The I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Club is pleased to announce that Alberta based trainer-driver Kelly Hoerdt is the Fan Club’s newest Face of Racing.

The native of Saskatoon, Sask.now makes Beaumont, Alberta his home and training base. Kelly will be on hand at the Fan Club Booth at Century Downs Racetrack and Casino on Saturday, April 25, along with some of his peers including Gerry Hudon and Travis Cullen to meet and greet racing fans and autograph photos.

Kelly was the winner of the O’Brien Award of Horsemanship in 2013 and is annually near the top of the charts for both training and driving in Alberta. He’s driven in over 11,975 races and has 1,708 wins and over $10 million in earnings to his credit. On the training side, he’s conditioned 1388 winners and has over $9.7 million in earnings.

The Faces of Racing are featured within a suite of marketing materials that are made available to all Canadian harness racing tracks to promote harness racing and they also get involved in many of the Fan Club’s events.

When the Fan Club launched in 2011, seven Faces of Racing were introduced –- Casie Coleman, Jody Jamieson, Mark MacDonald, Doug McNair, Randy Waples, Scott Zeron and San Pail. In October of that year, Marc Campbell was added.

Q&A With Kelly Hoerdt

• How old were you when you knew you loved horses and harness racing? 14 years old

• Who inspired you? My brother Glen

• Who has been your mentor in your racing career? No one person in particular, several horse people have helped me along the way.

• What is your greatest accomplishment? Winning the O’Brien Award of Horsemanship

• What was your favourite movie or TV show as a kid? Gilligan’s Island What about now? Shark Tank

• Best book you’ve ever read? The Outsiders

• What was your first car? ’79 Camaro What do you drive now? 2015 Denali

• Do you have any pets? 40 horses, 5 dogs and a cat….too many names to mention!

• If your life was a song, what would it be? “Went Out Last Night” by Kenny Chesney

• What do you like to do in your free time? Boating, wake surfing, waterskiing, golf and taking trips to Vegas

• Tell us about your children. Greatest kids...I have an 11-year-old daughter, Kamber and a 9-year-old son Spencer; they are both avid soccer players and top students.

• What is the scariest thing you’ve ever done? Sky diving

• If there was a Hollywood movie about your life, who would you want to play you? Al Pacino

• What is one thing that all great horses have in common? Iron Will

• How would you describe yourself in three words: competitive, tenacious, focused

• Favourite horse? Idle Promises, a sweetheart in the barn and a monster on the track

• What advice would you give young racing fans who would love to get involved in harness racing? Stay in school as long as possible, offer to work for a top horseman in your spare time even if you do it for free and suck up all the information you can from them , watch closely and listen intently.

• If you weren’t training / driving horses, what would you be doing? Real estate investing on some level