While horses bred and sired in Canada now regularly compete with and often defeat the world's best, there was a time not too long ago that a Canadian-sired horse winning on the Grand Circuit was a very big deal.
In the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, one of the horses that was able to break through and help elevate Canadian harness racing was trotting titan No Sex Please.
Born 35 years ago today (May 6, 1985) No Sex Please was a son of Brisco Hanover from the Reflected Way mare Gay Ann Herbert. Bred by Earl Lennox, No Sex Please was owned and trained by Ron Waples Jr. Over a career that spanned 137 starts, No Sex Please retired with 51 wins, 35 seconds and 19 thirds. Among the world records he established were: fastest aged trotter on a five-eighths-mile track while winning the 1989 Maple Leaf Trot at Greenwood Raceway; fastest aged gelding on a mile track in capturing the 1990 Speedy Scot Trot at the Red Mile in Lexington, Ky., and fastest aged gelding on a five-eighths mile track when he won the 1990 Breeders Crown at Pompano Park.
It took seven years for a Canadian-sired horse to win a Breeders Crown. But on November 2, 1990, No Sex Please stepped onto the racetrack at Pompano and made history with that world record performance in the $221,458 Breeders Crown Open Trot. Scratched sick from the Breeders Crown the previous season, No Sex Please was the favourite in the 1990 edition.
“He’d been racing good [heading into the Breeders Crown],” recalled Waples Jr. in an interview with Trot Insider. “If I remember correctly, before he hit Florida he won in [1]:55, which was a world record at the time in Lexington, Ky. in the Speedy Scot. He had actually tied up just before that so he was pretty good then and I assumed, you never know, but with my dad driving him and everything he seemed to be good going into it. Whether he would win it or not, I expected him to race well.”
Although Waples Jr. had to watch the race from home in Ontario after missing his flight to Florida due to a water line break at his farm, the victory was no less thrilling for the 26-year-old trainer.
“I think it opened up the door for a lot of Ontario-breds,” said Waples Jr. reflecting on the milestone for Canadian harness some three decades later. “I think before that nobody really thought they could go with the American horses. After that, I think people started to take notice of the breeding and the Sires Stakes up here, and especially when Balanced Image came along, it seemed the floodgates opened and then there were all kinds of Americans buying up Ontario-bred horses.”
An injury limited starts for No Sex Please in 1991, and in his absence another another Ontario-sired star -- Billyjojimbob -- came to the fore in the older trotting ranks. No Sex Please returned to win his second Breeders Crown at age seven in 1992.
“I was always just happy to see him perform up to his ability,” said Waples Jr.
With a one-two punch of a flawless gait and intelligence, No Sex Please displayed the qualities of a champion.
“He was so long-gaited, very long-gaited, he strode out as much up front as he did behind and covered so much ground in a stride,” said Waples. “That was probably one of his biggest qualities and just his smarts, he was pretty smart.”
No Sex Please provided his trainer with an extensive highlight reel. In addition to his two Breeders Crown titles, the Ontario Sires Stakes graduate won three editions of the Maple Leaf Trot. He was a three-time CTA/O’Brien Award winner in 1987, 1989 and 1990.
The 1989 Maple Leaf Trot was conducted in heats, and Waples Sr. recalled losing the first heat and having to convince his son to make a change for the final.
"Junior never liked to change much, if it was a certain way, that's the way he wanted it. After the first heat I finished second, and I said to Junior 'can we make a change?' and Junior said 'what?', and I said 'can we make a change? We can win the next one.'"
"'Well, what?'"
"I said, 'No, you have to tell me if we can make a change!'"
"'Well, what do you want?!'" he said.
"I said 'you go back and put a blind bridle on him.' 'Alright', he said. Well, we put the blind bridle on him and we won, and then somebody interviewed and I said the same thing, and they fined Junior $200 for changing the equipment," laughed Waples Sr.
“There were so many races and they weren’t all wins. There was times when he was second that I was just as proud of him,” said Waples Jr., recalling a gritty showing while facing the who’s who of open horses as a sophomore from the 10-hole in the March Of Dimes at Garden State Park and a later runner-up finish to Reve D’Udon in the 1-1/4 mile International Trot at Yonkers after being interfered with early in the race. “He’s always done well by me.”
Often praised for his excellent management of No Sex Please in choosing to geld him, giving him breaks at the right times through the racing season and supplementing him to open stakes, the humble horseman to this day still deflects credit to the horse.
“I was always happy to see the horse race good because he deserved it,” said Waples Jr. “I never felt I did a good job or anything else, it was just the horse. If the horse was healthy, he would be right there. That’s how I always felt; I just wanted him to be good just for him.
“I didn’t feel any pressure because I bought him [myself] and I didn’t buy him to be that type of horse. I didn’t pay much for him. He was $12,500 or something like that. Well, it was a fair amount of money then, but I had some luck with some other horses. It was about all the money I had though. But no, I didn’t feel pressure myself that way.”
Waples Sr. and Randy Waples handled the majority of the driving duties on No Sex Please, and both fondly recall the Hall of Fame trotter to this day.
"A gentleman to drive and a beast to compete with," Randy Waples told Trot Insider. "Would fight tooth and nail and was simply the best of his time. And perfectly managed, too."
"If there's such a thing as a perfect horse, he'd be very close to it," stated Ron Sr. "He had all the manners in the world and all the gait in the world, he had speed and he was very durable. Junior did a hell of a job with him."
Each season Waples would point No Sex Please towards the Su Mac Lad at The Meadowlands as his first big test in February, and after time off, would return for other major stakes. Over the years, he won five legs in total and a final of that series.
“As far as managing him, it was a lot easier then to manage a horse than it is now because really there was only about three or four stakes for aged trotters, that was it. So you really didn’t have to keep him going like they do now. It was a lot easier. These guys now, I don’t know how they do it. They’re trotting in [1]:51 every week, it’s insane now. I don’t know how the hell they do it now.”
With more than $1.88-million in purse earnings, No Sex Please retired from racing at the age of eight in 1993 as the richest Canadian-sired horse of all time. He was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame the same year.
No Sex Please enjoyed his retirement at Waples’ farm in Fergus, Ont. with barn buddies Oaklea Count and Stormont Ablaze. He competed in halter classes at some of the first Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society horse shows in Milton, Ont., earning top honours. The trotter also made special appearances at Legends Day, Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots Championships, and anniversary celebrations for Dufferin County. He remained in good health until he passed away from a structure colic in the summer of 2011 at age 26.
Great horse or not, they
Great horse or not, they still have to be managed properly and this horse was managed 100 percent. Kinda reminds me of San Pail. As for the $200 Jr., the best $200 you ever spent! Always seemed to me Ronnie never had him in a bad spot, talk about a steal at 5%.