A few days after O'Brien Award finalist Crack Shot stormed to victory on May 17 at Woodbine Mohawk Park in the $126,912 SBOA Stakes for Ontario-sired sophomore pacing colts, and just hours before leaving with his team for the Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Que., London Knights coach Dale Hunter was marvelling about the power of karma and how he came to have the good fortune to own a piece of such a talented horse.

It was his father’s dying wish.

Hunter has owned bits and pieces of mostly modest Standardbreds for much of his adult life but has never had a horse with the talent of Crack Shot.

“We would always buy horses for $20,000, $30,000, in that range,” said Hunter. “But before my dad passed away, he said, ‘I left you a lot of money, go buy a decent horse.’”

That horse was Crack Shot, a royally-bred son of Bettors Delight out of Beautyonthebeach that sold for $205,000 at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale exactly 21 days after Dick Hunter died on Sept. 12, 2023, at the age of 87.

Beautyonthebeach earned more than $554,000 on the track and she is out of a mare, Precocious Beauty, who earned more than $869,000 herself and was a 2013 O'Brien Award divisional champion. Beyond Beautyonthebeach, Precocious Beauty also produced O'Brien Award winner Tall Dark Stranger, an Ontario-sired superstar and Pepsi North America Cup winner, who earned more than $2.3 million at the races and was named 2020 U.S. Horse of the Year before moving on to a stallion career.

Crack Shot won both the $300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold Super Final and $75,000 OSS Grassroots Championship as a two-year-old in 2024. He was the first horse to ever accomplish that feat with new rules introduced allowing OSS horses to race in both program finals. He ranked just outside the top 10 in 12th place in TROT Magazine's Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book and is currently ranked fifth in Woodbine's "Road to the Pepsi North America Cup" ahead of the million-dollar race to be contested on June 14 at Mohawk.

That Hunter ended up owning a piece of Crack Shot with the colt’s trainer, Gregg McNair of Guelph, Ont., Frank Brundle of Orangeville, Ont., and George Kerr of Gowanstown, Ont., is a lifetime in the making.

While Dick Hunter was the patriarch of a Canadian hockey dynasty raised in Petrolia, Ont. – all four of his sons played Major Junior A hockey and three of them, including Dale, played in the NHL – he was also a lifetime lover of horses.

Often, a few Standardbreds owned by friends were turned out at the Hunter family farm. Most weekends in the summer, Dick took the family to the races at Dresden Raceway.

“That was our big outing,” said Hunter.

Hunter said he can only imagine how proud his dad would have been to see the Knights – co-owned by his brother Mark – win their second straight Ontario Hockey League (OHL) championship, followed just two days later by Crack Shot’s lifetime best 1:51 victory at Mohawk at the hands of driver Doug McNair.

Dale Hunter, second from right, in the winner's circle with SBOA Stakes winner Crack Shot on May 17 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

“It was awesome,” said Hunter. “We have a very good team and now we get to go to the Memorial Cup. Then for Crack Shot to win like that, I was [at Mohawk] with some friends and it worked out really well. I can't be happier.

“Dicky will be smiling down watching Crack Shot race right now, absolutely.”

Crack Shot, bred by Jim Avritt Sr., is now a perfect two-for-two in 2025 and sports a record of 7-0-1 in 10 career starts with lifetime earnings of $313,781.

In 1,407 NHL games over 19 seasons between 1980 and 1999 with the Quebec Nordiques, Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche, Hunter scored 323 goals, had 697 assists, 1,020 points and 3,565 penalty minutes, which still ranks second all-time behind only Dave Williams’ 3,971 minutes. Hunter is the only player in league history to have more than 1,000 points and over 3,000 penalty minutes.

As coach of the Knights, Hunter has won five OHL titles and led the team to the Memorial Cup championship that determines the national junior champion in both 2005 and 2016. He is only the second coach in Canadian Hockey League (CHL) history to have more than 1,000 wins to his credit.

The Memorial Cup opens on Friday night with Western Hockey League champions Medicine Hat playing the host team from Rimouski. The Knights begin play on Saturday night against the Quebec league champions from Moncton.

On the track, Hunter has a serious shot to win Canada’s richest race for sophomore pacers. But he said whether Crack Shot will be entered in the North America Cup is up to Gregg McNair.

“He’s the trainer/coach,” said Hunter. “I leave it up to him.”

In the meantime, Hunter said he’s just enjoying the ride. He said what he loves about horses is the same thing he loves about hockey.

“It’s the thrill of victory,” he said. “It's like playing hockey, or coaching hockey, you don't know what's going to happen. That's what makes hockey and horse racing and sports in general something you want to watch and be a part of.”

In both sports, divine karma can play a significant role. When the two intertwine, well, you don’t bet against that.

(With files from Ontario Racing)