Having a horse good enough to be in contention for the Pepsi North America Cup elims is one thing. To be good enough to make it into the final is a different hurdle altogether.
Having two horses in the final means your horses comprise 20 per cent of the field, leaving just eight spots for every other trainer in the harness racing industry.
Just because you're in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame doesn't make this accomplishment any easier, and it doesn't make it carry any less weight. Just ask Dr. Ian Moore, trainer of Joel And The Jets and Prince Hal Hanover.
With two starters in the 2025 Pepsi North America Cup final, Moore joins the likes of Ron Burke, Bob McIntosh and Jimmy Takter with multiple Cup finalists in three different years. Moore first accomplished the feat in 2011 with Eighteen and Rockabillie, then conditioned Tattoo Artist and Denali Seelster to appearances in the 2020 final. The runner-up finish for Tattoo Artist is his best placing to date.
(For the trivia buffs out there, we'll include the names of the trainer or trainers with multiple North America Cup finalists in four separate years at the end of this article.)
"I knew you were going to say that," said Moore wryly when asked by Standardbred Canada's Jeff Porchak at the 2025 Pepsi North America Cup draw what it would mean to add a North America Cup title to his accomplished resume. "We've won a lot of big races in North America. We've been very fortunate and lucky to have done so, especially the last 20 years say, and never won this. We got a second with Tattoo Artist....but we've never had the fun or the pleasure of winning the race, so it would be a huge thing for me. My time's getting old now, I'm moving on maybe, so there's not going to be many more opportunities for me."
Whether or not Moore will have more opportunities like this remains to be seen, but his two sophomore stars certainly can't be overlooked come post time this Saturday.
"As far as having two in the race, it's a pleasure. It's always enjoyable and a lot of fun — usually — to have a horse in a signature race," added Moore. "Like for me, as a kid for years, it was always the Gold Cup & Saucer and the Governor's Plate...so now to be in the North America Cup again and have a shot, I think it's going to be a lot of fun."
Double the pleasure, double the fun? Depends on the outcome.
Joel And The Jets has been a hard-luck horse for Moore and owners Joel And The Jets Stable of Cambridge, Ont. The son of Stay Hungry - Betty And The Jets sports a 3-2-2 summary from nine starts, but hasn't finished worse than second in his two sophomore appearances. Louis-Philippe Roy, who won this race in 2024, gets the assignment behind Joel And The Jets from post three.
"He's had some troubles this year from something that happened to him when he was a very young horse, I presume," stated Moore. "I know it was a close elimination, but he raced very well and overcame a lot of things there.
"He only trained in 2:15 on Thursday leading up to that race, and that's all he had in three weeks. He had some tying up issues and he's had some lung issues. So I'm hoping that this week he's all over it and ready to go. He should be a lot better this week. I've always felt fondly about him. I'm not sure if he's going to be quite the calibre of Prince Hal [Hanover] but he's right there."
Not as fortunate in the post position draw was the aforementioned Prince Hal Hanover, as the nine-hole became that colt's fate during Monday's draw. Perhaps the purple pill, combined with driver David Miller (a/k/a Purple Jesus) and the saddle pad colour most closely linked to royalty — purple — will present positive vibes to the horse with the regal name.
"Well, I don't want to be boastful or anything like that, but he hasn't got a lot of press, let's put it that way," said Moore of the son of O'Brien Award winners Captaintreacherous and former Moore trainee Percy Bluechip. "This is the first time we've ever had the pleasure of racing a baby out of a mare that we had. So that's kind of the fun as well. It makes it unique because I've had a lot of Shadow Plays over the years and it's been good. He's been good to me in all ways, shapes and forms, and now the mare's being good to me as well."
A hard-closing second-place finisher to Cup morning line favourite Louprint, Prince Hal Hanover sports a 4-5-2 summary from 14 career starts with $477,775 in earnings. He hasn't missed the top three as a sophomore.
"Very nice colt. And if he gets a trip... I know he's going to get a drive from David. So we just hope for the best, let's leave it at that."
Moore also provides his thoughts on how Saturday's million-dollar main event will transpire and offers insight on his Roses Are Red starter Odds On Platinum in this Standardbred Canada video feature, available below.
To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click one of the following links: Pepsi North America Cup Night -- Saturday Entries || North America Cup Card Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT).
(Standardbred Canada; And to answer the trivia question: two trainers, Bill Robinson and Tony Alagna, have qualified multiple horses for a Cup final on four separate occasions to lead all trainers.)