Last year, 40.3 million people sat in front of their televisions to watch the Academy Awards.

Why do many of us spend an evening gathered around a screen to watch total strangers read canned thank you speeches before walking off stage with a gold plated statuette? Very few of us have seen the majority of movies up for awards, and fewer of us have any tangible relationship to the films being honoured. We sit, we cheer and we marvel at the best and worst dressed as they walk on and off stage and stumble over their words. And, for some reason, it means something to us.

In harness racing, we have the O'Briens. While it can be easy to dismiss the meaning of any awards ceremony, in our industry it would be even more foolish to do so than in most.

When a horse is hailed as being an O'Brien winner, she is not only celebrated as the best in her division. She is honouring tens of thousands of hours that horsepeople have spent in her presence. From her first tenuous steps to the moment of the winning announcement, the journey was not easy or uneventful. Nurturing, feeding and learning, she taught those around her as much as they taught her. Days and nights comforting and reassuring her, nursing her back to health when she was sick or hurt. Worrying about her, and crying over her, in good times and in bad.

For the past 25 years, each O'Brien Award trophy has been handed to an owner or a trainer, but every accolade has touched a huge number of people. And of course, behind every success story in this business, are the thousands of horses who never got here - those who never achieved greatness. And of course the many people who cared for and cherished those horses as well.

And then there are the fans. The truth is that even the most focussed horseplayer has a soft spot for these incredible athletes. Somebeachsomewhere and Admirals Express were not just names and numbers on a program page - they were very special to harness racing's fans. When you honour a hero, you are honouring everyone who cheers for him and everyone who supports him.

In our world, this is the Academy Awards. We're likely more curious who will win Horse of the Year than what film will capture Best Picture. And, we applaud much louder for Doug Brown than for Daniel Day-Lewis.

To be on Prince Edward Island to celebrate 25 years of the O'Brien Awards will be a real thrill. To applaud for this year's winners will once again be an honour.

We'll see you in Charlottetown!

Darryl Kaplan
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