Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Announces 2012 Inductees

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame is pleased to announce its 2012 inductees. This year’s honour roll includes three horses and two people representing the Standardbred industry, as well as three horses and two people from the Thoroughbred ranks

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The 2012 Standardbred Inductees are: Astreos - Male Horse Category; Kadabra - Male Horse Category; Mystic Mistress – Female Horse Category; Dave Wall - Trainer/Driver Category; Charles Juravinski – Builder Category.

Astreos, a son of Artsplace, won several stakes events, including the 2000 Little Brown Jug during his million dollar race career and took a record of 1:49.3. In his second career, as a stallion, he has produced winners of over $50 million to date, and many top performers including Zooka, Astronomical, To Helen Back and Voelz Hanover.

As a race horse, Kadabra enjoyed incredible success, winning 25 of 36 lifetime starts for earnings in excess of $2.1 million. In the years since his entrance to the breeding shed, he has sired the winners of more than $26.5 million including stars Poof Shes Gone and Daylon Magician; and in 2011 he was No. 1 in Canada for his progeny’s all-age earnings of $8,408,950.

Mystic Mistress has established herself as a top broodmare in the sport, producing the winners of more than $3.8 million, including Mystician, the 2010 Metro Pace Champion and a winner of over $1.6 million, and Camystic, a proven sire and a winner of over $779,000 on the track. Mystic Mistress, owned by Bru Mar Rich Stables & Ed Howard and managed by Warrawee Farm, received the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association’s award as Broodmare of the Year for 2011.

Dave Wall, 65, of Komoka, Ontario, and a former top campaigner on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit, has driven 7,117 winners and horses to earnings in excess of $59.6 million during his career. He has also dabbled in training, sending 518 winners postward and horses with over $2.4 million in earnings. Two outstanding horses that he drove were pacing filly Odies Fame, a winner of $1.4 million, and Hall of Fame trotter Goodtimes, a winner of more than $2.2 million.

Charles Juravinski, 82, of Dundas, Ontario, was involved in harness racing as a racetrack operator and owner-breeder. With no prior knowledge of racetracks or horse racing, Charles took a chance and turned a farmer's field into Flamboro Downs, a multi-million dollar half-mile racetrack which opened in 1975 and soon became one of Canada’s premier racetracks and home to the Confederation Cup. He raced horses and ran the racetrack devotedly for the next 30 years until 2003. He also raced two world champion horses who are also members of the Hall of Fame – the top pacing mare Ellamony which he also bred, and pacing horse Matts Scooter.

The five Thoroughbred representatives in Hall of Fame class of 2012 include: Jambalaya – Male Horse Category; Arravale – Female Horse Category; L’Alezane – Veteran Horse Category; Russell Baze – Jockey/Trainer Category; Aubrey Minshall – Builder Category.

Elected in the Filly/Mare Category is Robert Costigan’s Arravale. This fine mare was winner of the prestigious E.P. Taylor Stakes (GR 1) against top female turf stars, and was Canada’s champion turf female in 2006. Trained by Hall of Famer Mac Benson, she won stakes at the highest level in both California and Canada.

Elected in the Male Horse Category is Jambalaya, who follows in the footsteps of his daddy Langfuhr as a Hall of Fame inductee. Jambalaya was an upset winner of the 2007 Arlington Million as well as the Gulfstream Park Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes that same year for owner/trainer Catherine Day.

Vancouver born Russell Baze who has won more races than any jockey in history, will take his place of honour in the Jockey/Trainer category. The 53-year-old Baze, is a member of the U.S. Hall of Fame and winner of over 11,500 races has campaigned mainly in the United States and California. He was the leading rider in the U.S. on ten occasions and his awards include the Eclipse, George Woolf and Isaac Murphy. During his prolific career, he won more than 400 races in a season eleven times

Representing Veteran horses in the class of 2012 is Jean Louis Levesque’s juvenile star L’Alezane. This impressive filly won stakes races in New York, Kentucky, Manitoba and Ontario. She captured victory in her first five starts, and received Sovereign Award honours as not only Champion two-year old filly, but also as Canada’s Horse of the Year in 1977.

Respected Ontario breeder, Aubrey Minshall has been voted into the Hall of Fame in the Builder category. Minshall, a native of Guyana, lived in Trinidad before he arrived in Canada. In 1996 he was posthumously recognized by the industry when his Minshall Farms was named both the leading owner and breeder in Canada. He also was owner of Horse of the Year, Mt. Sassafras. Unfortunately his sudden death in 1993 did not let him enjoy some of his best stock, but the years of devotion did.

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame is a Not for Profit organization founded in 1976. For 20 years this was a Hall of Fame without a “home”. In 1997, the dream of the founders finally became a reality when the Ontario Jockey Club provided a permanent site at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame is a dual hall representing both Standardbreds and Throroughbreds. Inductees are added annually to build an ever-growing honour roll in the category of Builders, Drivers/Trainers, Jockeys/Trainers and Veterans. The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame is located by the West Entrance of Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

The Induction Ceremony will be hosted at the Mississauga Convention Centre on Thursday, August 16, 2012.

For more information, including the purchase of tickets to attend the induction ceremony, please contact: Linda Rainey at 416-417-9404.

(CHRHOF)