Mike Wade knows it sounds cliché, but the trainer from Little Britain, Ont. honestly can still see Billyjojimbob thundering to victory at Solvalla like it was yesterday, not 33 years ago.

In 1992, the homebred trotter became the first Ontario-sired horse to win Sweden’s famed Elitloppet. On Sunday in Stockholm, Logan Park will attempt to become just the second, proving what an incredible accomplishment it was for Billyjojimbob all those years ago.

Wade, who is proud to be the man that bred and trained the first and only, still has Billyjojimbob’s trophies on the mantel, some VHS tapes gathering dust and a huge collage of framed photos from Elitloppet given to him by famed Swedish photographer-turned-star-trainer Stefan Melander. But nothing tops the mental movie that still plays on repeat.

“My actual memories are what mean the most to me,” Wade said. “It could have been two years ago. It could have been last year. Everything about what happened in Sweden is still very vivid in my mind. The memories, to me, are what it’s all about.

“Somebody asked me about it the other day, as a matter of fact, and I said, ‘Even 33 years later, sometimes it just seems surreal.’”

Billyjojimbob’s victory in Elitloppet put Ontario Standardbreds on the world map. Wade said the trotter’s sire, Balanced Image, was a major key to it all.

“It was a big boost for the industry that on an international stage Ontario could produce and Balanced Image, in my mind, was the first one to show that,” Wade said. “[Billyjojimbob] just happened to be one of the first Balanced Image superstars, but there was more than a handful after that were as accomplished, or maybe more so, than he was.”

That Billyjojimbob did it for a trio of small-town Ontario dreamers – his then wife, Lori Ferguson, who owned and groomed the trotter, and Murray Brethour who drove Billyjojimbob to the two-heat victory that day – fueled a whole new generation of Ontario dreamers.

“Everything fell into place,” Wade said. “The whole time I was over there, it almost felt like a dream… He was in great shape. He was the kind of horse you didn’t mind packing your bags and going with because he was such a good shipper and really laid back. He was an ideal candidate for going over there.”

Lifetime, Billyjojimbob earned nearly $1 million – which, when accounting for inflation, amounts to nearly double that. He also won 39 of 62 starts. But none topped that blue sky day in Stockholm.

Though Wade had some other very good horses, none were better than Billyjojimbob, who was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1995, just three years after winning Elitloppet. Billyjojimbob died in 2002, but 23 years later his contribution remains just as powerful.

“His grave is just on the northwest corner of my track, and I acknowledge him pretty well every day when I’m out there jogging and training horses,” Wade said. “There’s a big red maple tree planted above his grave, and you can’t miss it. Not a day goes by when I don’t acknowledge what he’s done for me.

“This farm that I’ve lived on for the last 33 years, I can’t imagine having bought it and stayed here if it wasn’t for him… The horse business for me prior to him, I certainly wasn’t setting the world on fire. He set me up with a farm and put me in a position where I got better quality horses that I could own part of myself or train for other people. He certainly got the ball rolling all out for me.”

To this day, the fact that Billyjojimbob proved a champion could come not just from anywhere, but Ontario specifically, still gives Wade that glimmer of hope every time a new horse comes into his life.

“It’s silly not to think about it,” Wade said. You’ve got to try to be optimistic. And you know what, 33 years ago, maybe we were naively optimistic, and that’s why things worked out the way they did. So, maybe it pays to be a little bit silly.

“Going over there, did I think going we we’re going to win? I didn’t know, but I was hoping for the best the way the draw went and the way that he went into the race. I was feeling pretty confident that we were not going to embarrass ourselves.”

Ontario-sired horses have only competed in Elitloppet sporadically in the more than three decades since Billyjojimbob put Ontario on top of the harness racing world. But on Sunday, Wade will be cheering on Logan Park, despite the slight temptation to want to remain the man that had the only Ontario-sired winner in history.

“It’s kind of cool being the only one, but… I’m a team player and I’m cheering for Canada, no doubt,” he said.

(OSS / Ontario Racing)