Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame finalists announced

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (CHRHF) Standardbred and Thoroughbred Nomination Committees have determined the categories and finalists to appear on the ballot presented to the Election Committees, from which the Class of 2024 will be selected.

Previously, the Board of the CHRHF agreed the Class of 2024 will be comprised of six inductees per breed and also provided the option for a Nomination Committee to use only five categories, and induct two individuals in one category to meet the total of six inductees per breed A 20-person Election Committee for each breed will determine, from the list of finalists the individuals to be inducted in each of the categories, with the results to be announced on Wednesday, April 24.

The individuals named to CHRHF Class of 2024 will be formally inducted in a ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 7.

The harness racing categories appearing on the 2024 Election Ballot include Builders, Driver, Trainer, Female Horse, and Veteran – Person or Horse.  The Standardbred Nomination Committee chose to double up the Driver category, allowing two of the three finalists to be inducted.

The finalists in the 2024 Standardbred Builder category include Brad Grant, Dr. Moira Gunn and Hugh Mitchell.

Following in the tradition of his CHRHF Honoured Member father John Grant, Brad Grant is a significant player within today’s harness racing world. Among the impressive list of Standardbreds owned either solely or in a partnership are two Hambletonian winners – Atlanta and Ramona Hill – and CHRHF 2023 inductee Bulldog Hanover. Other notable millionaire horses owned by Grant are Its Academic, Stay Hungry, Apprentice Hanover, Wheels On Fire and Sandbetweenurtoes. Grant has led all owners in purse winnings in seven of the last eight years on the Woodbine Entertainment circuit. He has been recognized within the industry as the recipient of the 2018 Humanitarian Award presented by the United States Harness Writers Association, Woolworth Owner of the Year at the 2022 Dan Patch Awards and appointed to the Board of Woodbine Entertainment in 2023. As a businessman, Grant is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost trucking magnates.

Dr. Moira Gunn graduated from The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, in Edinburgh, Scotland followed by a postgraduate internship at Ontario Veterinary College at Guelph and a two-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 and Standardbred Canada. She was 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 Queen’s 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 she specialized in reproductive challenges of hard to breed mares.

Hugh Mitchell has led the horse racing industry in prominent roles, including as the Chairman of the Board of Harness Tracks of America and a member and Chair of the Ontario Racing Board of Directors. In addition to his role as a current member of the Board of Governors at Fanshawe College, where he was a past Vice-Chair, Mitchell is also a past President of Tourism London and Director of both the London Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions. He worked for Woodbine Entertainment as the company’s Senior Vice-President of Racing from 1998 to 2005. Mitchell has made significant contributions to racing in southwestern Ontario through his roles at Western Fair Raceway, starting out as COO of Western Fair for four years before being appointed CEO for nine years.  A member of the Woodbine Entertainment Board of Directors since 2018, he was appointed Chair in September 2022.  From mucking stalls nearly 50 years ago to his current roles, there has been one constant, best summed up by four words Mitchell often uses: “I love this sport.”

In the Standardbred Driver category, the candidates are Sylvain Filion, Clare MacDonald and Ed Tracey. The Standardbred Nomination Committee has chosen to double up this category, which will result in the top two vote getters from the three finalists to become part of the CHRHF Class of 2024.

The current flagbearer for the venerable Filion harness racing family, Sylvain Filion has won more than 10,000 races, the only driver to reach that milestone while racing almost exclusively in Canada. In 1999, Filion was selected to represent Canada in the World Driving Championship and brought home the gold for Canada. As a world driving champion, he joined his illustrious uncle Herve, who had won the inaugural championship in 1970. Filion has won four O’Brien Awards as Canada’s top driver (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016) and has won approximately $140 million in purses. At age 55, Filion is most certainly not slowing down because in 2023, he won more than 200 races and drove horses to purse earnings of almost $6 million.

A native of Antigonish, N.S., Mary Clare MacDonald is Canada’s winningest female harness driver in victories (1,529) and purse earnings of $4,976,185. Her stats, all achieved while racing in the Atlantic provinces, ranks her second among female drivers in North America, behind U.S. 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 $7.5 million 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 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 on the 2024 ballot include Bee A Magician, Emilie Cas El and West Of L A.

The 2013 Horse of the Year in Canada and the U.S., two-time Breeders Crown winner and world champion trotting mare Bee A Magician has a lifetime race record of 45-14-3 in 72 starts achieved between ages two and six. As a two-year-old, Bee A Magician prevailed in the Peaceful Way Stakes and the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final en route to earning the O’Brien Award for Two-Year-Old Trotting Filly of the Year. The Breeders Crown, Hambletonian Oaks, Elegantimage, Delvin Miller Memorial, Moni Maker and Simcoe Stakes were added to her resume at age three, when she was crowned both the 2013 Dan Patch and O’Brien Horse of the Year as well as the Dan Patch and O’Brien Three-Year-Old Trotting Filly of the Year.  At age five, her list of 10 victories included the Maple Leaf Trot and Armbro Flight while once again taking home Dan Patch and O’Brien hardware. In 2016, her final year on the track, she had victories in the Yonkers Invitational Trot and the Mack Lobell Elitlopp Playoff. She retired with $4,196,145 in earnings, racing against the best open competition – male and female opposition – for her three seasons as an older competitor. Her lifetime earnings are the highest in harness racing history for a trotter racing exclusively on North American soil.

