"I'm always going to have him as a teacher and he'll offer me his advice, but at the same time he's going to let me fly and go with whatever I think is right at the right time. It's a great partnership that we have together."
After decades of star performers full of Hall of Famers, international representatives and O'Brien Award winners, Matt Bax now takes the helm of the Bax stable as the trainer of record following the "retirement" of father John. That training tandem heads into 2023 off of a career best year in 2022, with O'Brien Award winner Righteous Resolve leading the way.
Just like her full brother Duly Resolved did a year ago, Righteous Resolve captured divisional honours when she was named Canada's Two-Year-Old Trotting Filly of the Year at the 2022 O'Brien Awards. Righteous Resolve had a dominant freshman campaign, winning eight of 10 races while earning $623,704. The daughter of Resolve won the Champlain Stakes, the Peaceful Way and four Ontario Sires Stakes events, including the OSS Super Final. She also finished third in the Breeders Crown.
After the 2022 O'Brien Awards, Bax reflected on Righteous Resolve's rookie season and looked ahead to the highly-anticipated 2023 campaign. His interview with Standardbred Canada's Jeff Porchak and Brittney Mayotte appears below.