Canadian Hall of Fame finalists announced

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Thoroughbred and Standardbred Nomination Committees have determined the categories and finalists to appear on the ballot presented to the Election Committees, from which the Class of 2023 will be selected.

Previously, The Board of the CHRHF agreed the Classes of 2022 and 2023 will each be comprised of four inductees per breed, per class.  The individuals named to CHRHF Class of 2022 and this Class of 2023 will be formally inducted in a double year ceremony on Wednesday, August 9, 2023.

A 20-person Election Committee for each breed will determine the one individual to be inducted in each of four categories for that breed, with the results to be announced on Wednesday, April 26^th.

The Standardbred harness racing Categories appearing on the 2023 Election Ballot include Builders, Female Horse, Male Horse and Veteran.

The finalists in the 2023 Builder Category include Dr. Moira Gunn, Al Libfeld and Dr. Lloyd McKibbin

Dr Moira Gunn graduated from The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, in Edinburgh, Scotland before completing a post-graduate internship at Ontario Veterinary College at Guelph a 2-year large animal surgical residency. That education was followed by time working at Belmont Racetrack with Dr. Carl Juul Neilson. Her tenure at Canada’s preeminent Standardbred breeding operation, Armbro Farms, began in January 1988 as the farm veterinarian. Gunn ascended  to Manager, Vice-President, and from 2000 to 2004, President, following her mentor, Dr. Glen Brown. Other positions held in the industry include Director of  the E.P. Taylor Equine Research Fund, Co-Chair of Equine Guelph Advisory Council, President of the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario, Director/Vice president of Canadian Standardbred Horse Society with multiple committee appointments, and Director of Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association.  She was also heavily involved in the amalgamation of the Canadian Standardbred Horse Society and the Canadian Trotting Association to form Standardbred Canada.  As part of Paradox Farm Dr. Gunn, was a breeder of both standardbreds and thoroughbreds, including Queens Plate winner Lexie Lou.  After her time at Armbro Farms, Dr, Gunn operated a private equine practice specializing in stallion management, embryo transfer and freezing, and reproductive challenges of hard to breed mares.

Al Libfeld’s first exposure to horse racing came through Marvin Katz and later on they would become business partners. Libfeld made his first foray into Standardbred ownership with the purchase of the Albatross yearling Keystone Hera in 1988 with Katz. From that point on, the successful homebuilder, whose Tribute Communities is one of the most prominent in Ontario, was hooked, focusing his efforts on breeding and owning primarily trotters. He considers his horses and racing a passion. In addition to his partnership with Marvin Katz, Libfeld has bred and owned a number of horses on his own, or with partners including Dan Patch and O’Brien Award winner Ariana G ($2,600,995; 1:50.2), O’Brien Award winner Define the World ($1,740,839; 1:51.4), and his dam Venice Holiday.

The late Dr. Lloyd McKibbin is considered a pioneer in the advancement of Equine Veterinary Medicine. He was an innovator, teacher, and author as well as a very hands-on veterinarian. He focussed on Acupuncture, Cryosurgery and Laser Therapy, mentoring other veterinarians to follow in his path, many of whom went on to open their own successful practices with some who continue to work as veterinarians today. His books Horse Owners Handbook and Cryoanalgesia for Horses continue to be used as reference manuals. Horse owners travelled from far and wide to his small, unassuming clinic in Wheatley, Ont., for treatment using the ground-breaking methods he employed, all the while acting in the best interest of his equine patients. Among the numerous horses aided by Dr. McKibbin was CHRHF 2020 Inductee Rambling Willie who spent time under “Doc’s” care. It was the relationship Willie’s owners had with Dr. McKibbin that provided the opportunity for the much-lauded horse to appear at Dresden Raceway.

In the Standardbred Driver category, the candidates are Chris Christoforou Jr., Claire MacDonald, and Ed Tracey.