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 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.

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 Filly of the Year 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 2024 Standardbred Trainer ballot features Doug Arthur, Dr. Ian Moore and Richard Moreau.

Doug Arthur developed a reputation in harness racing as a “developer of champions” after taking Cam Fella, a $19,000 yearling purchase, and developing him into the Harness Horse of the Year in 1982 and 1983. The legacy of Cam Fella as a racehorse, a sire and a foundation to the Standardbred breed, relates directly to his original purchaser and developer, Doug Arthur. Over time, Arthur was deemed by his peers as an astute judge of horseflesh and being able to identify a yearling’s potential talent, spending a significant amount of time inspecting a vast number of yearlings.

Dr. Ian Moore has competed for the past 20 years at the highest level in Canada as a trainer and has been very active and successful in the Ontario Sires Stakes. Dr. Moore has trained the winners of more than $23 million and has averaged more than $1 million per year racing mostly in Ontario, including a personal record of $3.1 million in 2023. He has not only accomplished his feat racing mostly in Canada, but he has also done it while averaging a stable size of only 10-15 horses. Dr. Moore’s training accomplishments include an impressive 69 horses that have each earned more than $100,000, 14 horses with earnings of more than $500,000, 20 horses that have earned more than $75,000 and seven horses that have earned more than $1 million – including one that earned in excess of $3 million  He has received 15 O’Brien Awards, including twice for Horsemanship and the Trainer of the Year title in 2023.

Between 2013 and 2022, Richard Moreau was named Trainer of the Year at the O’Brien Awards, and has been the leading trainer at Woodbine Mohawk Park on multiple occasions. He has reached the million-dollar earnings threshold every year since 2000 and he has surpassed $4 million five times. Late in 2023, Moreau won his 7,000th career race, becoming only the third trainer in North America to achieve that milestone. He currently leads all trainers in the country for Canadian racing wins. Among the O’Brien Award winners he has trained are Sandbetweenurtoes, Jimmy Freight, Fashion Frenzie, Wheels On Fire, Gaines Hanover and Grandma Heidi.

The Standardbred Veteran Category ballot for 2024 includes two men known primarily as drivers, Ross “Cowboy” Curran and James “Roach” MacGregor, as well as pacing stallion Goliath Bayama.

Ross Curran was known for his raw talent and ability to handle hard to manage horses in a way no one else did. He raced at numerous tracks across Ontario and in the United States. ‘Cowboy’ Curran was the leading dash winner from 1964 to 1973 in Ontario and had an average winning percentage of .317 over a 10-year period. He was rated the second and third best driver in North America from his performance in those years. In his 8,686 starts, he finished in the top three almost 50 per cent of the time on his universal driver rating system stats. He drove 1,711 recorded winners and had more than $2.7 million in recorded lifetime earnings. Curran was inducted in the Sportsman Hall of Fame in Smiths Falls, Ont. in 1988 and he was given the Living Legend Award by the Ontario Harness Horse Association in 2009. He had proven successful partnerships with horses like JJs Tequila and owners such as John Grant. He was also known not only for his driving ability but he was one of the top trainers as well.

Bred by Bayama Farms Inc. of Lachute, Que., Goliath Bayama (p, 5, 1:48.1s; $1,509,163) became known as “The Monster from Montreal” after his thrilling wins in the Breeders Crown and U.S. Pacing Championship at The Meadowlands. He recorded 25 wins in 74 career starts giving driver Sylvain Filion his first opportunity in million-dollar races. Goliath Bayama finished second by a length to The Panderosa in the North America Cup in 1999 and was fourth in the Meadowlands Pace. Goliath Bayama is the fastest pacer in the history of Blue Bonnets, winning in 1:48.1s in an Invitational in August 2001. As a stallion, the Abercrombie son sired 181 foals with total earnings of $7,487,883.

James “Roach” MacGregor started his career at Charlottetown Driving Park as a youngster, and by age 15, would be training at the local racetrack. From meagre beginnings, MacGregor gradually acquired a sizable public stable. As a 19-year-old, he drove Josedale Clipper to “Maritime Horse of the Year” honours, and soon was asked to accompany legendary Joe O’Brien to Foxboro, Massachusetts as trainer. Regarded by many as the Maritimes’ finest trainer-driver of his era, MacGregor would compile an amazing list of records and achievements over the next five decades, winning virtually every major stakes in the Maritime region and setting numerous stakes and track records at Quebec City, Blue Bonnets, Summerside and Sackville Downs in 1955 with Bay State Pat, a horse MacGregor switched from the trot to the pace. By 1954, his second season on the pace, MacGregor steered Bay State Pat to the winner’s circle in 17 consecutive dashes, setting four track records along the way. The rags-to-riches saga of the “Maritime Diesel,” would eventually lead to the induction of Bay State Pat in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1983.

The six categories selected by the Thoroughbred Nominating Committee for the 2024 Thoroughbred ballot are Builder, Female Horse, Jockey, Male Horse, Trainer and Veteran – Person or Horse.  Categories and finalist names in each are presented below in alphabetical order.

Additional information about the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame may be found at canadianhorseracinghalloffame.com.

From the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame