Every spring and summer the harness racing world gets incredibly excited about the new crop of two-year-olds who are getting ready to become the sport’s next stars - and rightly so. At TROT we actually dedicate an entire issue - this one - to them.

There are dedicated stakes races for two-year-olds only as well… The Mohawk Million and Metro Pace being two that even have seven-digit purses.

Returning three-year-olds are even a bigger deal. The pacing colt division has long been known as ‘The Glamour Boys’ division, and the best of their trotting contemporaries contend each year for what is known to be the biggest race, in North American racing at least, the Hambletonian.

But what about four-year-olds? Why are they basically at the bottom of racing’s hierarchy? It’s hard to imagine, especially when a strong argument can be made that these third-year competitors are possibly more important, when it comes to our ability to produce a competitive gambling product, than any other age group - especially here in Canada where we’ve been facing an extreme horse shortage for years.

Sadly though, we have so very few good four-year-olds left in Canada these days, and from what I can see, none of those bodies who might be able to actually do something about that, seem to even care.

Maybe I missed it, but what group out there is making any effort to try and remedy this?

We need horses - lots of them - to keep our industry moving forward, and for owners, trainers, drivers and caretakers to be able to make a living. And we need full competitive fields of horses to ensure our product remains relevant in today’s very crowded gaming world.

How do we do this here in Canada, when the strong U.S. dollar makes selling our three-year-olds to Americans, as soon as their sires stakes opportunities end, so enticing?

The answer? A four-year-old stakes program. What else?

I know it’s been discussed before, but I never remember a time when it was actually needed more.

Solid Canadian three-year-olds have slowly disappeared to The Meadowlands at the end of their sophomore season for decades - it’s just a fact of life, and has been forever. But since slot-infused purses appeared in New York and Pennsylvania first, and are now commonplace in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, our horse population has been depleted more than ever.

Ohio especially has multiple tracks that host 12-15 races on multiple nights per week, offering great purses along the way. There’s a strong demand for horses there, for that very reason, and when $25,000 USD equals almost $35,000 CDN, Americans realize that Canada is a great place to shop for horses.

Under our current purse structure here - especially at the B-tracks - it takes a long time and a lot of work to clear $35,000 with a $25,000 horse.

Canadian horsepeople who sell for nice profits can’t be blamed - most do this to earn a living - and if they can make more money by selling them then by racing them, it can easily be justified. But this crisis is getting to a place that truly threatens our existence.

We, as a sport, need to give our participants a better chance to turn a better profit with a Canadian-sired four-year-old, or our horse shortage issue is only going to continue.

The Canadian Graduate Series for four-year-olds isn’t nothing, but after a few years it sure hasn’t kept many four-year-olds from being sold south of the border. The five and six horse fields in this year’s eliminations are proof of that. The three-year-old pacing colt division didn’t even fill in week one, and only had five entries in week two.

But it’s not the Logan Parks, Nijinskys, Fashion Frenzies or Willys Home Runs that we need to keep from being sold. If you own one of those horses-of-a-lifetime you’re not likely selling them anyway.

It’s the meat and potatoes four-year-olds that we need to keep from being sold. The ones generally worth $30,000-$80,000. The ones that should populate our entry boxes 35-40 times per year as four and five-year-olds, while helping to make our Pick-5 pools overflow.

So why don’t we try and create an actual stakes series for Canadian-sired four (and maybe even five) year-olds that runs from May through September? Maybe with five or six $30,000 legs and $100,000 finals for each of the four divisions (trotters/pacers and horses/mares)?

I’m not suggesting exactly where the purses would come from - I don’t know. But I do know that Standardbred Canada, for example, administered the Canadian Breeders Championships for many years. There were eliminations and eight championship finals of those, that each went for close to $200,000 if my memory serves me correctly.

I’m not saying that it would be easy, but nothing worth it ever is.

Last year, 2,153 different Canadian-sired horses made at least one start on U.S. soil, and 1,575 of them had at least one win there. In total, in 2024 alone, Canadian-sired Standardbreds won 5,611 races on U.S. tracks.

That would be something to brag about for Canadian racing, if we weren’t so busy looking at way too many six and seven horse fields here all winter and spring.

I believe it was Albert Einstein who said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Are any of our leaders listening? Or are you all too busy doing the same thing over and over again?

Dan Fisher [email protected]