“He was the horse that made me,” said driver Doug McNair following the tragic news that his father's homebred three-year-old pacing colt, Trail Boss, was euthanized

on Tuesday.

“Trail Boss really hadn’t been right all year,” Doug McNair told Trot Insider. “He was real good qualifying back and then was good in his first start, but then he wasn’t himself from that point on. We thought he was a bit sick, but it didn’t seem like anything that was real bad; but if was affecting him.

“He was being treated with antibiotics, and it turned out they were killing the good and bad bacteria inside of him. Last Saturday he was perfect at the farm, and then on Sunday morning he was in distress."

McNair says the Apaches Fame - Lavish Gem colt was taken to Mountsburg Equine Clinic on Sunday.

“I went over and saw him on Monday morning, and the vet told me he seemed to be coming around. But later that afternoon he was horrible. They were running a bunch of jugs into him, and he just wasn’t responding to the treatment. On Tuesday morning they said he was decent, but then he got bad again and they had to euthanize him on Tuesday night."

Last year's Battle Of Waterloo winner recorded three wins, a second and three thirds in 15 career starts earning $273,590 for trainer and co-owner Gregg McNair and his mother Gwendolyn McNair.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of Trail Boss.