Solitaire, shown arriviving Thursday from Saratoga, N.Y., is the second favourite in the morning line for Sunday's Queen's Plate at Toronto (CBC, 4:30 p.m. ET). (Woodbine/Michael Burns Photo)

When the bell goes at Toronto's Woodbine race track for the 149th running of the Queen's Plate this Sunday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, beginning 4:30 p.m. ET), the favourites will be able to find each other with no difficulty.

They're right next to each other in the gate.

Thursday's drawing for post position found morning line favourite Not Bourbon (3-1 as set by Woodbine's oddsmaker Jennifer Morrison) in the 13 hole, and Solitaire (next lowest odds at 7-2) right on the colt's shoulder in 12.

Left of them will be half-siblings Jungle Brew (8-1, out of the 11 spot) and the filly Ginger Brew (4-1, in gate 10).

A large field of 15 is set to go to the post in the million-dollar Gallop for the Guineas, and it's considered the most wide-open race in recent years, with no clear favourite.

Not Bourbon's trainer, Roger Attfield, doesn't see the mile and a quarter distance as a concern for the first leg of Canadian racing's Triple Crown (Leg 2 is the Prince Of Wales on July 13 at Fort Erie, followed by the Breeders' Stakes, back at Woodbine on Aug. 3.).

"I'm not worried about the distance with his pedigree and his style of running," said Attfield, whose chestnut colt held off a late-charging Solitaire to win the Plate Trial at the beginning of the month, going a mile and an eighth.

"We just have to get him settled [during the race]."

Going for record 8th win

Owned by Canadian diamond magnate Charles Fipke and ridden by Jono Jones, Not Bourbon will bring his trainer a record-tying eighth Queen's Plate victory if he crosses first on Sunday.

Solitaire, meanwhile, is trying to become the first maiden (never won) to take the Plate since Scatter the Gold, in 2000. This will also be his third career start, and the last horse to win with such little experience was Awesome Again, in 1997.

Trainer Jim Bond, who will have veteran Rob Landry up, is banking on continued maturity from his colt.

"We just hope he improves," said Bond, who shipped Solitaire back to his home base at Saratoga, N.Y., after the Plate Trial and brought him back on Wednesday. "He's doing well. It's another furlong, but he has a brilliant pedigree."

This is a gelded son of Victory Gallop, the horse that ran down Real Quiet from more than 10 lengths back in the last two furlongs (about 400 metres) to win the Belmont by a whisker in 1998, stopping an American Triple Crown victory.

Then there's the two progeny of Milwaukee Brew, filly Ginger Brew and colt Jungle Brew, both owned and bred by auto-parts magnate Frank Stronach.

The filly is more highly thought of and she's the leading money winner in the field coming in (with a hair under $500,000). Ginger Brew was impressive taking the Woodbine Oaks filly race by six lengths.

Jungle Brew, another maiden, has a second in two career starts and will have the experienced New York jock Eibar Coa up. He rode Fipke's Tale of Ekati to a fourth-place finish in this year's Kentucky Derby.

Jungle Brew 'couldn't be happier'

Trainer Brian Lynch sees good things in both his horses, even with Ginger Brew coming out of the Oaks on just two weeks rest.

"Normally I like to give them two months," he said, laughing. Seriously, "it's always a concern but she seemed to come out of the race good enough, so we'll see."

As for Jungle Brew, "with him we couldn't be happier. He's trying as hard as any horse in the barn."

Attfield, always with a good line, had a collegial message for Lynch: "There's nothing wrong with a good brew," he said. "But it's not bourbon."

And if his horse wins, well, "we'd have a few bourbons then, I'm sure."

Sunday post time is 5:05 p.m. ET.