Recognized multiple times in recent years as a future star of the sport, harness racing trainer Kyle Bossence has continued to show his potential, rising to new heights in 2023.
Bossence, who was a Future Star Award runner-up in 2018 and a winner in 2021, has continued to excel year after year and reached a new career-high with his first million-dollar season in 2023. His stable amassed $1,066,634 from 593 starts.
The 32-year-old Arthur, Ont. horseman, who started training his own stable at the end of 2016, now boasts career earnings of more than $3.2 million and 347 wins lifetime, with 54 of those victories earned last year. The highlights of his million-dollar season included what he describes as some unexpected stakes success.
His first stakes stunner was on Aug. 7 during Grand River Raceway's Industry Day when Ontario-sired two-year-old pacing filly Cheese Party and driver Trevor Henry defeated favourites Pass Line and Collusion Hanover in the $138,400 Battle Of Belles at long odds of 50-1.
"Definitely winning the Battle of the Belles was one of the best, maybe because it was so unexpected," Bossence told Trot Insider when reflecting on his favourite moments from the past year. "I thought we could be top three if we got lucky. To win was a great surprise."
The following month on Sept. 14 at Woodbine Mohawk Park, two-year-old trotting filly Valuable Miss, also driven by Henry, pulled off a 24-1 upset in a $90,500 division of the Champlain Stakes over favourite Cool Ma Belle with the Peaceful Way Stakes champion Drawn Impression scratched sick. The victory marked Bossence's first on the Grand Circuit.
"Winning the Champlain was probably just as good," he recalled. "When I saw the scratch that night, I thought we had a pretty good shot, and that filly was getting better with every start."
And, of course, experiencing the stakes action with his young family made it all that much more enjoyable.
"Being in the final of the Wellwood and just making the final of any of the big races that we got to be in just made it a great year, and to have the family there for all the races is just a great feeling," he added.
Bossence has put forth steady training numbers with his stable earnings increasing each year (even through the pandemic-shortened racing seasons) and attributes his ability to achieve a seven-figure mark in 2023 to the improving quality of stock in his care.
For the first time in his career, Bossence campaigned multiple Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series and Grand Circuit stakes contenders. In addition to Cheese Party and Valuable Miss, Bossence's top earners included the Gold winning three-year-old trotting filly Mass Hysteria along with two-year-old trotting colt Masstercraft and two-year-old trotting filly Mass Cara. His OSS starters earned $393,662, placing Bossence just outside the top 10 trainers in the provincial program.
"I always knew that I wanted to work towards more stakes-caliber young horses, but it’s not an easy thing to do," said Bossence. "It’s very expensive to have young horses, but I’m lucky to have great owners and staff to have been able to get this far. The stakes races are where the money is and we have a great program to race in here in Ontario."
Bossence heads into the 2024 racing season with a 40-horse stable, including his returning stars and 14 two-year-olds training down.
"We are really looking forward to the now three-year-olds that we have starting back for their three-year-old year. We had some nice two-year-olds, so we can’t wait to see what they can do this year, and hopefully we have some nice two-year-olds training down for this year as well. Lots to look forward to for 2024."
(Standardbred Canada)