Tom's Magic by 2 1/2 lengths.
The King's Plate was the fifth win in eight starts for Mansetti. He kicked off with a debut win in a six-furlong maiden special weight at Woodbine last September. He faded to last in the Display Stakes next time out after leading through the first half-mile, but rebounded to capture the six-furlong Clarendon Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths on the final outing of his first season. He didn't show much in the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct in January, but back in the familiar confines of Woodbine, and adopting stalking tactics, Mansetti was impressive when taking the six-furlong Woodstock Stakes by four lengths. An unplaced effort in the Queenston Stakes could be written off as he very nearly lost his rider when bumped at the start, then rushed up to make a four-wide challenge, and amends were made in the Marine Stakes (G3), where he stalked Scorching—his early pace rival in the King's Plate—before taking over in the stretch to score by a length. Despite annexing one of the principal trials for the Plate, doubts about Mansetti's stamina caused him to be dismissed by the bettors, and he went off as an 18.35-1 longshot.
Mansetti is from the third crop of Collected , a son of City Zip from the Carson City branch of the Mr. Prospector line. Although Collected won a Del Mar maiden special weight and finished second in the 2015 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes (G3T)—both on turf—in his only starts at 2, Collected took his time to reach his peak, although that may in part have been due to a truncated five-race 3-year-old campaign in 2016. He won three of those: the Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes, Sham Stakes (G3), and Lexington Stakes (G3). His other two races saw him fourth in the Southwest Stakes (G3) and 10th in the Preakness Stakes (G1), an effort that proved to be his last of the year.
Away from the races for 10 months, Collected returned as a far more formidable performer. After taking the Santana Mile Stakes on his reappearance in 2017, he added in succession, the Californian Stakes (G2), by 3 3/4 lengths; the Precisionist Stakes (G3) which he took by 14 lengths; and Pacific Classic (G1), where he upset Arrogate, beating his rival and stablemate by a half-length while running a 115 Beyer Speed Figure. Second to Gun Runner in the Breeders' Cup Classic, Collected was likely feeling the effects of a demanding season when only third in the San Antonio Stakes (G2) on his last outing of the year. Remaining in training at age 5 in 2018, he finished off the board in the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) and wasn't seen again until finishing fourth of five in the Pa Derby Champion Stakes in late September.
Collected was retired to stand at Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky., for an initial fee of $17,500, which dropped to $15,000 in 2022 and to $10,000, where it has remained since, in 2023. At that price-point he appears to offer excellent value, given that his first three crops have produced 17 stakes winners, also including Thought Process, whose trio of black-type victories include the San Clemente Handicap (G2T) and Surfer Girl Stakes (G3T), and who also took third in Saturday's Del Mar Oaks (G1T); another three-time stakes winner, Conclude, notably successful in the Del Mar Derby (G2T) and Del Mar Mile (G2T); Taxed, heroine of the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) and runner-up in the La Troienne Stakes (G1); Kalik, successful in the Pennine Ridge Stakes (G2T); the Zuma Beach Stakes (G3T) scorer, and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1T) runner-up Iron Man Cal; and Honeybee Stakes (G3) winner Lemon Muffin. He is also already represented by the Ellis Park Juvenile Stakes winner Comport from his current juvenile crop, his fourth.
A half brother to Mine That Bird Derby and King Glorious Stakes winner Straight Up G, Mansetti is out of the unraced Sky Mesa mare, Gidget Girl. The second dam, Surfer Girl, was a winner at 2 in Brazil and took second in the Gran Premio Joao Cecilio Ferraz (G1) while racing in that country and is half sister to the Gran Premio Associação Brasileira de Criadores (G1) scorer, Refuge Cove. Oddly enough, Mansetti goes back to the same Argentine family as Desert Gate, both descending from the 1904 mare, Alfa.
Alfa's dam, Parvula, had a rather interesting pedigree as she was by Gay Hermit, an imported daughter of Hermit and her third dam was Maid of Masham. This echoed the matings between the 1867 Epsom Derby winner, Hermit, and daughters and granddaughters of Maid of Masham which produced a group of mares from whom stem an astonishing array of stallions, including Cyllene (twice leading sire in England, and through Phalaris, the male line ancestor of better than 90% of the world's current Thoroughbreds) Fair Play (sire of Man o' War), Star Shoot (five-time leading sire in North America), Bull Lea (five-time leading sire in North America, Asterus (leading sire in France), Prince Chevalier (leading sire in France), Tom Rolfe, Alydar (leading sire in North America), Alzao, and more recently Distorted Humor, Galileo, Sea The Stars, and Dubawi. Parvula is out of the imported English mare, Ante Diem, the ancestress of at least 19 Argentine Classic winners, among them Mineral, who captured the Triple Crown in 1931.
Mansetti is one of four stakes winners by Collected out of A.P. Indy line mares, but his pedigree is more intricate than that as Collected is out of a mare by Johannesburg (by a grandson of Storm Cat out of a daughter of the mare Yarn) and Gidget Girl's broodmare sire, Sky Mesa is by Pulpit (out of Preach, a sister to Yarn) and from a Storm Cat mare.
