With the 2025 O'Brien Awards less than two weeks away, Trot Insider will shine the spotlight on this year's finalists starting with the O'Brien Award of Horsemanship.
The O’Brien Award of Horsemanship recognizes a trainer who exemplifies the high standard of horsemanship that was demonstrated by Joe O’Brien during their career, including the outstanding care and training of Standardbreds, respect for the horse, a commitment to equine welfare and success in the development and training of young horses.
Criteria for evaluation include integrity, professionalism and a commitment to putting the welfare of horses first. Other measures for evaluation include performance ratings, stakes wins as a percentage of overall starts and race lines that indicate signs of development and maturity.
From the five candidates put forward by the Nominating Committee, the finalists are Jamie Gray, Carl Jamieson, and Dr. Ian Moore.
Strictly from a numbers perspective, the argument could be made that Jamie Gray posted his best season ever in 2025. With a 0.468 UTRS, the Sturgeon County, Alta. resident posted a 35-19-11 summary from just 105 starts with $643,385 in earnings. His purse total was the fourth best of accomplished career, but those seasons featured three to five times more starts.
"It's an honour," said Gray when asked about being a finalist in the Horsemanship category. "I still have a letter I received from Joe O'Brien when I was 16 years old and I was looking for employment."
Handling duties as trainer, blacksmith and driver, Gray developed and conditioned the likes of 2025 O'Brien Award finalist Custard Dolce, with stablemates B A Dragon and Ruler Of Dragons notching top-two finishes in the Alberta Super Final for two-year-old pacers. In fact, all of his two- and three-year-olds won stakes races in Alberta in 2025.
A first-time finalist in this division who has attended the awards gala previously, Gray is looking forward to returning to the O'Brien Awards later this month.
"It's a great event, with great horses and horsemen, and it's a chance to take my wife [Shelley] out dancing."
Gray's competition in this division boasts Hall of Fame credentials. Carl Jamieson won this award in 2006, and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Famer is now a back-to-back finalist for the O'Brien Award of Horsemanship after stellar seasons in both 2024 and 2025.
"It's a nice honour. Just being nominated is good. Top three in Canada," noted Jamieson, indicating that his numbers were strong in quality despite not having the quantity of past years. "We started with 11 and we qualified eight out of 11. It was a pretty good year for the babies, really."
In 2025, the Puslinch, Ont,-based Jamieson posted his best season in more than a decade with $1.14 million in purse earnings from his 151 starts by virtue of a 32-27-24 summary. Two Jamieson trainees — rookie male pacer Tilthecowscomehome and sophomore pacing colt Fifth And Five — are among the 2025 O'Brien Award finalists.
"It's really great," said Jamieson when asked about being at the O'Brien Awards as a finalist with horses also up for divisional honours. "For anybody to be able to do that...it's a tough business. To get them there and be successful in a stakes program like Ontario, it's a pretty big deal.
"We're going to have a good time there, for sure."
The third finalist in this category, Dr. Ian Moore, can capture his third O'Brien Award of Horsemanship in 2025. The Hall of Fame trainer made his way to the stage after his name was called for this award in 2015 and 2022. While criteria for the award has evolved over the years, no horseman has won this award three times as Moore, Bill Davis (2003, 2014), Keith Clark (2004, 2011), Gilles Barrieau (2005, 2019), Rick Zeron (2010, 2016), Marc Campbell (2012, 2017), Kelly Hoerdt (2013, 2020) and Guy Gagnon (2018, 2014) all claim two trophies in this category.
"Just to be named a finalist is huge for me, especially amongst some of the other names that have been nominated," stated Moore. "I'm looking forward to the O’Brien Award night."
Like Jamieson, Moore also comes into the 2025 O'Brien Award with finalists in the two- and three-year-old pacing colt categories with the undefeated freshman Beau Jangles and the millionaire sophomore Prince Hal Hanover. Those two stakes winners propelled the Cambridge, Ont. resident to a season with more than $3.7 million in earnings — a career best. Moore is also a finalist for Trainer of the Year, an award he won in 2023 when the O'Briens were held in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
"I left my tuxedo suit in P.E. I. two years ago, so hopefully it makes it to London in time and hopefully it’s still fits," added Moore. "Both Nancy and I are looking forward to being at the O’Brien Awards this year. Every time we go it certainly has been extra special, and no matter what happens it's a great night for everybody in the industry."
This year marks the 37th edition of the O’Brien Awards, named in honour of the late Joe O’Brien, an outstanding horseman and Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee. The winners will be announced at the O’Brien Awards Gala on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 at the J-AAR Expo Centre at Western Fair District in London, Ont.
(Standardbred Canada; photos courtesy Century Mile and New Image Media)