The Gold and White Standard

There was nobody quite like Joe O’Brien. With the 25th Anniversary of the O’Brien Awards to be held on his home soil in Prince Edward Island, Melissa Keith looks at the legacy left by a true legend of the sport.

“Harness racing has been good to me from the moment I started helping my dad as a youngster some 40 years ago and if I can serve the sport I love so well by passing on some of the knowledge I have acquired, I feel it is only proper and fitting that I do so.” (Joe O’Brien, Care & Training of the Trotter & Pacer, 1968.)

Joe O’Brien passed away in 1984, but mention his name in P.E.I. or any other enclave of serious harness racing fans, and it’s clear: the gentleman in the gold-and-white driving colours still represents the gold standard in the sport. The trainer-driver from Alberton, PEI was never a self-promoter or controversial figure, yet he left an indelible impression on those who knew him and the industry as a whole.

Scott Daniels worked for O’Brien as a groom for one year. “Joe O’Brien was famous by the time I went to work for him, because he had won numerous big races,” says the former Standardbred Canada director. “He had won the Hambletonian and the Little Brown Jug and he started here in the Maritimes and worked his way to the States. He was known as a master horseman, and that’s what he was.”

“The first time I saw Joe O’Brien, I would be about seven or eight years old. I went to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia with my father [Frank Daniels], who took a horse out there and raced against him.” That day, he recalls, the elder Daniels finished 2-2-2 in the heats while O’Brien was 3-3-3 and “a fella by the name of Heber Sweeney” won.

Daniels remembers his employer as “very low-key, very easy-around-a-horse”, a man who could calm even the most temperamental equines, but had little appreciation for irresponsible workers. “What he liked, he liked people who were sober! I was a kid and didn’t drink and loved to work, so he and I got along real good.” He witnessed O’Brien’s ingenuity in designing custom pieces of harness, and his kindness, in lending him $10 or $20 if he needed it before payday. “He used to tease me and say, ‘You’re sending too much money back home!’”

As for Joe’s expertise in the sulky, Daniels says few drivers could come close. “He could take on anybody [driving today] because the one thing he had was patience, and he could wait. You’d never see him getting all over a horse at the wire. Another thing he was a master at was rating a horse. He knew if that horse could go in 2:00, he knew there was a quarter in :29, :28 — he could even it out. The guys that worked for him used to say he had a stopwatch in his head.”

Daniels was groom to two mares that O’Brien had in Shafton, California. After he returned to the Maritimes to work with his father’s stable at Sackville Downs, he remained impressed by his time working for the multiple Hall of Famer. “Here was a guy that had a tremendous amount of talent, was willing to share it, and was a gentleman. He was known as ‘Gentleman Joe’, and that’s the way he conducted himself and his business.”

(Joe O'Brien Photo Gallery -- Click Here)

Wayne Pike, a Newfoundlander by birth and Islander by choice, says the great horseman’s influence extends into the way that racing pervades P.E.I. culture. The Executive Director of the P.E.I. Harness Racing Industry Association describes O’Brien as a provincial hero who elicited widespread appreciation throughout his career, but also a humble man who was dedicated to the industry for the love of it. “We pride ourselves here in Prince Edward Island in doing the very best for harness racing, and we’ve done very well. We have a volunteer board who are exceptional people, every one of them,” Pike explains. “Their goal is ‘what can we do to make harness racing better on Prince Edward Island?’, and really, our government has supported that ideal. There’s nothing selfish about it.”

“One of the reasons I would say that Joe O’Brien is significant is he comes from the same cut of cloth—you know, people who just find harness racing exhilarating.”

Pike notes that like local NHL star Brad Richards’ Stanley Cup, O’Brien’s Grand Circuit, Elitlopp and other victories put Prince Edward Island on the international radar. “We kind of got hooked into Joe O’Brien and as a result of that, we all got to like harness racing. His successes were phenomenal, beyond what anybody would expect.”

“Now there were others who may have had equal success professionally, as good harness racing trainers and drivers,” says Pike, “But in addition to all that, Joe O’Brien also had a fantastic personality.”

Through inspiration and example, the classy horseman motivated generations of Islanders. “Once the field is set for planting, which Joe O’Brien has done, numerous seeds can be developed. A seed can grow into a plant,” observes Pike. “It’s very much a family affair, but not exclusive. A lot of sports, if you’re on the periphery, people kind of push you away. Harness racing is all-encompassing — it’s ‘Come on in! This is great stuff!’” Pike’s own involvement in the game came out of local friends inviting him to join them at the races. Now, he encourages others to enjoy the same pastime, whether at Charlottetown and Summerside’s pari-mutuel facilities or P.E.I.’s five matinee tracks.

Pike says that the holding the 25th anniversary of the O’Brien Awards in P.E.I. is more than a symbolic gesture. “It just gives credibility to something that exists. It gives due credit to all of Prince Edward Island, not just to Joe O’Brien,” he stresses. “It gives me credit, it gives the government of P.E.I. credit. It gives every last man, woman and child credit for having been involved in the harness racing industry, and its number one proponent and head of everything would be Joe O’Brien.”

