A handful of racehorses are off to a quick start in 2025, racking up wins, earnings and season's records.
Trot Insider takes a look at some of the top ranked Standardbreds in Canada and their on-track achievements through the first quarter of the year.
Ten horses are tied for most wins in Canada this year with six successful starts each, including trotters Esquire and Macallan, and pacers Beach Myst, Better B Something, Brodys Scrapper, B Stoney, Favaro Seelster, Our Max Phactor N, Tells Bells and Wifey Said So. Thirteen horses have recorded five wins this year.
A pair of top-winning pacing mares achieved their victories while campaigned by trainer Jodie Cullen, including homebred Wifey Said So as well as Tells Bells, who has a new home after being claimed in her last start.
Two more hail from the Francis Guillemette stable with veteran pacers Brodys Scrapper and Our Max Phactor N still racking up victgories at ages 14 and 13, respectively. The 12-year-old claiming trotter, Esquire, also earned three of his wins in Guillemette's care.
Based in Western Canada, Beach Myst is the only win leader who is racing outside of Ontario as the pacing mare earned her first two triumphs of the year at Century Mile for trainer Travis Ellis before adding four in a row at Fraser Downs for trainer Rebecca Kanak.
David Menary trains the three leading money-earning horses in Canadian harness racing after the first three months of the year, topped by New Holland Trotting Series champion New Rules, who is the first Standardbreds to reach the six-figure mark. Owned by Pennsylvania's Pollack Racing, the five-year-old Lookslikeachpndale gelding has finished no worse than second through his first nine starts of the season in the top trottng ranks at Woodbine Mohawk Park. He's a five-time winner already this year, with his richest in the $69,000 series final last weekend boosting his earnings to $133,500.
The Menary-trained Mohawk Preferred pacing mares, Blue Pacific ($79,880) and Century Jamila ($75,320), round out the top three richest Standardbreds in the sport.
Another Menary trainee leads the way in the speed category as American History was the first sub-1:50 pacer this year and currently holds the 1:49.3 Canadian season's record that he set in the March 15 leg of the New Holland Pacing Series at Mohawk. The 10-year-old millionaire son of American Ideal, who took a lifetime mark of 1:47 as a three-year-old, is currently owned by Patrick Hill of Fredericton, N.B.
Outlaw Spiced Rum paced the fastest over a five-eighths-mile track so far this year in Canada when the Rod Therres trainee won her a Fillies & Mares Preferred in 1:52.4 at Fraser Downs on March 6.
The time to beat on a half-mile track is 1:53.2 after the Cullen-trained Control The Power's speedy score on March 6 at Flamboro Downs.
The national season's trotting record stands at 1:54.2 and is co-held by the aforementioned New Rules (Jan. 13), the Ben Baillargeon-campaigned Quebec Hanover (Feb. 3), the Meg Crone-conditioned Amigo Volo (March 3) and the Jennifer Pinkerton-trained My Buddy Sam (March 10), all winners at Mohawk.
From limited trotting races contested on the five-eigths-mile tracks through the first months of the year, Southwind Russian and Ciel Bleu are co-fastest with 1:58.4 miles recorded at Rideau Carleton Raceway. The former Stephane Pouliot-trained trotter won a March 1 qualifier over a snow covered track and the latter Guy Gagnon trainee equalled that time winning a March 23 race in 'good' conditions.
Trained by Sara Baillargeon, Dealin With Dewey's 1:56.1 victory in his March 15 assignment at Flamboro Downs is the season's trotting record for a half-mile track.
**All statistics include Canadian starts from Jan. 1, 2025 up to the first Wednesday in April.
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(Standardbred Canada)