I know that we all look back at things we once did - especially as teenagers - and can’t believe that we either: a) Did it. b) Got away with it. c) Survived it. Or d) All of the above.

I was involved in something kind of crazy here at TROT - in my thirties - that falls under a) Can't believe we did it. I hadn’t even thought about it in years, but a story in this month’s issue helped bring the memories of it back.

Some of you may remember it - many may not - but on New Year’s Eve 2006, TROT orchestrated a Match Race at Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa, between a 14-year-old $5,000 claimer from Cambridge, Ontario by the name of Conrad Seelster, and a 12-year-old horse of similar stature from Charlottetown, by the name of Kendal Python.

Rideau billed it as ‘The Clash of the Iron Horses’ - a special event on their New Year’s Eve card - and it was actually a big success.

How and why did we get the idea to transport two cheap horses, that were stabled 1,778 kms apart, to the Nation’s Capital, to race against each other - on TV - for a purse of $2,000? Here’s the Coles Notes version:

Over two months earlier - for our November magazine - we were putting together a piece called ‘Unrivalled Rivalry’. Ontario’s Conrad Seelster had 439 career starts at the time, and PEI’s Kendal Python had 429. Both were numbers that were basically unheard of, and we decided to share the story of the two horses and their connections.

In the office one day, as we were piecing photos and statistics together for the feature, Julia Lipman (our fun-loving associate editor) and I quipped how awesome it would be if we could somehow put together a match-race between the two. We laughed… and then we didn’t… and then we laughed again… and then we didn’t.

The (rather silly) idea had been born… and it started to grow. Silly as it was.

Eventually the trainers - Jeff Houghton from Ontario and Jeff Lilley from PEI - were brought onboard, and both were game. Do you know Jeff Lilley? Of course he was game!

TROT and Standardbred Canada both chipped in, as did our friends from Seelster Farms and Kendal Hills Stud. Rideau Carleton jumped aboard, as did the NCRHHA and OHHA, and away we went.

The race was sanctioned as a non-wagering event by the Ontario Racing Commission, and the deal was that the trainers would drive. Jeff Houghton wasn’t exactly thrilled with this wrinkle at first, as he wasn’t really a driver, but his horse was probably a second or so faster, so it seemed like a fair handicap to apply.

Part of the money raised to help pull it all off went towards shipping the combatants to Ottawa. Jeff Lilley arrived a week in advance, looking to get his “big colt” acclimated, and actually drove him in an overnight there on December 28th - finishing ‘Distanced’ at odds of 71/1.

My old pal Terry Lantz - Rideau’s Director of Racing at the time - helped us out by letting Jeff stay in the house on the grounds where their Head of Maintenance lived.

The Houghton family shipped up the day before the race and were put up in a hotel for a few nights.

Julia Lipman actually flew up to Ottawa the afternoon of the main event, to help administer things with our friends at Rideau, and in the end, the race itself, televised in simulcast lounges and racetracks all over North America, was a pretty entertaining event (scan the QR Code at the bottom of this page to view it on YouTube).

A couple of my personal fond memories from it all, that most don’t know about, were two voicemail messages I received afterwards. One, a few days later, from Jeff Lilley saying:

“Hey Dan… I just wanted to thank you and Julia for everything… We almost got the job done… The judges called me up after though, and gave me a ticket [for whipping]... I told them that ‘Mike Lachance hit Matts Scooter 23 times in the back-half of the Mohawk Gold Cup in 1989, and he never got a fine’... They knocked it down to a warning… Thanks again Dan.”

The second one from Terry Lantz, a few weeks after that, saying:

“Hey Fish… I need your help. Jeff Lilley is still squatting in the house up here. I walked into my office this morning and he was sitting at my desk making long distance phone calls too. When’s he going home?”

Oh man, the racetrack backstretch was an incredibly fun and important place. I should probably write this column about that one day soon. Oh ya, I did that a few months ago. The horsepeople LOVED it, but the people that own those backstretches didn’t seem to care.

But I digress.

On page 30 of this month’s issue, we present a touching piece called ‘Family Pets’ - telling three heartwarming stories of elderly horses that have all recently passed away, after creating decades of loving memories with their human families. The second of the three, beginning on page 34, is on Conrad Seelster - the same horse from the NYE Match Race of 2006.

Conrad’s rival, Kendal Python, passed away in February of 2024.

Recently, as I sat and thought about these two old warriors, hopefully resting in peace together somewhere, the memories came flooding back, from the match race that we actually made happen just about 19 years ago. It reminded me that if we really want to promote our sport - we can.

And at this time of year, when many people are making New Year’s resolutions, it also reminded me, as it should you, that we can really accomplish a lot, both inside and outside of racing, if we set our minds to it.

Happy New Year.

In 2026, don’t wish your dreams to come true - go out and make them come true.

Dan Fisher
[email protected]