Outstanding Groom Finalists Announced

Standardbred Canada is pleased to announce the finalists for the Outstanding Groom Award, sponsored for the fourth consecutive year by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Submissions were received and considered for grooms from all across Canada.

Selected as the finalists are Glenda Giles of Kindersley, Sask., and Scott Lecain of Rockwood, Ont., and Trevor Forgie of Gatineau, Que., as an entry.

Glenda Giles, has been actively grooming Standardbreds for about 13 years Glenda has worked as Clayton Braybrook’s right arm since 2005, helping him to care and race a stable of 8-10 horses each year, since his parents retired from the business. Braybrook describes Giles as efficient and dependable. “She drives seven hours to the training farm, helps load and ship to the various tracks to race, then back home every weekend during the racing season.”

Most recently Giles helped nurse a one-month old foal back to health following serious injury and that horse is now racing and winning in Alberta as a four-year-old.

On the morning of December 21 at about 1:30 a.m., a devastating fire broke out in Barn 7 at First Line Training Centre in Moffatt, Ontario. Barn 7 was leased to trainer Mark Steacy where he and his eight staff trained 38 standardbreds.

Two of the first people to arrive at the scene were Scott LeCain, of Rockwood, Ont., and Trevor Forgie, of Gatineau, Que., both who work as grooms for Steacy. Their actions were instantaneous and can only be described as “heroic”. With the fire department in full swing, Scott and Trevor repeatedly entered the barn, quickly haltered a horse, passed it to others at the doorway and returned to save another horse.

It’s not known how many times Scott and Trevor risked their own lives by entering the burning barn, but as a result of their courageous efforts, 33 of the 38 horses were saved.

Lecain has worked in the industry his entire adult life, the past five-and-a-half years for the Steacy Stable.

Forgie was born into a harness racing family that primarily raced in Quebec and at Rideau Carleton, and joined the Steacy Stable 18 months ago. He previously worked for Anthony MacDonald and Luc Blais.

Glenda, Scott and Trevor, are hard-working grooms who are representative of many of the outstanding grooms who work in the Standardbred industry from coast to coast.

Standardbred Canada received many worthy submissions and would like to thank everyone who took the time to nominate an outstanding groom.