Chris Christoforou Jr. has been driving Standardbred horses for 33 consecutive years, beginning in 1990 and continuing until the present time.  Christoforou’s driving stats currently sit at 6757 career wins, $118,938,495 in purse earnings and a .260 UDRS lifetime rating, and he has four times been presented the O’Brien Award as Canada’s Driver of the Year.  The opportunity to pilot his family’s homebred trotter, Earl, brought Chris into the spotlight early in his driving career, and in 1993 Christoforou became the second youngest driver to win a prestigious Breeders Crown race when he and Earl captured the Aged Trot division at Mohawk.  Among the many other horses Christoforou achieved major stakes success with include Grinfromeartoear (1999 Breeders Crown); CHRHF Member Astreos (2000 Little Brown Jug), as well as CHRHF Member Peaceful Way (2003 Goldsmith Maid and 2003 Oakville.).  He has also visited the OSS Super Final winners circle 10 times.

A native of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Mary Clare “Clare” MacDonald is Canada’s winningest female harness driver in victories (1,520) and purse earnings ($4,932,296). Her stats, all achieved while racing in the Atlantic provinces, rank her second among female drivers in North America, behind US Hall of Fame member, the late Bea Farber-Erdman. A second-generation horseperson, MacDonald’s driving career began at age 17 with 19 wins in her first year. Since that time, in a career spanning over 40 years, she has surpassed $100,000 in annual earnings as a driver 25 times. Horses driven and/or trained by MacDonald have set track records at five tracks, and she also holds the honour of being the first driver to complete a sub-2:00 trotting mile in Atlantic Canada. In addition to training and driving, MacDonald has served terms as a Standardbred Canada Director and was a member of the Rules Working Group for the Atlantic Provinces Harness Racing Commission.

Weyburn, Saskatchewan-born Ed Tracey received his driving license at age 15. After getting his start in three-heats-a-day race meets in his home province, his passion for harness racing took him to six Canadian provinces and numerous states in the U.S. Over a span of 55 years, Tracey had 3,168 driving victories and more than $7,500,000 in purse earnings. The pinnacle of his career came in 1978 when he won the ice racing championship on Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. The late Ed Tracey was named Alberta Horseman of the Year in 1978 and in 1998 he was awarded the Dr. Clara Christie Award for his contribution to Alberta’s harness racing industry.

Female Horses included on the 2023 ballot include Emilie Cas El, Pure Ivory and West of L A

Emilie Cas El, out of Hall of Fame mare Amour Angus, is a full sister to top trotting sires – Andover Hall, Angus Hall and Conway Hall.  She began her race career in owner Dustin Jones’ home province of Quebec, winning all 13 of her races there and setting the Blue Bonnets track record for two-year-old trotting fillies.  Her success continued in Ontario sweeping the Canadian Breeders Championship, equalling the track record at Mohawk and being named the O’Brien Award winner for both two-year-old trotting filly and Horse of the Year.  Following a change in ownership and a move to Europe, she continued to race through age five.  As a broodmare, her top earning offspring is Hambletonian winner Trixton, who earned $968,696 and set a lifetime mark 1:50.3, at age three, before moving to the stallion ranks in both Canada and the U.S.

Trotting mare Pure Ivory, by Striking Sahbra, has been successful both on the track and as a broodmare. Bred by Diane Ingham and the late Harry Rutherford, and owned throughout her racing career by Jerry Van Boekel, Christina Maxwell, Steve Condren and Rutherford, Pure Ivory’s stats include earnings of $1.44 million and a lifetime mark of 1:53.1. The two-time O’Brien Award recipient (2005 & 2006), trained by Brad Maxwell won 22 stakes races during her career, including Ontario Sires Stakes Super Finals at age two and three, the Canadian Breeders Championship, and divisions of the Simcoe and Champlain Stakes. Currently a broodmare owned by Steve Stewart of Paris, KY, Pure Ivory produced the 2019 Hambletonian champion Forbidden Trade, who was a divisional O’Brien Award winner at two and three, Canada’s Horse of the Year in 2019, and amassed career earnings in excess of $2.3 million.

