The Alberta harness racing community has lost one of its lifelong champions with the passing of Diann Clouston on Feb. 25, 2026, at the age of 78. Diann’s life was woven into the very fabric of Standardbred racing in Western Canada.
Diann was introduced to harness racing at an early age through her father Owen, a trainer-owner who raced throughout Western Canada starting in the mid-1960s. From those formative years in the barn and at the track, she developed a deep and abiding love for the Standardbred horse and the people who devote their lives to the sport.
She was the older sister of Rod Hennessy, one of the most accomplished driver-trainers in the history of harness racing in Western Canada.
In 1979, Diann and her husband Wayne Clouston claimed their first horse, Mutatis Mutandis, who went on to earn Alberta Claimer of the Year honours. Wayne had begun his career in the industry working for brother-in-law Rod, and together he and Diann built a life centered on racing — as owners, breeders and horsepeople committed to the sport’s growth.
As a breeder, Diann's Mutatis Mutandis became the dam of Viking Pirate, who was named Alberta’s Three-Year-Old Colt of the Year and Top Alberta-Bred. Alongside Wayne, they operated Sky West Farms, out of Okotoks Alta., where they stood multiple sires including Western Canada’s dominant sire Tyrant. Sky West Farms became Pacer Park in which they co-owned and operated as a racing center focussing on breaking and training yearlings for notable trainers such as Keith Clark, John Baxter and numerous others.
In the 1990s, Diann and Wayne, together with their youngest son Jason, operated a successful racing stable that campaigned stakes winners including Battle River Hawk, Flaming Princess and Pay The Fiddler.
Her influence extended well beyond the racetrack and breeding shed. Throughout much of the 1980s and early 1990s, Diann served as owner, editor and publisher of The Western Pace, a monthly newspaper devoted to covering harness racing across Western Canada. Diann ensured that horsepeople, horse achievements and industry milestones were documented and celebrated. Diann also dedicated several years of service as office manager for the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association (ASHA), further demonstrating her commitment to strengthening the industry from every angle — administrative, journalistic, breeding and ownership.
In recent years, Diann came full circle in the sport she loved through shared ownership of Preferred pacer Outlaw Game On, trained by her brother Rod Hennessy. It was a fitting chapter bringing her lifelong journey in harness racing beautifully back to its roots.
Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Diann Clouston.
Diann Clouston
I have always felt Diann did more to keep racing alive in Western Canada than anyone else I know. And I think it is a shame this woman is not in a Hall of Fame somewhere as a builder. The Western Pace alone did more to keep us current than anything. Maybe it’s time Western Canada opened a Standardbred Hall of Fame and she could be the first inductee. Rest well lady.
Diann Hennessy-Clouston
The theme song for Diann's Celebration Of Life should be Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi stating "Don't it always seem to go that you don't what you've got 'til it's gone, They paved paradise and put up a parking lot." Because it was Diann, more than anybody else, who was the thread of life keeping prairie harness racing alive and breathing at its lowest points, seemingly a lone voice as owner-editor-writer of The Western Pace at one low point.
It was early 1960s when Diann's father, Owen Hennessy, won in about 2:18.2 at Edmonton with a 2-year old pacer named Rusty Counsel. That brought cries of "What are they trying to do ... kill that poor two-year old going so fast?" and a $2000 sale to Buster Marks of B.C. A couple of years later, Buster turned down a $20,000 offer for Rusty Counsel at Hollywood Park only to find Rusty Counsel lame in his stall the next morning (he came back to be an Invitational Pace star in the West).
And let's not forget Diann's many years as Alberta Standardbred Horse Association office manager.
Western harness racing thanks you, Diann, for your many decades of dedication - a job well done.