Hall Of Famers to be part of Remembering Sackville Downs Day

Two Nova Scotia native sons, who are Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame members will be returning to their home province to be part of Truro Raceway’s Remembering Sackville Downs Day at the Bible Hill harness racing oval on Sunday, September 15th.

Driver Bill O’Donnell, affectionately known as the “Magic Man” in his driving career, will be on-site doing meet and greets and signing autographs for fans. The native of Springhill, NS has strong family connections to Sackville Downs, with his father and uncle both racing at the oval. O’Donnell obtained his driver’s license at the former oval, before moving to the U.S.

Mr. O’Donnell had a storied driving career, with over 5,000 victories and purse earnings exceeding 90 million dollars. He also won over 200 major stakes titles, that included the Little Brown Jug twice, the Hambletonian, 12 Breeders Crown titles and piloted the first sub 150.0 mile in the history of the sport, with the incomparable Nihilator in 1985, with a 149.3 record. He is quite simply one of the best drivers in the history of the sport.

Trainer/Driver Carl Jamieson will be returning to native Nova Scotia to be part of the day and signing autographs for fans. Born in Pugwash and raised in Wallace, NS, Jamieson was a regular driver at the former Sackville Downs racetrack, before going onto incredible success in Ontario. Jamieson has 1372 driving wins and 7.1 million in purse earnings, but as a trainer has 1085 wins and an incredible 27.2 million dollars in earnings. He has multiple O’Brien Awards to his credit and a victory in the Gold Cup and Saucer in 2006 with Banner Yankee. He is a recent inductee in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Another special guest will be former Sackville Downs Track Announcer Clary Flemming, who was Sackville’s track announcer from 1961-1970 and will be part of the Truro Raceway Broadcast. He will also call a special race with all former Sackville Downs Drivers, which will feature Jamieson and a field of other former Sackville drivers.

Also, that day will be a historical display in the grandstand of artifacts and items from Sackville Downs, a special commemorative program, as well as a silent auction and charity fundraiser to honour former Sackville Downs owner Jack Cruickshank. Mr. Cruickshank started a program called the “Turkey Club” to help feed those in need. In his memory we will donate all proceeds to the Truro and Sackville Food Banks.

Fans can also sponsor a cooler presentation that day to honour someone special that was connected to Sackville Downs, donate a silent auction item or place a program advertisement, with all proceeds going to the two charities by contacting Truro Raceway General Manager Steve Fitzsimmons at 902-956-0024 or gm.truroraceway@gmail.com.

From Truro Raceway