Game Changers – Forbidden Trade

TORONTO, July 10, 2025 – Once a week, throughout the Mohawk racing season, Woodbine will profile a horse who has had a life-changing impact on one of their closest connections.

This week, Canada’s 2020 Driver of the Year Bob McClure, and three-time O’Brien Award-winning trotter and 2019 Hambletonian champion Forbidden Trade (Kadabra).

McClure, the winner of more than 3,600 races, with $54 million in purse earnings, took a trip down memory lane with the horse who delivered a lifetime of good fortune on and off the track.

Forbidden Trade

Foaled: April 25, 2016

Sire: Kadabra (ON)

Dam: Pure Ivory

Wins-Seconds-Thirds: 26-9-9

Earnings: $2,387,275

Trainer: Luc Blais

Owner: Determination

Breeder: Steve Stewart

When you look back on the 2019 Hambletonian, what’s the first thought that comes to mind?

“Appreciation. A lot of appreciation for the horse himself and the people who were behind the horse.

“I appreciate Serge Godin giving me the opportunity. I appreciate Luc Blais having him at his very best on that day and appreciate the horse sticking his neck out. He won the toughness battle that day, that’s for sure.”

How would you describe his personality?

“He had a classy personality. They talk about being an old soul; he was that way at two. He was such a chill horse.

“And he was a robot to drive. He showed up in 2018, the same year I started for Determination, and he was two that year. I was at a stage in my career where I needed that. If he was a hard horse to handle, I didn’t have the experience to maybe get him in the right spots and have the success we did.

“But the fact that he could out-leave them – he could come from last, he’d sit, he’d move – the horse got tons of respect long before I had any on the track. At that point in my career, he needed to be that way for us to be successful.”

Can you liken him to a particular athlete? If so, who and why?

“Let’s go with Mark Messier. There wasn’t a lot of flash to him. He never did anything magnificent. He just did his job, and he did it very well.

“A lot of the time, he was such a handy horse. He didn’t have to do anything astounding. He was easy to put into a spot that made things easier for me and him.

“There wasn’t a lot of flash and dash with him. There was just an extremely classy horse that did everything right.”

Three words to describe him?

“Classy. Tough. Sweetheart.”

How has he changed your life

“The year where I won the Hambo [2019] gave me enough money to buy my farm, where myself, my wife and two kids live. If I hadn’t had that horse, I might not have had a year like that – one that translated into bigger years and set me up to put my family into as good a place as I’ve got them in now.

“I owe a lot to that horse, and I’ll never forget him.”

By Matthew Lomon, for Woodbine Entertainment