The focus of the Canadian harness racing industry will be on Mississauga, Ont. on Saturday night for the 2012 O'Brien Awards.

The who’s who of the harness racing set will be on hand to receive their coveted O’Brien bronzes. The awards are named in honour of the late Joe O’Brien, a trainer-driver from Prince Edward Island who was highly regarded and a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Seventeen O'Brien Awards will be given out for the 2012 racing season. Thirteen of these honour the premier horses over the past racing season including the most coveted trophy, Canada's Horse of the Year. The horse awards are divided by age, sex and gait. There are two finalists in all of the categories except for the Trainer of the Year category where three finalists were declared.

In addition there are four awards for people, one each for Driver of the Year, Trainer of the Year, Armstrong Bros. Farm Breeder of the Year and the O'Brien Award of Horsemanship.

The cocktail reception and silent auction kicks the evening off at 6:00 p.m. Dinner will be at 7:00 p.m. and the award presentations will start at about 9:15 p.m. A dance will round the evening off.

For those not in attendance, you’ll be able to watch all of the awards presentations exclusively on standardbredcanada.ca as SC will distribute the live video stream from the O’Brien Awards Black Tie Gala.

The streaming is being made possible through a partnership with Woodbine Entertainment Group, who are producing the O’Brien Awards in-house broadcast and providing the technical resources to offer this opportunity for online viewing. This will mark the third straight year that the O’Brien’s are streamed live over the Internet, brought to you in part by Omega Alpha Pharmaceuticals.

The video will go online live at approximately 9:00 p.m., with the awards presentation generally lasting from one and a half to two hours.

Standardbred Canada's Web Director Jeff Porchak, Trot Editor Darryl Kaplan and SC Web Reporter Brittney Mayotte will provide live news and commentary on all the happenings from the Delta Meadowvale Hotel and Convention Centre throughout the night, and they will be joined by some special guests. Winners will be announced as they happen.

Established in 1989 to honour the absolute best in Canadian harness racing over a given year, the O'Brien Awards are the highest honour the sport bestows upon its stars.