A familiar face around Eastern Canada's racetracks will be heading south and plying his trade in the Pompano Park area for the time being.
O'Brien Award winning horseman Gillies Barrieau told Trot Insider on Friday that he would be heading to Florida after making a stop in Pennsylvania at the Standardbred Horse Sales Co.'s yearling and mixed sales in Harrisburg this week.
Barrieau will hang his tack at Pompano along side his uncle Marcel. The duo have 10 stalls, with room for a few more horses going into the winter months.
"I was supposed to head down last year but things didn't quite line up," Barrieau told Trot Insider.
Barrieau acknowledged that the state of racing in his home province of New Brunswick have prompted the move south, noting that his owners are looking at investing in young horses and would prefer to see them develop and train down in a more stable environment.
While not as prolific as some of harness racing's top horsemen, Barrieau's averages are stellar and among the best in North America. The longtime horseman sports a 0.510 driving average with a 440-151-95-62 summary and a career best $493,050 in purse earnings. On the training side, his numbers are down but his average (0.407) is still rock solid.
Two months ago, Barrieau joined harness racing's 4,000 win club with a hat trick at Charlottetown Driving Park. A horse that helped him achieve that plateau, three-year-old pacer Windemere Shadow, is a recent acquisition and will join Barrieau at Pompano.
"I drove him a few times, I liked him and thought a bigger track would suit him," noted Barrieau.
While fully cognizant that the Pompano drivers' colony won't be easy to crack, he does plan to offer his services as a catch-driver during his time there.
Barrieau's plan is to stay stateside for about six months, return to Canada and set up with Marcel for about a month in Ontario before returning to the Maritimes. He notes that he and his wife Kelly recently downsized to a smaller home and she'll be staying in Saint John (continuing with her teaching position) while he trains in the U.S.