“Everyone thinks I’m too old. I’m 91, but the horse does the running. As long as you got a clear head and you’re strong enough to hold onto the horse.”

Age is just a number for veteran horseman Bill Megens, who is the only driver older than 90 to win a pari-mutuel race in Canada, according to Standardbred Canada records available back to 1992.

Megens, who still raises horses fulltime on his Guelph, Ont. farm, recently made headlines driving his homebred three-year-old trotter Willy Strike to victory in the sixth race on Dec. 20 at The Raceway at Western Fair District and recounted the culmination of that long day, which included a flat tire while trucking to the London, Ont. oval.  

“[Travelling], especially if you’re by yourself, it makes it kind of tough,” he told GuelphToday. “I’m not 40 years [old] anymore, but I’m lucky. I can still do it.

“I still really enjoy it. It’s a little tougher now, especially going all the way down to London, if the roads are [not] okay.”

To read the GuelphToday article in its entirety, click here.

(With files from GuelphToday)