On Friday (Sept. 27) NHL Hall of Famer Doug Gilmour was in attendance at Woodbine Mohawk Park to watch pacing filly Capistrano compete in the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots semi-finals. Gilmour is part of the fractional ownership group that owns Capistrano, and one of three former NHLers with shares in horses managed by Anthony MacDonald's TheStable.ca.
Gilmour was a guest on Mohawk's pre-card show and spoke about the ownership experience with Woodbine's Chad Rozema.
"Anthony's been great, trying to explain it to me...but I'm a hockey player, I've been hit a couple of times," said Gilmour with a smile. "For me, growing up in Kingston, Ontario, we had harness racing back then and my parents would take me maybe once a month. You loved it as a kid, and again last year being down at the barn here afterwards in the stables, it's really cool to see."
The Hall of Famer, who resides in the Burlington area while acting as the President of OHL's Kingston Frontenacs, still enjoys getting out to see the horses and taking in the races when time permits.
"Anytime I have time off, I give Anthony a call and my friend Kenny [Hadall] that knows Anthony really well, is like 'yep, come on out, we'll go see the horses.' It's exciting. Once you get out here, it's like a hockey game and once it starts you're excited about it."
To show how much it meant for him to be at the track for Capistrano's OSS semi-final race, Gilmour even chose harness racing over a Frontenacs home game.
"Our Kingston team is playing tonight, at home against Ottawa, and I had to make some different arrangements for that one. I had the opportunity to come here and I really wanted to see the horse."
Rozema asked Gilmour if there was any rivalry behind the scenes with Gilmour and his fellow NHL alumni involved with TheStable.ca: Eddie Olczyk and Rick Vaive.
"With Rick and I, not really. But when I see Eddie, I'll have to give it to him now that I've figured out where his horse is at. But it will come back to haunt me next year, believe me."
Gilmour and Rozema also discussed the outlook for the Frontenacs team in 2019-20 and beyond, first overall draft pick Shane Wright and his thoughts on the Toronto Maple Leafs for the upcoming season. To listen to the interview, hit the play button below.