A special edition of COSA TV recently featured O’Brien Award finalists Kelly Hoerdt and Gilles Barrieau, who find themselves battling for the O’Brien Award of Horsemanship.

Hoerdt, who won the title in this category in 2013, celebrated a pair of major milestones in 2020. He joined the 2,000-win club as a trainer and surpassed the $15 million mark in earnings. As a result, he finds himself in position to possibly take home more O’Brien hardware.

“It’s a very humbling experience for sure,” said Hoerdt. “It’s my fourth nomination, and the guys I’ve been up against are very talented horsemen. To be nominated with a guy like Gilles is quite an honour. It’s not something that’s on the top of your mind while your doing your job, so at the end of the day if you get nominated for something like this it makes you realize maybe you did something right.”

Barrieau, a two-time winner of the award, saw his stable bank over $200,000 for the first time in more than a decade. A feat that played didn’t go unnoticed from this year’s panel of voters.

“It’s a great honour just to get mentioned,” claimed Barrieau. “It’s a lot of work to get here. I did have a tremendous year here in the Maritimes, and I’m honoured to get nominated again.”

Both horsemen have been involved in their fair share of photo finishes on the racetrack, and it looks as though they’ll be involved in another tight finish on Sunday evening when the winners' names will be announced. There’s a common denominator to their success – hard work, good owners and great help.

“I just try to do better every year,” remarked Hoerdt about his 2020 season. “You try to better yourself and your stock. I just try to be a better horseman and learn something different from the year before.

“Probably what I’m the most proud of throughout the year is the fact I had to use a lot of talented catch-drivers to win races,” he added. “My horses raced great when other drivers sat behind them. I’m proud of the training end of it before the driving end of it. It starts with having great caretakers and grooms. They make the horses look fantastic, and the horses make the trainers look fantastic and they make the drivers look fantastic. I didn’t have to be there for the horses to do good, I have the right people in place.”

“We put countless hours into this business,” said Barrieau. “I try not to set goals, but with what I start with in the fall I pretty much have to count on them for the whole year. I have to make due with what I have. It’s going good.”

Both horsemen have been forced to make changes to their operations in order to maintain their regular level of excellence. And it appears as though they’re both in position to return to the O’Brien Awards searching for more hardware in years to come.

“We’ve had some ups and downs like every racetrack,” said Hoerdt. “Stampede Park closed and everybody was very excited about the new racetrack that was going to open in Balzac, but that was put off for quite a while. We had one ‘B’ track and one ‘A’ track that we shared with the thoroughbreds, and then all of a sudden Northlands Park shut down and we were looking for another place to race.

“But Century Casino stepped in and we now have two racing facilities and they’re both greats spots to race,” admitted Hoerdt. “The future looks very bright here. We have something to look forward to if we ever get through this damn pandemic.”

Barrieau, a native of New Brunswick, also touched on a move that will afford him the luxury of avoiding the back and forth transitioning he’s been used to for the last number of years.

“Kelly, my wife, is retiring in January and we’re going to make the full-time move to PEI to race. We’re going to stay put here and make our home in PEI. That’s basically what has gone on in my life.”

The 2020 Virtual O’Brien Awards Gala takes place on Sunday, January 31, 2021 and will be available for viewing on standardbredcanada.ca from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. (EST).

The full COSA TV segment with Kelly Hoerdt and Gilles Barrieau, who talk about some of their early influences in racing in addition to pointing out some of their star performers from this past season, is posted below: