TORONTO—It took a long, furious whip-slashing stretch drive to get there, but at the end of the 150th Queen’s Plate the familiar red and gold colors of Sam-Son Farm, Canada’s premier racing and breeding stable, crossed the finish line first.

With jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva vigorously riding as if “my heart was in my hands,” Sam-Son’s Eye of the Leopard climaxed a stretch-long two-horse chase by catching Mr. Foricos Two U, under Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, a few steps before the wire.

Da Silva said he didn’t think he’d had the $1 million race won until “just in the last yard.”

“It wasn’t nearly as exciting as I’d hoped,” deadpanned winning trainer Mark Frostad, who turned serious by saying “Mike Smith was trying to steal it from us, but we got him.”

“It was a gallant effort,” said Smith, who thought his horse “didn’t see [the winner] way out there.”

It was the fifth victory in Canada’s most famous race for Sam-Son, a Milton, Ont., family operation founded in the 1970s by the late Ernie Samuel. It was the fourth Plate win for Frostad, who joined Sam- Son in the mid-1990s.

Although the 7-2 second choice on the morning line, Eye of the Leopard was sent off the 2.35-1 betting favorite, slightly ahead of morning-line choice Milwaukee Appeal, who rallied to be third at 4-1.

Eye of the Leopard, narrow winner of the Plate Trial three weeks earlier, paid $6.70, $4.10 and $2.90.

Mr. Foricos Two U, who prepped by winning an allowance race his last start, returned $7.20 and $4.60.

Milwaukee Appeal, winner of the Woodbine Oaks for fillies two weeks earlier, paid $3.70.

Tasty Temptation, the Oaks runner- up, was fourth, followed by Flip for the Coin, Keino West, Shut It Down, Rapid Release, Stardust Ziggy, Bucephalus, Reservoir, Active Duty and El Brujo.

The 1v miles went in 2:03.84, a quarter of a second slower than last year’s race, the first Plate on Woodbine’s artificial Polytrack.

Mr. Foricos Two U dueled Reservoir (Jim McEleney up) for the first half-mile, then took the lead on the backstretch and held on until the red-blinkered Eye of the Leopard beat him by a neck at the end. The chestnut gelding with a white blaze on his face looked like a winner until da Silva’s hard work paid off and caught him on the outside.

“I was just riding him the best I could and he keep dig in, dig in, dig in and thanks to God got the job done,” said da Silva, a native of Brazil who has been riding at Woodbine about five years.

The replay showed da Silva whipped his bay colt 25 times—seven left-handed, then 18 right-handed — in the stretch drive.

“I did use the whip more than I use in other races,” da Silva said. He said the new “light touch” whip “don’t hurt, just makes a noise. I’m very sure I never like hurt him or anything with the whip.”

“He did what he had to do to get him there,” Frostad said. “I imagine it was one of those newfangled whips. They’re like Wiffle bats. All they do is make a little noise.”

Da Silva said he didn’t notice if Mr. Foricos Two U was tiring in the final yards.

“At that point I was more focused on my horse. I was not focused on another horse. . . . I was riding the best I could. My heart was in my hands. I keep going and yell at him and pushing him. I didn’t pay attention to another horse,” da Silva said. “You have no time to think about nothing, just ride him.”

The victory was especially meaningful for the Sam-Son family, which in 2008 was hit by the deaths of Tammy Samuel-Balaz and then Liza Samuel, the daughter and widow of the founder.

“We’ve had a lot of great moments at the track, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a more emotional day at the track until today,” said Mark Samuel, the founder’s son and one of 11 family members and six friends in the winner’s circle. “In many ways this horse is sort of a legacy of the past and a branch into the future.

“The breeding [by 1992 Horse of the Year A. P. Indy out of Eye of the Sphynx, Sam-Son’s 2004 Oaks champion ] would have come from my sister Tammy and Mark [Frostad] thinking it through,”

Samuel continued.

“The name was one of the last crop of names that my mother named before her passing. And even his nickname harkens back to one of the favorite horses that Dad loved, Imperial Choice. His nickname was ‘Lumpy’ and this horse’s nickname is ‘Lumpy.’ There are a lot of things tied into this horse.”

Frostad said if Eye of the Leopard “comes out OK,” his next race will be the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, the second jewel of the Triple Crown for Canadianbreds, at Fort Erie Race Track on July 12.

“I think it’s the logical step. It’s the Triple Crown and we’ll take it one race at a time and that’s the next spot for him,” Frostad said.