Emma-Jayne Wilson celebrates aboard Mike Fox after winning the 2007 Queen's Plate. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

Just two weeks before this Sunday's Queen's Plate race, jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson – the 2007 winner – found herself without the most crucial element.

She didn't have a horse.

Southdale, the mount she'd been planning to ride, came second in the May 31 Plate Trial, but was injured in the race, ruling him out of the June 21 competition.

"He was one of the top choices [to win]," said the 27-year-old decorated jockey from Brampton, Ont.

Wilson and her agent, Mike Luiders, scrambled to secure a second horse, My Bad, but the day after the duo came together, that mount, too, suffered an injury.

Less than two weeks from race day, Wilson didn't panic.

"Injuries happen. Horses are athletes and things come up. It's the way it works," she said, noting her agent "hustled" to come up with plan C.

And did he ever.

When the starting gates burst open on Sunday, Wilson will be atop El Brujo, who, according to Wilson, is a "definite contender" for the top prize – the esteemed Queen's Plate title and the $1 million that comes with it.

Husbands changed mounts

Wilson's teaming up with El Brujo was set this past Sunday, exactly a week before the big day.

The mount became rider-less when his jockey, 2008 Queen's Plate winner Patrick Husbands, decided to go with filly Tasty Temptation for the event instead.

Trainer Malcolm Pierce said Wilson was an "obvious choice" to replace Husbands.

"She rode all El Brujo's races as a two-year-old and they won some races together. They clicked from the beginning," he said.

Husbands' passing up of El Brujo, owned by Windways Farm, doesn't reflect on the horse's potential, Wilson said.

The mount was favoured to win this year's Plate Trial, but didn't take well to last minute changes and came ninth.

"They decided to rate him a bit more," Wilson said, indicating the horse was held back at the beginning of the race.

Legitimate chances

Giving him greater reign at the Queen's Plate, she said, could mean a world of difference.

"We'll be more letting him run his own race, maintaining him, but not fighting with him," she said. "I think [his chances] are legitimate if all the right circumstances are there."

Wilson's landing a solid contender just a week before the race is fitting, given that the five-foot-two, 112-pound jockey is a solid contender herself.

The young rider's list of credentials already seems a lifetime long.

She's won Canada's Sovereign Award for outstanding apprentice jockey– not just once, but twice (2005 and 2006). She's also the second female jockey ever to be voted the United States Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice.

In 2005, she was named one of the most influential Canadian women in sport and physical activity by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women.

And in 2008, she became the first North American female jockey to be granted a licence to compete in Hong Kong.

Just 'happens' to be female

Major victories include the Canadian Stakes (2005), the Maple Leaf Stakes (2007), the Victoria Stakes (2007), the Victoria Park Stakes (2008) and an achievement of which she's most proud - the 2007 Queen's Plate victory aboard Mike Fox.

While winning Canada's most elite horse race is an accomplishment in itself, Wilson is also the first female to lay that claim.

She doesn't, however, focus on her gender.

"I don't think of myself as a female jockey, I'm just a jockey that happens to be female," she said, adding, "But I do take pride in achieving something significant."

Achieving something significant is something she hopes to do much more of – though not in one specific event.

"I want to win them all," she said. "To put it down to one particular race, it's a tough thing to do. For me, on my list, I'd love to be the leading rider every year. That would be huge."

It's one reason she's at Toronto's Woodbine Racetrack, she says, where the competition is "solid and strong."

"You're riding good horses on a daily basis, you're riding horses you'll eventually see in history books," she said.

'Anything can happen'

This Sunday, Wilson has a chance to make El Brujo one of those horses. The two face a field of fierce competitors, including Husbands, who Wilson says knows El Brujo's style and will aim to exploit it.

She and Pierce also know the distance of the race – a mile and a quarter – will be challenging for the mount, which may develop into more of a sprinter than distance runner.

"That's still a question mark," Pierce said.

No matter the potential obstacles, Wilson remains focused on the task at hand.

"When it comes down to it, I've got a job to do…. If there's any pressure, it goes out the window when the doors fly open, same with the nerves. I do the best of my ability and I ride to win," she said.

"But as you can tell from the last two weeks," she added, "anything can happen."