With the 2025 O'Brien Awards less than two weeks away, Trot Insider will shine the spotlight on the finalists with the Older Trotting Horse & Gelding division up next.
Two-time defending champion in this category, Logan Park is a finalist once again after another standout campaign in 2025 when he won eight Preferred/Open level races at Woodbine Mohawk Park and earned $287,917 from 19 starts for Ontario owners Outofthepark Stable of Rockwood, Reg Higgs of Blenheim and Arpad Szabo of Bradford.
Logan Park earned his fourth O’Brien nomination and will be seeking his third straight win for the Fellows stable, led by Kyle and his father Rob.
“He's just one of those incredible horses, where he's just super cooperative, he does everything you want, he loves his job, he's good at it and he generally puts in a solid effort,” said Kyle Fellows. “We had a little bit of sickness in him this summer, you know, through Maple Leaf Trot eliminations he was terrible, then we gave him a bit of time off to get him healthy again and he came back and raced really well after that. But outside of that, he doesn't really throw clunkers in too often. I think that's what makes a good horse, is that they're naturally talented and they love it, and they just do it for you.”
Logan Park reached an elite level of competition during his seven-year-old season in 2025, representing Canada with reverence in Sweden’s prestigious Elitloppet in May. No doubt the high-profile international experience was the season’s highlight for the Fellows family and connections.
“It was a pretty good trip all around,” said Fellows. “Racing luck didn't go our way -- just the way the race unfolded -- but the experience over there was really cool, just to be considered in that group of horses that gets invited over. I mean, things aren't really designed for horses to come from outside of Europe to do well, I don't think, but that being said, they still took care of us and did a good job and it was a really fun trip and a good experience. Everyone treated us like rock stars over there too.”
The sub-1:50 trotter started his season with a win streak in April and ended on a winning note in December “feeling like a million bucks” with nearly $2.3 million in career earnings. The Archangel-Rite Outa The Park gelding, driven by Doug McNair in all of his races, also posted top three finishes in the Earl Rowe Memorial Trot and FanDuel Open Trot Championship after winning those six-figure events the previous year.
Another talented trotter who is no stranger to the awards spotlight is Amigo Volo.
A divisional champion stateside as a three-year-old in 2020, Amigo Volo earned his second nomination as an O’Brien finalist.
The classy campaigner, trained by Meg Crone while in Canada, raced every month of the year and earned $283,414 – just a few thousand dollars shy of Logan Park’s total. All six of his wins were against Preferred/Open competition, with five at Mohawk. He also picked up cheques in the Maxie Lee Invitational, Earl Rowe, Breeders Crown and MGM Grand Prix Invitational Series.
“Amigo Volo is the ultimate war horse,” said James MacDonald, one of the trotter’s regular reinsmen and an O’Brien Driver of the Year candidate. “Almost $3 million in [career] earnings, he is the definition of class.”
A world champion in his younger years, the veteran trotter was still full energy at age eight and took a season’s mark of 1:50.4 in an Open on Sept. 30 at Mohawk, coming within two-fifths of his lifetime best established as a sophomore.
MacDonald described Amigo Volo as “the perfect horse to drive who can do it all.”
The Father Patrick-Margarita Momma gelding was also trained by Richard ‘Nifty’ Norman and Carter Pinske for his U.S. starts and is owned by Pinske Stables of Plato, Minnesota and David J. Miller of Lake Mary, Florida.
There’s was a new face in the mix to take on the usual divisional heavyweights with Nasey looking to play the spoiler role at the O’Briens, just like he did when he sprang the biggest upset in the history of the Earl Rowe with an impressive 61-1 upset to highlight his own award-worthy campaign.
“An O’Brien nomination for Nasey is a significant achievement and we’re honoured to have this horse recognized among the best in Canadian racing,” said trainer Jodie Cullen, who is a finalist herself for Trainer of the Year.
Nasey joined the Cullen stable in March and excelled to the top trotting ranks at Mohawk, also topping $200,000 in earnings on the year and passing the half million-dollar earnings mark for his career. He was driven by Cullen’s son Travis, also owning as A1stable.
As a six-year-old in 2025, the Pilgrims Chuckie-Youre So Fine gelding won seven of his 43 starts, racing week in and week out in the top claiming and conditioned classes, also finishing on-the-board 16 more times.
Nasey lowered his lifetime mark to 1:52 flat winning a Preferred 2 on May 26 at Mohawk while his 1:53 mile in the Earl Rowe at Georgian Downs was a Canadian season’s record on a five-eighths-mile track.
“Nasey is a calm, cool, full-of-character little trotter," said Cullen. "One of the barn favourites!”
The achievements of all three trotters will be celebrated and the divisional winner will be announced at the 37th edition of the O’Brien Awards on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 at the J-AAR Expo Centre at Western Fair District in London, Ont.
(Standardbred Canada; photos courtesy New Image Media and Racehorsephoto)