As for the kind of event that Islanders have planned for February 7th to 9th, Pike says visitors “should expect, and will receive, the ultimate.” He mentions the 1994 World Driving Championships, which were conducted at various Canadian tracks, including Charlottetown Driving Park. “We got testimony from each and every one [of the nine international drivers] ; they made a point of getting back in touch with us and said they’d never seen anything like the harness racing on P.E.I., the level of commitment.”

There was one special factor that added to the World Driving Championship’s Charlottetown leg, Pike adds. “We packed the place!”

P.E.I. is the home of the Joe O’Brien Stakes for colts at Summerside and Charlottetown. Pike says choosing the name was obvious; the stake was devised as the male counterpart to the already-successful Lady Slipper Stakes for fillies. Both emerged from an effort to promote the breeding and ownership of locally-bred young horses.

The spirit of Joe O’Brien continues in another notable way, according to Pike. “One of the things we’re trying to do on Prince Edward Island, and the Maritimes, through the Maritime Harness Racing Industry Commission, is to cut down on the use of whips and any goading device,” he explains. “It’s just counterproductive and the other thing is, it just doesn’t contribute to the fans’ positive experience, seeing a horse get beaten to try to get another inch out of them.” To grow the fan base and perpetuate the sport, Pike says the ways of Gentleman Joe should be encouraged among its participants. “One thing we’ve recognized is that Joe O’Brien saw that a long time ahead of everybody else, because that’s the way he drove. He drove very supportively of the horse.”

Larry Resnitzky knows what he likes to see in a driver. The managing editor of Atlantic Post Calls has followed harness racing for 57 years, by his own recollection, and covered it for Post Calls, The Canadian Sportsman and Sports Rap, the nationally-syndicated radio sports talk show which he co-hosted with friend “Postie” Connolly. “We always sought out the best of each sport and tried to have them on our show as guests. So Joe O’Brien was on in 1983; that was our ninth show out of 500 live, one-hour, phone-in shows we did.”

Although Sports Rap was not yet syndicated when O’Brien was the guest (on the line from Shafter, California), the phones lit up, says Resnitzky. “There were so many callers, it was just crazy,” he remembers. People wanted to know who was the best horse he ever drove (Scott Frost), and whether it was true he had once won 11 heats on a single race card (he said it was so long ago, he wasn’t sure). Multiple callers wanted to know about the great mare Fresh Yankee. O’Brien talked about yearling selection and the importance of the maternal side of the pedigree, and the emerging problem of medications in racing. “He knew everything there was to know about a horse, on and off the track” says Resnitzky, “but unless you asked him, he wouldn’t be talking about it. He had a very modest way about him.”

When he visited Sweden for the 2010 Elitlopp, Resnitzky says he discovered how far-reaching the influence of Joe O’Brien truly was. “The Swedes are very, very particular about the urging rule and they do not ever like to see a horse touched unnecessarily—and they mean it. [...] The moment I said I’m from P.E.I., they immediately identified me as someone from the land of Joe O’Brien and Wally Hennessey,” Island reinsmen who had gained international respect.

“If everybody on the track was a Joe O’Brien, this industry would be flourishing,” adds Resnitzky, who praises horsemen like Jacques Hebert, Phil Pinkney, Kenny Arsenault, Paul MacDonell, Trapper MacQuarrie and the late Joe Hennessey (father of Gordie, Dan, Jody and Wally) for putting the horse first. As for trainers with positive tests and drivers who violate the urging rule, Resnitzky argues that they should become ineligible for future O’Brien Award consideration. “You need to measure up — otherwise, why call it the O’Brien Awards?”

While his morning line odds for perfect weather on O’Brien Award weekend are “33-1”, the editor and lifelong race fan calls moving the 2014 ceremonies to Charlottetown “a good decision on behalf of Standardbred Canada.” Resnitzky observes that despite Atlantic Canadians comprising up to 20 percent of S.C. members, there is a common view that the national body’s main focus has been on Central Canada. With P.E.I. hosting the awards for the first time, “it will certainly soften that image of S.C. in this region, and that’s a good thing for this part of the world.”

“I have an image of the event,” Resnitzky continues, “They’re going to get a glimpse of what this place is all about. Number one, we’re looking at the seat of Confederation, and second, there will be live racing at one of the nicest facilities in North America.” From the talented trainer/driver colony to the exceptional food and service at the Red Shores Charlottetown venue, he says “I know it will be a first-class event.”

Incidentally, it’s Joe O’Brien’s nephew whom Resnitzky credits with being the driving force in revitalizing P.E.I.’s racing industry for the future, and transforming Charlottetown Driving Park and Summerside Raceway into state-of-the-art facilities. While that work was accomplished during Mike O’Brien’s time as a deputy minister in the provincial government, Resnitzky notes that when Mike trained and drove horses, he helped build on Gentleman Joe’s legacy as well. “Respect for the horse would be paramount, putting on a good show for the fans, and keeping fans coming back for more.”