Trainer Dale Desruisseaux has a last name one would expect to find in a Louisiana horse racing program, or maybe one in France.
But his name instead appears alongside two entries—Highwaytothemoon and Dixie Law—in the CA$1 million King's Plate Stakes Aug. 15 at Woodbine, where the 40-year-old conditioner participates for the first time in the historic race coveted by Canadians.
Count Desruisseaux in that group, having grown up in Ontario as the son of Canadian trainer Allen Desruisseaux. The family isn't Cajun or French, but purely Canadian, with French lineage and generations of his family coming from just outside Quebec.
Not wanting to get too excited about what lies ahead, Desruisseaux said Aug. 14 from outside his Woodbine barn that he is "taking it day by day and treating every day as a normal day, and hopefully tomorrow we get lucky."
But he acknowledged the opportunity that awaits.
"To come in here with two legitimate shots, I think that's pretty exciting," he said.
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Highwaytothemoon, owned by Centennial Farms (Niagara), is the 6-1 third choice in the 1 1/4-mile Plate, the opening leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. A winner of three of six sprints, the son of sprinter Ransom the Moon stretched out to a route for the first time in the July 19 Plate Trial Stakes and handled the 1 1/8-mile distance without difficulty, defeating fellow Plate starter Imyourmedicineman by a length.
Rafael Hernandez bids for a record-tying fourth Plate aboard Highwaytothemoon.
Hillsbrook Farms' Dixie Law conversely ran in the quicker Woodbine Oaks on the same card, finishing second, 5 1/2 lengths behind victorious Luster, the Plate favorite at even money on the morning line. Dixie Law, a three-time stakes winner in her eight-start career, is a midpriced 10-1 contender under last year's Plate-winning rider Pietro Moran.
"If you're a numbers guy, she's probably second choice on numbers," behind the favored Luster, Desruisseaux said of speed figures.
Thirty-nine fillies have won the Plate through its 166 prior runnings. The race is the oldest continuously run horse race in North America.
Desruisseaux's numbers are also trending upward. A trainer since 2011, he had a career-best year in 2025, winning 24 races and $1,135,104 in earnings from his horses' 121 starts. One of those victories came with Dixie Law in the Mazarine Stakes (G3)—Desruisseaux's first at the graded level.
He's on pace to surpass his 2025 totals in 2026. He is 17-for-91 this year with $974,241 in earnings and added another graded win when G T Five Hundred took the July 19 Connaught Cup Stakes (G2T) for Centennial Farms (Niagara). G T Five Hundred will compete in the King's Plate undercard, either in the 6 1/2-furlong Bold Venture Stakes (G3) on Tapeta or the 1-mile King Edward Stakes (G2T) on turf. He is entered in both as his connections weigh which race they prefer.
Desruisseaux now trains about 30 horses, more than the twenty he conditioned a few years ago. He has also developed relationships with increasingly prominent owners, leading him to train some higher-level horses.
Though Woodbine is his base for training and racing, he lives in Niagara, about an hour's drive away. So mornings begin with him hitting the road at 3:30 a.m. to arrive at Woodbine by 4:30.
Desruisseaux likes the Niagara area as a place to call home and raise a family.
His family will be on-site for the Plate Saturday, arriving a day early Friday to avoid difficulties getting to Woodbine. Striking workers from the adjacent Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto at Woodbine have in recent weeks blocked some of the roads into the track and casino, creating delays for those wishing to enter the facility.
Desruisseaux met his eventual wife, Jeanette, the daughter of trainer Robert Warner, at Fort Erie.
Fort Erie is the host track for the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Sept. 7 Prince of Wales Stakes on dirt at 1 3/16 miles. The Canadian Triple Crown concludes with the Sept. 27 Breeders' Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on the Woodbine turf.
Jeanette and Dale have two children: Dawson and Daynica. They have become familiar faces around the stable and the racetrack, and joined their father on stage at Woodbine during the King's Plate draw.
Desruisseaux's current work hours differ from those of his first career endeavor. At age 18, he launched a pizza restaurant: Pizza Garden.
After the business was bought out, horses answered the question of what he would do next. He bought a yearling, continued working for other horsemen, and gradually moved toward training full time. Later, he developed horses through claims and inexpensive purchases.
Now his ambitions are expanding beyond Woodbine.
Desruisseaux is exploring sending horses south to compete in the United States this winter at Belmont Park, which will reopen in September with three courses: turf, dirt, and an all-weather Tapeta surface. Belmont will race over Tapeta during the winter months, making it a good fit for Canadians whose horses already have established form from the Woodbine Tapeta main track, the surface on which the King's Plate will be contested.
Woodbine does not race during the winter. As such, Desruisseaux, like many Canadian horsemen, would give his horses time off during the offseason. But now they have a money-making opportunity. Shipping incentives and the newly created Empire Trillium Series provide further financial opportunities.
Regarding the attempt to race at Belmont, "With the Tapeta, I think it's a no-brainer," he said.
