"I'm lucky enough to have the same staff for a long time. It's kind of a system, nothing outstanding or fancy, but everybody goes by the books."
For Richard Moreau, who earned an unprecedented third straight O'Brien Award as Canada's Trainer of the Year this past Saturday at the Black Tie Gala in Mississauga, Ont., his team is key to his success in managing a large stable that is constantly changing.
"I'm proud of this, but I think I'm very lucky to have worked with a bunch of people who have my back all the time," Moreau told Trot Insider at the 2015 awards banquet on Saturday night.
Ken Hardy, President of the Ontario Harness Horse Association makes the presentation to Richard Moreau. Left to right: Ciska McKenzie, Sylvain Filion, Ken Hardy, Richard Moreau and Cheryl Moreau McGill.
The 51-year-old Quebec native, who moved to Ontario more than a decade ago, topped all trainers for wins in Canada for the fourth straight year with 271 in 2015. He shared a portion of his success with longtime friend and one of his go-to reinsmen Sylvain Filion, who also took home hardware at Canada's Driver of the Year for a third time. The pair teamed up for about 80 percent of Moreau's wins on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit last year.
"This is a long term relation. It's my longest relation," laughed Moreau when speaking of his partnership with Filion. "We're like family...partners."
The resident of Puslinch, Ont. said highlights of his award-winning season included campaigning stakes mares Sandbetweenurtoes and Ms Mac N Cheese as well as a handful of Preferred horses. He also noted that he enjoyed stepping up horses while working with past O'Brien Award of Horsemanship winner Per Henriksen.
"I like working with Per Henriksen and trotters," he said. "We have a few horses come and go and I learned with Per a little bit on a trotter."
"I usually have 40," said Moreau of his current stable composition. "Right now anyway, I'm lucky enough to say that."