A good writer tells a great story. It can be well worth taking the time to analyse some of the stories that qualify in this league to see what tools a writer uses to achieve the end result: an interesting angle, intriguing facts, quality research, tight prose, quotes that shift beyond the banal, effective use of humour ... or a combination of all of them.

A perfect example is Paul Wiecek story "Manitoba horses a trio of underdogs" that appeared in The Winnipeg Free Press (a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership) on 24 June 2005.

The story concerns the 'underdogs' for this year's Queen's Plate (none of the 3, alas, won the race in question, but when you read the story that fact assumes minimal importance):

There's the precocious grey colt from Birds Hill, who shares a birthday with one of the great moments in Canadian sport.

There's the playful filly from Brunkild, who is attempting to write a storybook ending befitting the famous line of romance novels that made her owner rich.

And then there's the mysterious colt from Brandon, whose legend - and reputation - only grew yesterday when he and his minders cavalierly failed to show for a posh pre-race news conference here at Woodbine Racetrack.

Call them the Bison Bullets -- Get Down, Gold Strike and King of Jazz -- and they're maybe the best story in all of Canadian sports right now, an unlikely trio of Manitoba-bred underdogs with an opportunity to rewrite Canadian horse racing history this Sunday in the country's oldest sporting event, the Queen's Plate.

"It'd be an amazing story for Manitoba -- and racing -- if one of them wins," hall of fame jockey Sandy Hawley said here yesterday. "And I think all three of them have a shot to do it."

In the 146-year history of the Queen's Plate -- a test of Canadian champion three-year-old thoroughbreds that predates even Confederation -- an Ontario-bred horse has won the race all but twice, including the last 36 straight.

But that stranglehold on a race that is Canada's equivalent of the Kentucky Derby could come to an end on Sunday, thanks to a juggernaut of Manitoba horses the likes of which the sport has never seen.

Three of the 10 horses formally entered yesterday for Sunday's Queen's Plate are Manitoba-breds, a shockingly disproportionate representation in a race that a Plate historian says has been run for at least 52 years without so much as a single Manitoba entry.

No Manitoba-bred has ever won the $1-million Queen's Plate -- two Alberta horses are the lone exceptions to Ontario's dominance of the race -- although one Manitoba horse, Lord Fairmont, did finish second way back in 1948.

And not only are three Manitoba horses running on Sunday, but the oddsmakers suggest all three have a legitimate chance to win, leaving open the prospect of Manitoba horses finishing 1-2-3 on Sunday in what would be an all-Manitoba triactor that would have defied all odds just two months ago.

"I can't imagine what those odds would have been," Gold Strike trainer Reade Baker said yesterday. "I just wished I'd bet on them."

Gold Strike was yesterday named the morning-line second favourite to win on Sunday at odds of just 3-1, despite the fact she's attempting to become just the fifth filly in history to win the Queen's Plate and the Oaks, the top race for fillies. Gold Strike is owned by former Winnipegger Richard Bonnycastle -- the man behind the Harlequin Romance series of books -- and raced three times at Assiniboia Downs last year, the only one of the three to race in Manitoba.

Gold Strike was bred by Bonnycastle and raised on a farm near Brunkild that is owned by former Downs trainer, Tom Dodds.

King of Jazz, who was still in his stall at Churchill Downs in Kentucky yesterday and whose connections were the only ones absent from yesterday's formal post position draw here at Woodbine, is the fourth favourite at 6-1 and increasingly the darling of handicappers who love the horse's high-powered connections.

His trainer, Carl Nafzger, trained 1990 Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled, while King of Jazz's rider, Rafael Bejarano, was the winningest jockey in North America last year. The horse was expected to arrive at Woodbine this morning.

King of Jazz was bred by Gary Strath on his breeding farm just outside Brandon and is currently owned by Buckram Oak Farm, a Kentucky horse operation that was owned until just a couple months ago by millionaire Saudi oilman and diplomat, Mahmoud Fustok.

And then there's Get Down. Considered one of the leading favourites to win the race just a few weeks ago, he was installed as a 10-1 shot yesterday, a surprisingly long price for a horse that was runner-up in the Plate Trial just three weeks ago and who has attracted top New York rider Richard Migliore to fly to Toronto this weekend just to ride him in the Plate. His trainer, Nancy Triola, is attempting to become the first female trainer to win the Queen's Plate, but she does appear to have some astrology on her side -- Get Down was born Feb. 24, 2002, the same day the Canadian men beat the Americans to win hockey gold at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Get Down was bred by Winnipeg accountant Ken Lee and raised on a farm in Birds Hill, but is now owned by a New York-based syndicate that includes among its principal owners Sherman Cunningham, a native of tiny Springwater, Sask. Springwater's previous claim to fame was that it's 20 minutes from Biggar, hometown of the late Olympic gold medallist in curling, Sandra Schmirler.

"The only horse we had in those days," Cunningham, a 68-year-old electronic components magnate, recalled yesterday, "were the ones my father stood behind in the field."

Ironically, the principal obstacle standing in the way of a Manitoba victory here on Sunday is another Manitoban. McCreary native Todd Kabel, the leading jockey in Canada the past two years, will ride the 5-2 morning line favourite, Dance With Ravens.

"This is the most prestigious race we have in this country," Kabel said yesterday, "and to have all of us Manitobans in it is something to be proud of."