Award Tour

It was an award tour in Ontario-land goin' each and every place with the camera in hand...and what follows are photos of just some of the people who helped make the O'Brien Awards a fun evening.

The O'Brien Awards lined up to meet their new owner

The end of January marked a celebration of the best of Canadian horse racing. On Friday evening, I was rubbing elbows with thoroughbreds finest at the Sovereign Awards in Toronto. A day later I was fortunate to be invited to the O'Brien Awards in Mississauga honouring the best of the best of Standardbred racing.


For the first time ever, two females found themselves as nominees for Trainer of the Year. Tracy Brainard made a huge splash at Mohawk and Woodbine in 2009 while also winning races in the U.S. Brainard earned over $10M in North America, while memorably notching the Confederation Cup, Tattersalls and Fan Hanover.

Trainer Tracy Brainard with Josh Marks


Casie Coleman had a tremendous 2009 campaign winning 162 races in Canada and another 114 south of the border. Coleman's stable was led by the two-year-old pacer Sportswriter who won the O'Brien award for 2YO Pacing Colt thanks to seven victories in eight starts including a world record mile in the Metro Pace.

It was fitting that Coleman and Sportswriter would team once again for another victory.

Casie Coleman scored an historic O'Brien Award for Top Trainer


Hosts for the evening were track announcer Ken Middleton and aspiring track announcer Dawn Lupul. The two traded several hilarious verbal barbs over the course of the evening with Lupul landing most of the punches until such point as Middleton sneakily passed over the chore of announcing Older Pacing Mare to Lupul. Zing!

The entertaining pair kept the festivities moving at a perky pace for an appreciative audience.

Dawn Lupul gets the answers from Casie Coleman


The audience clapped loudly for several winners as the night progressed. Cam Fella Award winner Ross Galbraith was cheered to and from the stage by all in attendance - as well, the connections of Well Said received quite the loud chorus during their announcement as winners of the O'Brien for Three-Year-Old Colt Pacer.

A black-tie affair...


For some!


There was a wee bit of controversy as the O'Brien Awards committee ruled not to award a winner in the category of Three-Year-Old pacing fillies (Not Enough and Yellow Diamond) as both were owned by the suspended Bulletproof Enterprises.

Still, that cloud of controversy could not stop the patrons of pacing and trotting from celebrating.

O'Brien Award - Are you havin' a laugh!


Driver Jody Jamieson had a record setting 2009 campaign with an incredible 3,322 drives of which he won 787 races. Earnings of more than $11M topped the charts for all Canadian drivers. Jamieson's accomplishments were noticed across North America and the likable linesman became the first Canadian driver to win the Harness Tracks of America's Driver of the Year Award while driving nearly exclusively in Canadian races - an award Jamieson would share with Dave Palone.

Jody Jamieson brought a large cheering section up on stage


Jamieson's charming young daughter Hailey drew a huge laugh from the crowd when she requested the microphone from Middleton to announce that, "My dad's the champ!"

The 'champ" showed great class in requesting a round of applause for his fellow nominee Brad Forward who had a great season which included representing Canada in the World Driving Championship held in Norway.

*As an aside - one of the joys of owning a website is reviewing all the ways a reader finds your homepage. One odd reader landed here at TripleDeadHeat via a Google search for the phrase, "Jody Jamieson's bald head".

If anyone can shed some light on the logic behind that search, please send me an email.

As you can see below, Jamieson's stylish chapeau more than took care of that issue on Saturday night.

A tip 'o the cap from top driver Jody Jamieson


Three-year-old trotting sensation Muscle Hill won his division and ended the evening by taking home the Horse of the Year trophy. The son of Muscles Yankee was a perfect 12 for 12 on the campaign with major victories in the Canadian Trotting Classic and the Breeders Crown.

Thanks for the thrills Muscle Hill - the big colt has retired to stallion duty at Southwind Farm in New Jersey.

Muscle Hill proved to be very strong in 2009


Lupul had the goods on co-host Ken Middleton for most of the evening


Hec Cloutier was an easy winner of the O'Brien Award for best dressed male


Sportswriter Perry Lefko making the obvious choice


The dessert was fantastic



This sculpture was the ice-ing on the cake


All in all, it was a remarkably enjoyable evening. I'm especially glad I wore a different suit on Saturday than I did on Friday as Woodbine's Sandy Hawley, Nick Eaves and Glenn Crouter also double dipped on award tour weekend.

A full list of O'Brien Award winners is posted on the Standardbred Canada website.

BTW - If you're a fan of standardbred photography, check out the website of the talented Matt Waples. The up-and-coming photographer won a Sovereign Award in 2008 for a photo of Charles Fipke planting a kiss on the nose of Queen's Plate winner Not Bourbon. An O'Brien Award for photography looms likely in the near future.

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While Canadian horsemen busied themselves with food and drink, the equine stars were earning their keep.

Roger Attfield's Palladio was a brilliant second in the Sunshine Millions Classic won by Bold Chieftain. Palladio trailed the field early and then made a rousing middle of the track run in the stretch to get up for place under jockey Mike Smith.

Palladio just misses by a neck in the Sunshine Millions Classic


The Brian Lynch trained Amazing led the field for much of the Sunshine Millions Distaff under Elvis Trujillo but faded late to finish fourth beaten just six lengths.

The race of the day had to be the Sunshine Millions Sprint at Gulfstream Park. Track announcer Larry Collmus declared it a match race deep in the stretch as This Ones For Phil narrowly prevailed over Pashito The Che. It's a finish well worth watching.

This Ones For Phil prevails in the Sunshine Millions Sprint


Be sure to check out the SnowBirds tab at the top of the page to keep track of the entries and results of your favourite local trainers. Tino Attard, Josie Carroll, Malcolm Pierce and many others are hitting the board at tracks all over the U.S. Take advantage of your knowledge of Woodbine horses and trainers with a sneaky punt.

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One Woodbine horse who will be on everyone's radar for the Queen's Plate in 2010 is Sam-Son Farm's Hotep. The now three-year-old colt has been training and racing at the Fair Grounds for trainer Mark Frostad and on Monday afternoon won an Allowance race in impressive fashion. Here's a report by Bob Fortus of The Times-Pacayune.

With an authoritative victory in a two-turn allowance race Monday at the Fair Grounds, Hotep put his name in the conversation about 3-year-olds who might wind up in the Louisiana Derby.

Trainer Mark Frostad said he’ll wait to see how Hotep comes out of the race before deciding the next race for Hotep. Frostad said late Monday that he’s not ruling out the Risen Star, which will be run Feb. 20.

Whether Hotep runs in that race on not, the Louisiana Derby is a possible target for him, Frostad said.

Hotep hops to victory at Fair Grounds

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Be sure to check in daily on the Woodbine News and SnowBirds tabs. They will be updated regularly throughout the day whether I post a new blog or not.

Congratulations to all the award winners across Canada!

Down The Stretch Salutes The Ladies of Racing

The latest edition of Down The Stretch newspaper is now available and, in my opinion, it's the best issue yet by some margin. The paper discusses the impact of the females in horse racing going into great detail about Linda Rice, Chantal Sutherland, Tracy Brainard and Casie Coleman to name a few. As well, the paper delves into the ongoing Rachel v Zenyatta debate.

Think Pink! Down The Stretch salutes the female of the species


The issue leads with a recap of the Breeders' Cup topped by Zenyatta's emphatic victory in the Classic. Editor Peter Gross then goes head-to-head with yours truly to debate horse of the year honours. Gross wrongly concludes that winning one decent race in a season makes for horse of the year.

However, our fearless editor redeems himself on the next page with an outstanding argument trumpeting Chantal Sutherland as a top candidate for Canada's Female Athlete of the Year. Gross argues that Sutherland's multiple Stakes victories, including more than $7M in earnings, in a career year at Woodbine is more than enough to tip the scales in Chantal's favour. I wholeheartedly agree.

My feature contribution is an interview with top Woodbine trainer Catherine Day Phillips, who details the upbringing, hard work and love of the game that fuels her ongoing success.

In a colourful centre spread, Gross weaves the story of the year of the ladies as he reviews the success of locals such as Sutherland and Josie Carroll, while also looking south of the border at the success of Linda Rice and Rosemary Homeister.

Perry Lefko provides an entertaining sit down interview with Sue Leslie. Working as a trainer, president of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, President of the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association and Chair of the Fort Erie Thoroughbred Horse Racing Consortia, there's no question that Leslie is the Queen of Horse Racing in Ontario.

Those readers who focus only on thoroughbred might be surprised to learn that the ladies are dominating the Standardbred racing scene. Talented conditioners Tracy Brainard and Casie Coleman are currently sitting second and fourth in purse earnings in North America this season. It's very possible that one of these talented ladies could become the first female to become North American trainer of the year - something that has never been accomplished in standardbred, thoroughbred or even quarterhorse racing.

It's a very positive issue of Down The Stretch filled with many colourful photos and provides a much-needed look at the ladies who compete day in and day out at the highest levels of this sport.

I will happily post out a copy of the paper, free of charge, to the first ten people to send me an email with their mailing address.

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Congratulations to jockey Emile Ramsammy who notched his 2,000th career victory in Sunday's eighth race at Woodbine aboard a two-year-old chestnut named Perfect Student.

He joins Jim McAleney, Robert Landry and Patrick Husbands as Woodbine riders who have reached the 2,000-win mark this year.

Ramsammy, renowned locally for his aggressive riding style, won in his favoured manner by sending Perfect Student straight to the front in the seven-furlong event.

A native of Trinidad, Ramsammy is hailed as one of the best jockeys ever produced in the Caribbean having won three Cockspur Gold Cups.

The two-time Sovereign Award winner is also a two-time winner of the Queen's Plate including the 1996 Queen's Plate with Victor Cooley and the 2006 edition with Edenwold.

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This past Saturday, jockeys across North America contributed one mount fee to the Julia Brimo Fund, set up to assist the fallen rider with her expenses during rehabilitation for her injuries.

The Sovereign Award-winning apprentice, suffered head and back injuries in a spill at Keeneland on October 30. The 33-year-old is now rehabilitating at Lyndhurst Centre in Toronto.

Readers who wish to contribute to The Julia Brimo Fund, established at Fifth Third Bank in Louisville, can do so by sending a cheque made out to the “Julia Brimo Fund” and mailed to Ms. Cindy Werner at 1116 Flat Rock Road, Louisville, KY 40245.

To learn more about Brimo's recover, please visit the Julia Brimo Get Well Card page on Facebook.

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My apologies for a short post this week. I am currently on vacation but will be at Woodbine on Thursday and will have a further report following that visit.