After dominating Canada for the past two seasons and making a name for himself on the Grand Circuit in North America, 2024 O'Brien Award winner Logan Park could be headed for an international stage.
Logan Park clinched the Older Trotting Horse title for the second consecutive year. At six years old, he had his most successful year yet, earning $940,240 and surpassing $2 million in lifetime earnings. Trained by the father and son team of Rob and Kyle Fellows, Logan Park achieved major victories in the Dayton Derby and the $457,746 FanDuel Open Trot Championship, the latter being his richest win of the season.
Notably, he set a record at The Red Mile as the fastest Canadian-sired trotter with a 1:49.2 winning time in the Allerage Farms Open Trot. In Canada, he also won the Earl Rowe Memorial Invitational Trot at Georgian Downs and multiple Preferreds at Woodbine Mohawk Park for owners Outofthepark Stable of Rockwood, Ont., Reg Higgs of Ilderton, Ont. and Arpad Szabo of Bradford, Ont.
With all those achievements added to his résumé, what's on tap for the son of Archangel? In a conversation after the 2024 O'Brien Awards on Saturday, Feb. 8 with SC's Jeff Porchak, trainer Kyle Fellows indicated that there have been discussions for Logan Park to represent Canada and race overseas in the 2025 Elitloppet.
"Depending on weather and whatnot, he's a couple of months away," said Fellows when asked about a return date to action for Logan Park. "There's been some interest expressed to us about going to the Elitlopp this year. That's at the end of May, so we'd have to be ready a little bit earlier than we normally would just to get racing fit to head over to Sweden."
Also returning to the Fellows stable in 2025 is the full-sister to Logan Park, another two-time O'Brien Award winner, Willys Home Run, named Canada’s Three-Year-Old Trotting Filly of the Year in 2024.
The Archangel-Rite Outa The Park daughter had another successful campaign for Fellows and owners Dr. Sara Gatchell of Strathroy, Ont., Jake Higgs of Strathroy, Ont., Reg Higgs of Ilderton, Ont. and Yolanda Fellows of Rockwood, Ont. Willys Home Run finished her sophomore campaign with earnings of $431,311, posting eight top-two finishes from her 13 starts. She took her lifetime mark of 1:53 at Woodbine Mohawk Park in her second OSS Gold Series win of the season and her largest cheque was earned in the $300,000 Super Final, where she repeated as champion.
"She's very similar to Logan [Park] in that she wants to do it, she loves her job, she shows up and gives you 110 per cent every week," noted Fellows, who indicated that Willys Home Run is returning to race as a four-year-old.
Fellows discusses both of his award winners — contributing to his best ever season as a trainer — with reflections on their successful seasons while looking ahead to their 2025 campaigns in this interview, the third in a series of post-O'Brien Award interviews sponsored by Horse Racing Alberta.
(Standardbred Canada; photos courtesy New Image Media and Amanda Stephens)