Trot Insider has learned that the industry has lost one of its trotting warhorses, as 80-time career winner Chip Dot Com has passed away at the age of 20.

Owner Randy Pitt, who developed the strongest of bonds with the Pine Chip bay, informed Trot Insider on Monday (Nov. 5) that the gelding passed away either late Sunday night or early Monday morning.

Pitt retired Chip Dot Com to his Ottawa, Ont. farm – located between Stittsville and Richmond – after the 2012 campaign of racing. Even though the game trotter wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet, Pitt explained that he was still honoured to hang up the bay’s halter after his 14-year-old campaign.

In giving word of Chip Dot Com’s passing, Pitt, 61, explained that it took the bay roughly a year to gear down from his prior racing life. Although, once the gelding accepted his ‘golden years,’ he took to them, just like he did the racecourse.

“He was all business on the track, but he was a big baby and timid off of it,” Pitt told Trot Insider. “He calmed down after a year of retirement, but he still liked to go for a jog every once in a while,” said Pitt, who explained that the career earner of over $664,000 in purses would take he and his wife for a whirl in a double-seated cart.

Although the hard-knocking trotter will not be around for a light jog with the Pitts or to keep his four Miniature pals in line, Chip Dot Com won’t be far from those whom he held closest. Pitt has explained that the highly-respected Standardbred has already been buried on the farm – and any that know the trotter’s story wouldn’t expect anything less.

In the fall of 2012, Trot Magazine told the story of Pitt’s bond with Chip Dot Com. Pitt and the combination of father/son horsemen Gary and Matthew McDonald eventually ended up racing the Preferred trotter in claimers, although they never had the intention of letting their friend go. Chip Dot Com got claimed away from them on three occasions, but each time they would make sure to claim him right back.

An excerpt from the Trot Magazine piece shows Pitt’s dedication to his equine friend.

To what lengths have the two gone to make sure their ‘Chip’ comes back home after each claim? Consider this: in his last victory at Kawartha Downs, the trotter’s 80th, Pitt drove three hours to the track in his RV. “The Party Bus” as he calls it, would have served as a temporary home if a claim necessitated the need to travel to the scene of his next race. That way, Pitt says, he’d be right there, ready to claim him right back. McDonald adds, “There aren’t two bigger fools than us when it comes to making sure he gets back home.”

To read the Trot Magazine feature in English click here. To read it in French, click here.

Pitt has told Trot Insider that Chip Dot Com didn’t offer any signs that he was on the verge of passing away. He stated that Sunday was just another average day for his 20-year-old friend, full of eating and socializing with the Minis. Pitt suspects that Chip Dot Com may have suffered a heart attack overnight, as he found him deceased in his stall this morning.

“My wife is taking it a little bit harder than me right now,” Pitt explained, “I’m still in a bit of shock.”

Chip Dot Com, who was bred by the Delaware-based Pine Chip in the early 2000s, also enjoyed long stints with trainers Doug Hie and Richard Moreau, so he was surely known as a tough competitor on the southern Ontario racing circuit.

The veteran trotter was also the focus of an Ottawa Citizen article back in the spring of 2012.

From 362 career trips behind the starting gate, Chip Dot Com notched 80 wins, 55 second-place finishes and 44 thirds. He took his mark of 1:53.3 over Woodbine Racetrack at the age of six.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolence to the connections of Chip Dot Com.