The first leg, the Queen's Plate, is contested at 1¼ miles on Polytrack at Toronto, Ontario's Woodbine Racetrack, whereas the July Prince of Wales Stakes is a 1³/16 mile event run on dirt at Fort Erie Racetrack in Fort Erie, Ontario.
From 1984-1993, the event was held at Greenwood Raceway and from 1994-2006, the North America Cup was held at Woodbine Entertainment Group's other harness racing venue, Woodbine Racetrack.
Northern Dancer Turf Stakes, a turf mile-and-one-half Grade 1 stakes run in early fall as the final prep for the Canadian International
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She was immediately shipped to Toronto, Canada and won the Rothmans International at Woodbine Racetrack.
She is owned by Verne Dubinsky of Alberta, Canada who races under the name Donver Stables, and is trained by Josie Carroll from a base at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.
Riding Collier Hill, McKeown won a number of major international races, including the 2005 Group 2 Gerling-Preis in Cologne, Germany, the C$2 million Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine Racetrack in Canada, and the HK$14 million Hong Kong Vase in Hong Kong, China.
From 2001-2003, the Grand Slam Prize of $1 million was offered to any harness racing pacer who could win the North America Cup (Woodbine Racetrack, Toronto), Meadowlands Pace (Meadowlands Racetrack, N.J.), Little Brown Jug (Delaware County Fair, Ohio) and their Breeders Crown event (Meadowlands Racetrack, NJ).
In a year when Imperial Choice won major Canadian races in British Columbia, Albeerta, and Ontario, he ran second in both the 1985 Queen's Plate and the Breeders' Stakes at Toronto's Woodbine Racetrack but in between, won the Prince of Wales Stakes at the Fort Erie Racetrack.
Maurice Zilber also regularly brought horses to North America to compete in major grass races such as the Canadian International Championship Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Canada and the Washington, D.C. International Stakes at Laurel Park Racecourse in the United States.