Following a race career at ages two and three, during which she earned $257,150, West Of L A became a top-performing broodmare. Bred and owned, in partnership by Robert McIntosh Stables, C S X Stables and Al McIntosh Holdings Inc., and trained by CHRHF Honoured Member Robert McIntosh, this daughter of Western Hanover, out of the Cam Fella mare Los Angeles, is the dam of horses with earnings of $4.9 million, including two horses with earnings of more than $1.7 million each. Her Somebeachsomewhere son Somewhere In L A boasts $1.87 million in earnings with a lifetime mark of 1:48.4. Her daughter L A Delight, by Bettors Delight won the O’Brien Award for Two-Year-Old Pacing Fillies in 2015 and followed that up with an O’Brien Award in the Three-Year-Old Pacing Filly category in 2016. Her resume includes 26 wins in a 66 race career, a lifetime mark of 1:49.1 and earnings of $1.78 million.

The 2023 Standardbred Male Horse Category ballot features Bulldog Hanover, Marion Marauder, and Muscle Mass.

Sired by 2022 CHRHF Inductee Shadow Play and out of Artsplace mare BJs Squall, Bulldog Hanover was purchased by CHRHF 2022 Trainer Inductee Jack Darling for $28,000 at the 2019 Harrisburg Black Book Sale.   He began his race career at age two, winning four of six starts, including the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Super Final. Before the beginning of his three-year-old season Brad Grant was added as a co-owner.  At three, Bulldog Hanover continued to impress with three Ontario Sires Stakes Gold leg wins. He stepped into Grand Circuit competition with wins in the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes and a North America Cup elimination, and then rounded out his sophomore year with four consecutive wins at Hoosier Park in the Monument Circle, the Star Destroyer Pace, the Circle City Pace and the Thanksgiving Classic, giving all a look at what was to come. During his 2022 campaign, in a 21-day period, Bulldog Hanover won four straight races at The Meadowlands, winning a Graduate leg in 1:47, the Roll With Joe in 1:46, the Graduate final in 1:46.1 and the William R. Haughton Memorial in a world record time of 1:45.4. It was those 21 days from June 25 to July 16 that captured the world’s attention and catapulted Bulldog Hanover to a new status, as he became the fastest pacer of all time en route to Horse of the Year honours in Canada and unanimous Horse  of the Year honours in the U.S.

With $3.5 million-plus in the bank and 21 trips to the winner’s circle, Marion Marauder boasts the resume of a racehorse that few can match.  He won the Hambletonian, Yonkers Trot and Kentucky Futurity in 2016 to become just the ninth trotter to win trotting’s Triple Crown. The son of Muscle Hill – Spellbound Hanover also won the Goodtimes Stakes and a division of the Stanley Dancer Memorial at three, en route to a season that amassed more than $1.5 million in purses, topping the North American earnings charts for all trotters. As an older competitor, his stakes scores included the 2017 Graduate Final and the Hambletonian Maturity, the Cleveland Trotting Classic, 2018 John Cashman Memorial and the 2018 Caesars Trotting Classic. Marion Marauder was the recipient of the O’Brien Award for three-year-old trotter in 2016. That same year, he was also named USHWA three-year-old trotter, USHWA Trotter of the Year, followed by the USHWA Aged Trotter of the Year Award in 2017.  Marion Marauder is also a resident of the Kentucky Horse Park Hall of Champions

Muscle Mass retired to stud duty as the fastest two-year-old son of super-sire Muscles Yankee, having established his world-record mark of 1:53.4 in only his second career start.  He established himself as a leading trotting sire and was the leading first crop sire of Ontario Sires Stakes winners in 2012 following up with spectacular years in 2013 and 2014 as the leading Ontario sire of two-year-old trotters.  He also earned the title of the overall leading trotting sire in 2014. After spending the 2014 and 2015 breeding seasons in New York, where he sired world champion millionaires Six Pack and Plunge Blue Chip, he returned to Ontario in 2016.  Muscle Mass was also the leading Canadian trotting sire in 2022, with offspring earning $5.5 million and winning 251 races.  Among his offspring are multiple Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Champions including Adare Castle 3,1:52.4 ($1,154,691), Riveting Rosie 4,1:52.4 ($973,938), Lovedbythemasses 4, 1:50.2 ($657,263) and On A Sunny Day 4,1:52.4 ($700,311).

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From the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame