We love telling the stories of retiring 14-year-olds and their connections every December; praising the hard-knocking warriors that kept racing until mandatory retirement, and telling you what their futures hold in store. This year we’re proud to share the unique and happy stories of Distinctiv Sean, UF Bettors Hanover and Gotfaithincowboys. They all deserve the recognition.

Every year in our Holiday Issue we like to take a closer look at a number of 14-year-old warriors that raced right into their final year of eligibility. Sometimes they’re household names, and sometimes they’re names you’ve probably never heard of, but all have one thing in common: They kept racing into their final year of eligibility, and for that reason alone, they deserve some praise. Story by Melissa Keith

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Distinctiv Sean: A Popular Pacer’s Journey from from “Jerk” to “Unicorn”

When Distinctiv Sean (p,1:55.2f -’16; $81,948) first qualified, at Sarnia, Ontario’s Hiawatha Horse Park, on August 30, 2014, he was four-years-old, and a very different-looking horse than today.

After finishing second for driver Alex Lilley that day, beat 28 ¼ lengths, the dark, gelded son of Rambaran - AJ Magnolia Steel would go on to race every subsequent season, excluding his seven-year-old year, until his final career start, on August 11, 2024 at Leamington Raceway.

At the beginning of his racing career he sported a near-black coat, but magically, Distinctiv Sean would lighten to an unrecognizable near-white after age seven. His granddam was a grey daughter of the grey stallion Laag, so that’s more than likely where it came from.

Vic McMurren trained Distinctiv Sean throughout the gelding’s entire 225 starts on the racetracks of Southwestern Ontario - all but one of which came on the B-track circuit. The Essex, Ontario horseman tells TROT that the horse’s name actually carried forward the legacy of the late Sean Alward, a Standardbred caretaker who passed away at age 30. Alward’s battle with cancer sadly ended on October 28, 2009.

“Sean [the human] used to look after the mother of this horse,” said McMurren. Sean never got to meet Distinctiv Sean though. AJ Magnolia foaled her colt on March 18, 2010.

Distinctiv Sean was the only racehorse owned by Sean’s father, Ken Alward of London, Ontario. It was focusing on the horse, along with family, friends and his faith that helped Ken get through a series of unimaginable losses that happened within a short timespan (July 2009 - August 2010). It was in those 13 months that Ken Alward lived through the death of his wife, Cindy; his father, Bill; his nephew, Scott; his mother-in-law, Vera; and his son, the aforementioned Sean.

As told in TROT’s November, 2014 feature, Peace, Hope & Happiness, it was Ken’s co-worker at Wilson’s Tack, Bert Newman - the co-breeder of the horse - that named the colt after his friend’s late son. Newman was able to tell Sean, who proudly agreed with the plan, during his final visit with the young man who had worked stints at Seelster Farms, Killean Acres and Stonebridge Farms, to name a few.

On the racetrack it took Distinctiv Sean a few years to find his winning stride. After a stint with the Mennonites, it took McMurren two more years to get the horse to that qualifier. But he never gave up, and the tough-to-break gelding recorded his maiden victory at Leamington Raceway on September 28, 2014, with Ken Alward and his daughters Regan and Dawn present for the emotional victory.

It was a bit of an emotional win for McMurren as well - for a different reason.

“It was emotional for me, too,” said Vic, back in 2014. “It was two years of hard work. We got him back from the Mennonites in early 2012, and a lot of work went into getting him to this point. I don’t usually get my picture taken with my horses after a win, but on this day, I made sure I did.”

It would be the first of a three-race win streak for owner Alward, trainer McMurren, and driver Lilley, a team that would frequently accompany him throughout his racing days. McMurren also credited Gord MacDonell with helping get Distinctiv Sean to the races.

The originally-dark pacer would go on to win 14 races in those 225 lifetime starts, competing primarily at Leamington, Sarnia, Dresden Raceway, and Western Fair. During that time he also established a reputation for his quirky ways, which on one occasion led to dumping the person sitting behind him, McMurren’s 27-year-old grandson Logan, and even destroying the jog cart.

“[Logan] trained him once and [Distinctiv Sean] went real good. He was just cooling him out with the lines loose. The horse fell down, broke the jog cart, and Logan broke his shoulder.”

What caused the mishap? “He didn’t listen to his grandpa!” laughs Vic.

Distinctiv Sean was distinctive about how he needed to be driven or even led. “He’s a horse where you’ve got to hold onto the reins,” explained McMurren. “Alex [Lilley] and Tony [Hamlin] loved him, but you couldn’t loosen the lines. He’d fall right on his nose if you didn’t have a hold on the reins. I know - he did it to me!”

What Distinctiv Sean lacked in natural ability, he more than made up for in other ways. “He wasn’t the smoothest-gaited horse in the world,” his trainer told TROT. “He’d get clumsy going slow, but as soon as he was going fast, he was fine.”

A fact unknown to many, the distinctive grey was an iron horse who came back after multiple broken bones that would have permanently sidelined many horses.

“He was breaking bones kicking the walls,” said McMurren, who added rubber mats to the sides of the gelding’s stall to prevent recurrence. “He broke both sesamoids in his right hind leg, then his P1 [long pastern bone] back left.”

Despite a reputation for feistiness as a young horse (a sign with the word “Jerk” appeared on his stall door when he was being broken by Mennonites), Distinctiv Sean’s kicking wasn’t mean-spirited or directed at other horses or people. The gelding nicknamed ‘Seabiscuit’ by caretaker Jenny Lawson, would simply kick with happy excitement when she brought feed or treats to his stall at Leamington Raceway.

There was also a freak accident at Western Fair.

Distinctiv Sean had won that night, with Alex Lilley in the sulky, on November 22, 2016, beating seven other $12,500 claimers in 1:59. He came up lame after the race however, and didn’t return until a Leamington qualifier on October 15, 2017 - but still wasn’t yet ready to return to racing then either.

“In London, he took a bad step after the wire and broke a coffin bone. It took nearly 17 months to bring him back,” recalled his trainer. “He just wanted to race. The vet said, ‘He might’. We just had to stand him in his stall until he was good enough to gradually resume work.

“He qualified and he looked good, but the next morning he had a little ouch in his get-along, and he was then off another six months.”

Distinctiv Sean qualified again on April 13, 2018 at Western Fair, finally making his pari-mutuel comeback there on May 18th. On July 14th, he finally returned to the winners’ circle for Lilley, beating eight other $7,000 claimers at Hiawatha Horse Park in 1:57.3. He went on to win half of his six starts at Leamington that fall.

The gelding’s last win was August 25, 2019 at Leamington. Winless in his final 105 career starts, the horse has remained a fan favourite wherever he raced, competing against younger rivals and still occasionally hitting the board. 2023 was his best year since 2019 for earnings, with nine top-three finishes from 38 seasonal starts.

“The last two years, I never warmed him up. He’d sweat too much,” noted McMurren. Distinctiv Sean was simply “On fire and ready to go” whenever it came time to race.

This year, Distinctiv Sean’s season and racing career ended a few months before McMurren would have liked. “I wanted to keep him going until the last night at London, for the Auld Lang Syne,” he said, referring to the race Western Fair has traditionally held for retiring 14-year-olds on New Year’s Eve. The gelding’s glitchy gait, combined with his age, led to back-to-back vet scratches at Leamington however. McMurren maintains that he was sound.

The opportunity to give Distinctiv Sean an ideal retirement was a deciding factor in the timing as well. His lifelong owner Ken Alward had begun to experience health problems of his own. McMurren was approached by “a lady who wanted a white horse” and was willing to spend $7,000 to $8,000 for the right pasture ornament.

“But my owner wouldn’t sell him,” Vic added.

Alward had other ideas for the horse McMurren proudly calls one of “the last Rambarans racing.” Distinctiv Sean was “sold” to Kingsville, Ontario riding stable owner Nancy Nelson and her daughter Elisha “for a bottle of good Irish whiskey.”

The gelding readily settled into his new home. “He was a racehorse and was always stabled right there at the racetrack until retirement,” said his trainer. “Nancy said that after about three days though, he calmed down and was perfect.”

Distinctiv Sean now lives alongside four saddle horses, plus “20 goats, and deer that are always coming out of the brush,” according to McMurren, who added that he, too, was retiring from the sport.

“I’m all done. I’m going to be 80 next birthday,” said the hobby horseman. “I have a couple of hundred wins. I wasn’t serious about it.”

McMurren took early retirement from the Chrysler Corporation at age 49 to referee hockey, race Standardbreds, and even serve as mayor of Essex, ON for seven years. “I had a lot of fun training horses. Lindsey Kerr has them now,” he said. Grandson Logan works in Kerr’s racing stable; McMurren said he considered her late father, Randy Kerr, “a really good friend.”

Distinctiv Sean began showing white in his tail at age seven. “I thought he was scared of me and that’s why he was turning white,” joked McMurren.

In truth, the gritty gelding was beginning his metamorphosis from blue-collar racehorse to unicorn.

“That’s what Lindsey’s daughter, Macy, called him all the time, a unicorn,” explained McMurren. “Everybody loves him, especially the girls. He’s a beautiful horse.”

However tough on the track, Distinctiv Sean had a soft side in the barn, especially when children were around.  “Tony Hamlin’s nine-year-old daughter, Katie, would ask, ‘Can I get Sean out and brush him?’” recalled McMurren.

The pure-white pacer is likely to enjoy a life of leisure, but might have potential as a riding horse as well. “He was very good with kids or anybody sitting on his back. Nancy might throw a saddle on him. I said it wouldn’t take very long,” he added.

McMurren said that he’ll miss racing Distinctiv Sean, but takes satisfaction in knowing he’s in a good home, complete with rubber mats mounted inside his stall. He plans to visit Sean “quite often” and bring 75-year-old Jenny Lawson when possible.

“He was a very nice horse to work with. Lots of people wanted him, especially around the racing community,” said McMurren. “I had a lot of horses with more talent, but I never had a horse with more heart.”

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UF Bettors Hanover: Taking Care of Those Who Took Care of Us

It was April Fool’s Day 2024, but it was no joke for the connections of UF Bettors Hanover (p,1:51.4s -’15; $502,708), because owner/trainer Scott West of Rockwood, Ontario had made the decision to retire his 14-year-old pacer.

The white-faced wonder finished seventh in his final start, a $10-12,000 claiming pace at Woodbine Mohawk Park. The gelded son of Bettors Delight - Sly Girl Hanover had definitely earned a comfortable retirement though. “He got a little sore his last start, so we just quit with him,” said Kate Currie, Scott’s partner, who shared training and caretaking duties for the family-favourite horse.

Reaching his final season on the racetrack was an improbable ending to begin with though, for UF Bettors Hanover - barn name ‘Bettor’.

The reddish-bay gelding began his career in June 2012 at Saratoga Harness in New York, racing for trainer Jon Simser and a variety of catch drivers. He competed in NYSS events at Monticello, Buffalo, Batavia, Tioga, Vernon and Saratoga as a two-year-old, primarily at the Excelsior level, and earned just $8,718 in 12 starts.

He broke his maiden on April 28, 2013 at Saratoga, winning for driver Daniel Cappello in 1:56.4 and repeating at the same classification a week later. He won his first (and only) NYSS Excelsior division on July 14, 2013 at Buffalo for reinsman Cat Manzi, but went winless the rest of his sophomore season, earning $25,056 at age three.

“In 2013, I got him in Delaware, Ohio at the Blooded Horse Sale in November,” West told TROT. “I needed a horse, and he was a young horse, only three, and his lines didn’t look that bad. The guy that had him, I knew that he was a good horseman, not someone who abuses horses or anything, so I knew I was getting a fresh horse, or at least I thought I was getting one.”

The partnership didn’t get off to a great start however, when, following 7th and 2nd place finishes, the horse made a break off the gate in his third start for the new connections.

“I sent him down to Yonkers in his third… start,” recalled West. “He made a break, he didn’t have boots on, and he hit his tendon. We had to take him to the clinic, and they told me he would never race again. They also said it would cost $10,000 to do an operation on him.”

It was a serious injury. “He jumped on his fetlock in the race and severed his tendon and tendon sheath.”

Currie also remembered the four-year-old’s injury, and subsequent recovery. “He went to Rhinebeck Equine for a couple of days, and then our vet, Dr. [Peter] Kanter in Buffalo took him for us for about two months and healed him back up,” she told TROT. “Rhinebeck told us he would never race again. Dr. Kanter was pretty sure he would if he took care of him - and he did.”

It wasn’t UF Bettors Hanover’s only major procedure either.

“At 11, we did surgery on his annular ligament because he bowed a tendon on his right front,” shares West. “At 12, he fractured a sesamoid at Flamboro Downs. He had the rail and made a break, causing a recall because we interfered with the trailing horse. He ended up winning the race anyway [November 6, 2022], but he had to have surgery to remove the broken piece.”

Despite the injuries and surgeries, the gelding kept coming back, racing every season of his 12-year career, mainly competing in claiming races.

“He’s had 411 starts, and he’s averaged around $1,200 a start, which is pretty good for a horse his age,” said West. “He always took care of us and brought us home money. He probably averaged fourty-thousand [dollars] a year…You could always count on him.”

UF Bettors Hanover took his 1:51.4 lifetime mark in an off-the-pace victory at Vernon Downs on May 25, 2015 with Justin Huckabone in the sulky. He equaled his personal best there two weeks later, for driver Jimmy Whittemore Jr., and again on May 7, 2016 at Mohawk, winning a $20–$25,000 claimer for Phil Hudon.

In a career that was more marathon than sprint, West’s gelding retired with 47 lifetime victories, the most recent on December 18, 2023 at Mohawk, with Scott Young driving. What did UF Bettors Hanover’s owner/trainer think contributed to that on-track longevity?

“Well, he’s pretty easy on himself,” said West. “He never really exerted himself training or anything. We raced him into shape because he didn’t like to train very fast. He was a horse who didn’t like to train, so I didn’t make him train. He took good care of himself, and we weren’t hard on him either.”

Protecting the horse from being claimed in the twilight of his racing days became a priority, even if it meant fewer chances to win. UF Bettors Hanover’s last starts were even in $10-$14,000 claiming company.

“In his last three starts in an $8,000 claimer [at Mohawk, in February 2024], he was second every time and he made like $2,000 a week. That’s why people were looking at him,” noted West. “There was a Pop-Up series that was coming up for eight [thousand dollar] claimers, and he could’ve won that. Somebody would’ve claimed him though, because they go for $15,000 in the final. I didn’t want to do that to him.”

UF Bettors Hanover has a new career now anyway.

“He’s my daughter MacKenzie’s horse. She’s eight-years-old,” said West. “When he lays down in the stall, she’ll go and lay down with him.”

“He’s such a good old boy. There’s a lot of kids that love him,” added Currie. “There’s other kids that come to the barn and they play with him too. [MacKenzie] rides him now. Well, winter is coming, but all summer she rode him since he retired. She’s been on his back for a few years.”

Moving forward, UF Bettors Hanover’s pasture companions need to be compatible with his gentle personality. “I turned him out with my Quarter-Horse in the pasture, but my Quarter-Horse beat up on him too much,” said Currie. “Now he’s in the racehorse barn and we turn him out with whatever horse needs a babysitter. We just turned him out with a yearling [recently] and she loved him.”

“That sweet nature makes ‘Bettor’ a perfect equine teacher for the next generation,” said West. “Rene Bourassa’s daughter comes there… she goes right over to him, goes in his stall and does everything with him: Picks his feet up, brushes him, tries to put bandages on him.”

The only exception is when Bettorr starts squealing for his meals. “He’s a one-of-a-kind horse then. He thinks he’s a stallion when it comes to feeding,” laughs West.

Scott told TROT that he was grateful for the gelding’s resilience: “We don’t often have really good horses, so when a horse can make you $40,000 a year [for over a decade], and it costs you less than $20,000 a year to keep him,” that horse is a keeper.

“He once made 16 starts in a row without missing a cheque,” beams West, in reference to a productive streak from July 30 to November 16, 2020 at Mohawk.

This trainer-horse relationship cannot be reduced to a financial one, however. “I could have raced him in eight [thousand dollar] claimers, but we tried to look out for him. We like our horses. That’s why he raced a long time for us.”

And that’s why he’ll happily have a good home - forever.

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Gotfaithincowboys: Aggressive… Competitive… Always

The majority of horses that race at age 14 are geldings, but this piece is about a good ole mare from Cape Breton Island.

Beginning at age two, Gotfaithincowboys (p,1:57.4h - ‘16; $51,953) raced every season of her life, and 274 of her 280 career starts came at Sydney’s Northside Downs.

Starting off slowly at age two, the Brandons Cowboy - Scented Candle filly first qualified in August, 2012, finishing second by a nose for driver Martin Bates. Martin’s cousin, Angus Gillis, trained her out of New Waterford, Nova Scotia throughout much of her career, but it was pretty much a group effort all along, between the two cousins, and Martin’s late brother Barry.

Recently, during the 14-year-old mare’s November 10, 2024 retirement ceremony at the North Sydney, Nova Scotia track, racecaller Shane Ryan colourfully summarized Gotfaithincowboys’ early education:

She turned out to be quite a handful after breaking her to the cart. She would stop as soon as anyone hopped on, so Angus would have to jump off and tow her. This went on for a while, but once she got the hang of it she was good. However, she was always seeing things in the trees when jogging, and would jump sideways. At least once a week, you could end up in the ditch or centrefield. To this day, she’s looking for something to jump out and get her. It is hard on the nerves for her trainer. Gotfaith’s got a unique personality.

The two-year-old Gotfaithincowboys made her pari-mutuel debut September 8, 2012, finishing second in a field of seven at Northside Downs. The homebred filly would finish fourth in an Atlantic Sires Stakes ‘B’ division there on September 22nd, concluding her brief (three start) freshman season.

The youngest of four foals, from a mare who made just one lifetime start, breaking stride and finishing last at Balmoral Park in February 2005, Gotfaithincowboys is her dam’s only foal to make the races. Whatever kept Scented Candle and her other progeny from successful racing careers, was not passed along in this case.

On May 18, 2013, the filly broke her maiden, at Northside, winning the first race of her year, in 2:10.3, with Martin Bates in the sulky. Despite a four-second variant on the sloppy surface, there was no catching the flying filly once she made front. As her driver put it, “When she’s good, the tail goes up and away she goes. She’d give you a real nice third quarter. They’d have to come to you!”

Her three-year-old season actually saw Gotfaithincowboys make a couple of rare but successful trips to other Nova Scotia tracks. “Angus trained her in New Waterford. My younger brother Barry and I drove,” said Martin. “We raced in North Sydney and she was our mare. The whole deal was we would all train and race her ourselves.”

“Gotfaith was a nice three-year-old, [making almost 20% of her career earnings as a sophomore]... She won a ‘B’ stake at Inverness and the [$10,625] Nova Scotia Stakes at Truro,” said Martin, who was in the bike for both front-end victories. The filly recorded seven wins that year, and took a three-year-old mark of 1:58.2, with Barry Bates driving at Northside.

Although they received interest that year from would-be buyers, the Bates brothers and their cousin had no plans to part with Gotfaithincowboys. “There were a couple of talks, but she was never for sale,” smiles Martin. “For what you could get locally, you couldn’t replace her. It’s the same with a couple of others we’ve had.”

What they were doing was carrying on the family tradition, adding value to inexpensive horses through skill and sweat equity. “Barry, Angus and I were all part of it together. We did the work ourselves: training, driving, shoeing. There’s not enough money down here to pay someone else to do it!”

Fortunately, they came from a lineage of talented horsemen.

“In the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, Spike Gillis [Angus Gillis’ father] and Ray Gillis [Spike’s brother] raced horses. We [our family] were at it that long,” explained Martin. “Angus and I are first cousins. We started when we were kids. Then we started buying them, Angus and I. We raced horses together since the ‘70s. When I graduated, I bought a horse before I bought a car!”

When Gotfaithincowboys graduated to her four-year-old season, she was suddenly facing older male pacers like Junebugs Baby (p,1:54.3f; $138,205), Putnams Power (p,3,1:55.4h; $136,979) and Silver Dragon (p,3,1:51.4; $289,886). On July 26th of that year, she was finally able to take on other mares, and then got her only two wins (from 23 starts) of that year.

Returning to the track as a five-year-old, Gotfaithincowboys would record six victories, including one over the mighty Surrealist (p,3,1:53.1f; $300,980) on July 2nd, and then conquering Junebugs Baby on October 3rd. The bay mare with the small star would hit the board 14 times in 25 tries, an indication of the bigger local star she would soon become.

Gotfaithincowboys was named Northside Downs’ Horse of the Year in 2016. She still preferred a front-end trip at the time, but also won with different tactics, resulting in seven seasonal victories. “She’s the kind of horse who had to keep moving, so we just kept going with her,” said Martin. “She’s not a big mare, but she was aggressive. Competitive. Always.”

Racing and winning in every Northside Downs meet for 13 years in a row, Gotfaithincowboys helped provide for her stablemates. “I always have better luck racing mares,” said Martin, who is retired from his full-time job with the Nova Scotia Department of Justice. “I always just wanted a raceway horse, because you always need two raceway horses to feed the rest of them.”

Sadly, on April 14, 2022, Barry Bates succumbed to cancer. “He always did well. He loved to drive. He was 13 years younger than me,” said Martin, with sadness in his voice. “He was only 52.”

It was a sobering reminder. “Everyone’s getting older, not just the horses,” sighs Martin. “Continuing with Gotfaithincowboys the past few years was a way of keeping Barry’s memory alive: We were all close, and she kept us close.”

The hobby horseman has kept other mares who achieved success for his family, including 24-year-old Gottobeareason (p,1:58.1h; $27,057), who won 42 races at Northside Downs, and 13-year-old Windsong Katie (p,1:58.3f; $38,489), a past Northside Downs Mare of the Year. “Good horses in their day,” remarked their owner.

On November 10, 2024, Martin Bates’ best mare stepped onto the North Sydney track with her head high and ears pitched toward the grandstand. He was in the sulky for her 280th lifetime start. She went three-wide at three-quarters before fading late, was retired afterwards with 49 career victories, and “was competitive to the end,” in Bates’ words.

When Gotfaithincowboys and Martin returned to the winners’ circle for her retirement ceremony, Northside Downs announcer Shane Ryan sent her out with a fitting farewell:

This all-business mare raced in the top class for most of her career. Loved by her people, she will retire in South Bar, where she was foaled, watching the cruise ships come-and-go.

Martin told TROT he’s not certain whether Gotfaithincowboys will become a broodmare. The thought crossed his mind last year, but her cycles did not cooperate. Even though she’s finished racing, he hasn’t considered potential stallions yet.

“We haven’t gotten that far,” he said, adding that her future is secure regardless, whether or not she produces foals. “She’ll live here at my farm in South Bar, along the water. ‘Faith’ was born here and she’ll die here. She did damn good.”

 This feature originally appeared in the December issue of TROT Magazine. Subscribe to TROT today by clicking the banner below.