Trot Insider has gathered reactions from the Standardbred inductees that comprise the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame's Class of 2024.
Previously, the Board of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame agreed the Class of 2024 would be comprised of six inductees per breed and was also provided the option for a Nomination Committee to use only five categories, with two inductees selected in one category, in order to meet a total of six inductees per breed. The 20-person Election Committee for each breed voted on the list of finalists in the selected categories.
The 2024 Standardbred inductees — Bee A Magician (Female Horse), Ross “Cowboy” Curran (Veteran), Sylvain Filion (Driver), Dr. Moira Gunn, BVM&S (Builder), Dr. Ian Moore, DVM (Trainer) and Ed Tracey (Driver) — or their respective connections received their good news from Standardbred Canada's Director of Digital Communications, Jeff Porchak, who also serves as the Chair for the Hall of Fame's Standardbred Nominating Committee.
David McDuffee, co-owner of Bee A Magician with Mel Hartman of Ottawa, Ont. and Canadian expat Herb Liverman of Delray Beach, Fl., received the news just before heading into a car wash.
"That's wonderful," said McDuffee. "I'm obviously very honoured for the horse. She's a great mare — and she's having a good day as I was just told that she tested in foal to Walner this morning.
"I'm very proud of her and I thank you all for recognizing her."
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 during a career that lasted from age two to age 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, following a perfect record of 17 wins. 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.
Patti Curran, the daughter of the late Ross Curran, was overcome with emotion upon hearing the news.
"Thank you so much. My family is going to be so ecstatic. My dad is from a family of eight, and they have been nothing but awesome to him as has the harness racing world, in all honesty. Wherever I go, whatever I do, if they find out my last name they ask me about him. We'll be having a party tonight, for sure!"
"Cowboy" Ross Curran was known for his raw talent and ability to handle hard-to-manage horses in a way no one else did. Curran’s harness racing career began at the age of 16 in Smiths Falls, Ont. By the age of 20, he won his first driving title at Connaught Park, before going on to win many driving titles and becoming a leading driver at Mohawk, Greenwood, Garden City, Blue Bonnets, Richelieu Park and Rideau Carleton while competing against the likes of Hall of Famers Keith Waples, Bill Wellwood, Ron Feagan and Ron Waples. 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 career starts, he finished in the top three almost 50 per cent of the time based 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 known not only for his driving ability but he was one of the top trainers as well.
Sylvain Filion was taken aback by the news that he would be joining his father Yves in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
"I never even dreamt of being in the Hall of Fame. Ever since I started driving, my only goal was to try to win races. But now that I am inducted into the Hall of Fame, it's like the cherry on the sundae or the icing on the cake."
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 driven horses to more than $140 million in purses. At age 55, he is most certainly not slowing down because in 2023, he won more than 200 races with horses he drove earning almost $6 million in purses.
Dr. Moira Gunn heard the news just after concluding a successful outing in the 2024 London Marathon.
"Wow, I'm flabbergasted. I ran the marathon and didn't run out of breath but now I'm short of air!
"Everything I've ever done is because I love the industry. I love the industry. It's a huge honour," continued Dr. Gunn. "I thank you for the call, I thank the Hall of Fame and I thank the Committees."
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.
Dr. Ian Moore had just emerged from a less than pleasant trip to the dentist when he received the news.
"Oh, wow...that's really humbling. And that means a lot to me, especially with so many other good people around that could certainly fill that spot as well.
"It's a tremendous honour for me, and — like the Trainer of the Year — I do feel humbled because I've always been just a small-time operator, basically, compared to some of the other guys. I've had great partners, great horses to work with and great people to work with...stable help and drivers, too. I really feel very honoured and very humbled. It's quite a thrill."
Born and raised in Prince Edward Island, Dr. Ian Moore’s life has been a blend of being a veterinarian and being a Standardbred trainer. In his early years of involvement with Standardbreds, his horses helped pay his way through vet school. His training career officially began in 1971, although it has been over the past 20 years Dr. Moore has trained horses at the highest level and has been very active and successful in the Ontario Sires Stakes. To date, 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. 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 more than $3 million. Among the stable stars he has trained are Astronomical, Malicious, State Treasurer, Arthur Blue Chip, Rockin In Heaven, Percy Bluechip, Century Farroh, Lawless Shadow, Stockade Seelster, Tattoo Artist and CHRHF 2022 Inductee Shadow Play, who has gone on to a be a an outstanding sire of some of today’s top racehorses. Moore has received 15 O’Brien Awards, including twice for Horsemanship and the Trainer of the Year title in 2023.
Aldona Tracey, the widow of the late Ed Tracey, indicated that the family of Ed Tracey was thrilled to hear the news of Ed's induction.
"Everybody's excited," said Aldona, noting that the limited racing opportunities in western Canada during Ed's career, and his respective statistics as a result, made his journey to the Hall an arduous one.
Born in Weyburn, Sask., in 1943, the late Ed Tracey came from a family of Standardbred owners, trainers and drivers. He obtained 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, with the pinnacle of his career coming in 1978 when he won the ice racing championship on Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. 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. A race named in Ed Tracey’s honour is held annually at Century Downs in Alberta.
The Class of 2024 on the Thoroughbred side includes Glen Todd (Builder), Starship Jubilee (Female Horse), Patrick Husbands (Jockey), Channel Maker (Male Horse), Danny Vella (Trainer) and Richard Grubb (Veteran). The CHRHF Class of 2024 and will be formally inducted in a ceremony on Wednesday, Aug. 7. Details about the event, including ticket information will be announced shortly.
(Standardbred Canada; with files from the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame)