The Ontario Harness Horse Association held their seventh annual awards banquet on April 8, 2009

at the Guelph Place Banquet Hall in Guelph Ontario to recognize and honour the achievements of the trainers of the top money earning horses in the Ontario Sire Stakes program as well as the Trillium series. Winners of the awards were presented with beautiful bronze trophies as a lasting reminder of their success.

Also receiving trophies were the trainers with the highest average earnings per starter in two categories. Brent MacGrath won the award for a stable with 10 horses or fewer as his one starter, Somebeachsomewhere earned $1,427,663 in nine Ontario starts. Jack Darling won the award for stables with 11 or more starters, averaging $70,405 with his 14 starters.

Brad Forward was presented with the Masterfeeds award for the Driver with 300 or more starts with the highest average with a lofty .383 average. Brad will be representing Canada in the World Driving Championship in Norway and the good luck banner was displayed for well wishers to sign.

The Ontario Harness Horse Association also gave out a number of other special awards. They included the Grooms of the year, which were awarded to Leanne Murphy, Mary Mark, Martin Toner, Lynne Delahaye and Brooke Pollard. These individuals were all nominated by others in the industry who felt that their expertise and dedication to their profession deserved to be recognized.

A Special Service to the Industry Award was presented to Bill Clements and the Wlliam Wellwood Sportsmanship Awards were presented to Paul MacDonell and Brent MacGrath. These awards were also presented after receiving nominations from others in the industry.

Also on this special night the career accomplishments of Dave Wall, Doug Brown and Ross Curran were celebrated as they were each presented with a gold watch as “Living Legends” of our sport.

To cap off this wonderful evening of celebration the prestigious Les Ehrlick award, presented annually to an individual that has shown extreme dedication and commitment to the industry was presented to Jim Whelan.

Congratulations to all of the award winners and a sincere thank you to all of those that took the time to nominate their peers. We wish all participants good racing luck in 2009 and hope to see you standing at the podium next year.

(OHHA)