In August, 2024, Dr. Ian Moore was rightfully inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall Of Fame, and just one look at the list of horses he’s developed and raced tells you why.

I won’t attempt to list them all here - I don’t have room anyway - but suffice it to say that when fellow HOF’er Shadow Play and former Horse of the Year Century Farroh are only the fourth and fifth richest on your top-ten list - with each having earned over $1.5 million - that list is pretty impressive.

Reaching the hall of fame sure didn’t slow down the man we all call ‘Doc’ though, as evidenced by the group of babies he developed last winter and how they’ve been performing this year.

“We had 16 [babies] in Florida last winter,” Doc told me recently, “and I believe that 13 of them have taken records already - so we’re not doing too bad,” he laughed.

Speaking of possibly slowing down though, it’s something that Doc Moore has been hinting at for a number of years now - in fact, he’s openly considered retiring from training. But to this point it’s also been the one thing that he hasn’t been successful at.

Part of that is self-inflicted however.

The 71-year-old carries on more like a 17-year-old in many ways, especially while wintering in Florida, where he swims laps daily, plays baseball once a week, hockey twice a week, while also flying his own plane and maintaining a decent-sized stable of horses.

“I just got a call that they signed me up for that open-aged hockey league in Florida again this winter,” he told me. “There’s guys in their 20s in that league, but the quality isn’t really high… I’m still probably one of the better ones,” he said in a very non-boastful manner. “I’m not sure yet if I’m playing in that other league again or not,” he went on.

It is possible to slow down at work and still stay active, but it’s in-part to his success as a trainer that he can’t seem to get away from the job, and you’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard of his latest stable star.

Doc first told me about Beau Jangles this past April, when he and I did our annual interview for our ‘Twos In Training’ issue. The colt was in 2:13 at the time and the only worry was that he might be too big. Now he’s been in 1:49.1, and after his recent Metro Pace triumph he’s earned just $27,875 shy of $1 million.

Following the Metro, Doc admitted, in a post-race interview with TROT’s John Rallis, that thanks to Beau Jangles, and what could be an exciting sophomore season in 2026, he once again will not be retiring from training this fall.

I’m torn on that news to be honest.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see Doc Moore leave the game… I love everything about his presence.

Professionally, everytime we ask him for some of his time he makes himself available - and he provides great quotes.

From a handicapper’s point of view he’s a real beauty too. You know for certain that his horses are tight, they’re not going to sit at the back of the bus, and his drivers are going to put them in-play. As a bettor it’s all that you can ask for.

The reason I’m torn, to a degree, is that Doc told me that he and his wife Nancy have a home they love, right on the shore in their native PEI, and that he’s lucky to get there for six or seven days max all summer.

He also admitted that some stress-induced health issues from a few years back seem to be in-check, but that the stress of the stakes season, the travel and the long hours does take its toll at his age.

Moore has raced 10 horses in the final of the North America Cup - that ties him for fourth place all-time with Bob McIntosh and Casie Coleman - but he’s never won it. His best finish was 2nd, with Tattoo Artist, in 2020.

I’d love to see the man get his N.A. Cup, with the Ontario-sired and bred son of Cattlewash, and then ride (or sail) off into the PEI sunset.

He’s done it all. He’s won multiple O’Brien Awards and most of our biggest races. He’s a hall of famer.

And speaking of that, they always say that a TRUE hall of famer - in any walk of life - is supposed to be enshrined due to more than just statistics, but also due to character. I’ve recently learned something about Doc in that regard too.

Dr. Ian Moore sits on a veterinary board that was warned Flamboro Downs may be in need of a commission vet at some point, and there seemed to be none available.

In early September, Doc was informed that would indeed be the case at Flamboro in the near future, so he volunteered. On the night of September 5th, he took the two-hour online module required of him. Finishing at midnight, he was up at 6am the following day to train four horses, before flying his plane to The Meadows to race Prince Hal Hanover in the PASS Championship. After finishing 2nd, he flew back to Ontario to race four horses at Mohawk, and then he spent two hours getting some on-the-job training from the AGCO vet there as well.

He got home at midnight, after the 18-hour day, but was now accredited to do the job of commission vet at Flamboro, in time for his first shift, on September 14th.

Did I mention that was the day he was supposed to fly to Ohio, in preparation for Prince Hal’s upcoming appearance in the Little Brown Jug? A trip he postponed by 24 hours so he could do the Flamboro gig.

When I asked him why he put himself through all of that, when he obviously didn’t need to, his answer was simple: “I did it for the horsepeople. I didn't want them to have to cancel a card.”

Now THAT is a true hall of famer.

When you finally shut it down, Doc, I’ll miss you.

Enjoy PEI my friend.

Dan Fisher
[email protected]