With the 2024 harness racing season complete, Trot Insider takes a look at some of the year's top ranked Standardbreds in Canada for wins, earnings and records.
With 24 victories in Canada in 2024, Hugh Heff won more races than any other Standardbred in all of North America. The four-year-old Betterthancheddar-Danika Patrix gelding earned victories competing from the stables of Gerard Demers and Mandy Archer in Ontario and Dana Getto in Nova Scotia. A winner all year long during a 40-race campaign, Hugh Heff was victorious in his first seasonal start on Jan. 4 in a $20,000 claiming race at Flamboro Downs and his last on Nov. 10 at Northside Downs in the Governors Cup Series final. Some of his highlights in between included taking a lifetime mark of 1:53 at Georgian Downs and an eight-race win streak competing against Northside's top pacers. He is currently owned by Randy Getto, Susan MacSween and Wayne Hardy, and is profiled in the January edition of TROT Magazine.
Outlaw Spiced Rum ranked second for Canadian wins in 2024 with 20 in her comeback campaign as the six-year-old pacing mare climbed from the $5,000 claiming ranks to the top distaff classes in Western Canada. She picked up wins while trained by Travis Ellis, Chris Lancaster and current owner Rod Therres.
Prince Edward Island pacer Elroy Shiner, trained by Jeff Holmes, and Ontario claiming pacer Gascoigne Sundae, who made the rounds on the B circuit and switched barns four times, tied for third with 18 wins each in Canada.
The winningest trotter was Meadowbranch Noble with 12 successful starts on Canadian soil occurring at Rideau Carleton Raceway for trainer Mandy Archer.
Millionaire three-year-old pacing colt Nijinsky led all horses for earnings in the nation as he amassed $1,002,000 with a perfect nine-for-nine Canadian campaign that included victories in the million-dollar North America Cup as well as divisions of the Simcoe Stakes and Somebeachsomewhere Stakes and multiple Ontario Sires Stakes. The son of Bettors Delight out of Pirouette Hanover earned an additional $663,887 in eight other starts stateside for trainer Anthony Beaton and owners West Wins Stable, John Fielding and Mark Dumain.
Rounding out the top three money earners are two-year-old trotting colt Maryland ($791,100), winner of the Mohawk Million and $575,000 William Wellwood Memorial from three Canadian starts for trainer Marcus Melander, and the Nick Gallucci-trained undefeated two-year-old pacing filly, Chantilly ($761,000), whose richest of nine wins were in the $532,000 Shes A Great Lady Stakes and $300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final.
Another Beaton trainee topped the charts in the speed category as six-year-old Betting Line-Lillian Hanover gelding Linedrive Hanover established the 2024 Canadian season's record of 1:47.2, taken in his last career start in the Gold Cup Invitational at Woodbine Mohawk Park on the mid-June North America Cup undercard.
Saulsbrook Victor, trained by Ron MacDonald, was the fastest pacer on a five-eighths-mile track in Canada for the season courtesy of his 1:49.1 record qualifying mile on Sept. 4 at Grand River Raceway.
Trained by Per Engblom, Huntinthelastdolar's 1:50 victory in the Charles Juravinski Memorial Cup on May 19 at Flamboro Downs remained the national season's record on a half-mile track.
Gaines Hanover's dazzling 1:50.2 triumph in an Open Trot on June 15 at Mohawk is not only the fastest trotting mile of the season in the nation but is co-fastest all time. Richard Moreau trained the four-year-old Cantab Hall-Gatka Hanover gelding.
Trainer Tim Cherwaiko's Macallan holds the season's trotting record for a five-eighths-mile track in Canada courtesy of his 1:52.3 victory on July 29 at Grand River Raceway. The time matched the nation's all-age gelding record on the trot for this track size.
Canada's fastest winning time on a half-mile track for trotters in 2024 was 1:54, achieved by trainer Jean-Francois Maguire's five-year-old gelding Royalty Beer on Sept. 13 at Hippodrome 3R. The time equalled the Canadian record for an aged trottng gelding on a half-mile surface.
All statistics include Canadian starts from Jan. 1, 2024 to Dec. 31, 2024.
Click on the following link for more harness racing statistics.
(Standardbred Canada; Photos clockwise from top left of Hugh Huff [courtesy Jason Turnbull], Nijinsky, Gaines Hanover and Linedrive Hanover [courtesy New Image Media])