Christoforou realizes “lifelong ambition” with Hall of Fame induction

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame held a reception yesterday honoring inductees from the past two years and unveiling the panels that honor winners of the previous three years.

One of the 2023 harness racing inductees, driver Chris Christoforou was there to take it all in.

“I’m happy to be here,” he said with a smile. “It was a lifelong ambition to be here, and I finally made it, so it’s kind of surreal. It’s exciting and my wife and I are just very pleased to be here.”

Christoforou will be enshrined at the induction dinner in August along with the world’s fastest Standardbred, Bulldog Hanover, who was a first ballot inductee, trotting mare Pure Ivory (who produced Hambletonian winner Forbidden Trade) and Dr. Lloyd McKibbin in the Builder category.

He reminisced about some of the biggest moments of his career. “Winning the Little Brown Jug with, Astreos, a horse my father owned, that was the top of the mountain for me,” he said. “Winning big races with family horses is the most fun, but also winning four O ‘Brien Awards, was special, especially winning the last one.” Christoforou referred to the 2014 O’ Brien Award for top driver that came 11 years after he won his third one. He was also the winner in 1999 and 2002.

The affable “Greek” as he is often referred to around the track, stepped to the fore early in his career when he steered his father Charalambos’ homebred trotter Earl to win a prestigious Breeders Crown championship when they captured the Open Trot division at Mohawk in 1993. With that win, he became the second youngest driver (at 21 years old) to win a Breeders Crown event. Earl, a three-time O’Brien Award winner (1992, 1993, 1994) as Canada’s top male trotter of that era, was also a Maple Leaf Trot (1994) and Breeders Crown (1993) champ.

Christoforou brings a strong resume with him to the Hall of Fame. He has steered 6,763 winners who have earned more than $119 million. So, what’s next?

“In the next year or two, you won’t see me driving pacers as much, or at all” he mentioned. “I’ll continue to drive trotters, but more so our own. I’m not going to say I will continue to drive other trotters 100 per cent of the time.”

Christoforou said he is looking forward to taking some time off. “I’ve been going to the races four of five nights a week for 33 years without a real break other than the pandemic and I couldn’t do anything but sit in the house then anyway. It’s going to be nice to take my wife out to dinner a couple of times a week and spend some time with my kids on the weekend.”

As for 2023, he said he is looking forward to racing his wife’s rookies. “Camilla has seven or eight two-year-olds currently and I go in and drive for her in the mornings;” he mentioned. “She likes a couple of her trotters and I like a couple of her other ones, so we’ll see who is right,” he added with a chuckle.

by Garnet Barnsdale, for Harnesslink