Dr. Moira Gunn (BVM&S) was born in Scotland, and started her career working with Thoroughbreds in the UK. After spending part of her childhood in the U.S., she eventually made her way back to North America as an adult, where she focussed on becoming a leading reproduction veterinarian, and later became most well-known as the farm manager, senior vet, and eventually, the president of Armbro Farms. Her story is impressive, and here she shares part of what was her road from Edinburgh, to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. By Melissa Keith.
Elected to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame this year as a Standardbred Builder, Dr. Moira Gunn (BVM&S) said her background didn’t exactly start out with much exposure to harness racing.
“I’m from a Scottish family,” she told TROT. “My father was a pilot in the war; my mother was involved in the war effort as well. They immigrated after the war, so I was born in the U.S., along with my sisters. Later in life, they returned to Scotland. So I finished up my schooling and I went to university in Scotland.”
Given the much greater popularity of another racing breed in the United Kingdom, Gunn began her career with them. “I started off working in England with the Thoroughbreds. So really, most of my younger life and early veterinary career was focused around Thoroughbred racehorses,” she said.
The equine veterinarian is a lifelong equestrian with a love for all horses.
“I grew up in the saddle,” recalled Gunn. “From the age of four, I was in the saddle, starting with Quarter Horses in Texas. In Scotland, I started cross country, point to point… My horse was a Thoroughbred… I thought my career was going to be with Thoroughbreds. I actually went to the University of Guelph as a veterinarian, to do a one-year internship… I ended up staying for three years.”
She then ventured to New York to continue her practice.
“My next job was at Belmont Racetrack. I was one of two female veterinarians there. So I was working for Dr. Carl Juul Neilson and his secretary Gale Munroe… I don’t think he really liked the idea of doing reproductive work, so I became the reproductive veterinarian.”
She recalled trainers wanting their colts to have standing castrations, because “the quality of the anesthetics we used in those days” sometimes caused a horse to drop hard in the stall where the procedure took place. Horses would sometimes scramble to get up afterwards, which Gunn said very possibly caused “some sacro-iliac issues and soreness”, causing gait changes and even lameness.
“They were probably correct,” added the experienced veterinarian, who has witnessed much change over the course of her career. “Now we do all [castration] under general anesthetic.”
Developing x-rays by hand was the norm; Gunn remembered having access to what was then cutting-edge technology: “We had one of the few automatic processors, in our building at Belmont.”
Her eventual plans to move back to Canada landed Gunn a career-defining role in the Standardbred industry, even though her primary goal was simply to move here.
“I didn’t have a visa for Canada, so I was working on a way to get here. I was at the Standardbred Horse Sale [in Harrisburg] with my future husband, Dr. Michael Colterjohn, looking at the yearlings for clients. He was a very big Standardbred person and I was a Thoroughbred person.”
Armstrong Brothers’ Armbro Farms was one of the leading breeders in the sport at the time, with many horses consigned. Gunn said she located and spoke with farm manager and senior veterinarian Dr. Glen Brown about opportunities at the Inglewood, Ontario farm.
Happily, the outcome was as Gunn had hoped: “I put my application in, and I got hired. There are certain people who give you an entry or help you, and certainly working for Armstrong Brothers and having mentor Dr. Glen Brown totally changed my career trajectory… Absolutely, Glen Brown was my mentor.”
Building on her experience in equine reproductive medicine, Gunn remembered starting out gradually in her new role. “I came in and did foal work, yearling work, a lot of basic practice… very simple work for the first year. I was willing to do whatever work was needed. But things changed, and I was offered the position of farm manager and senior veterinarian, and I decided to take on the challenge.” That was in January 1988. She then became vice-president and, from 2000-2004, president.
An early innovator in areas like embryo transfer and feed analysis, “now commonplace in the equine world” according to Gunn, Armbro Farms remained a top breeder until a dramatic change in 2004. “I ended up staying there until the third generation of the [Armstrong] family [got older],” she said. “Part of the family wanted to divest, in the best interest of all of the family, so we went through that process, and I was going to stay on through the liquidation.”
The toughest part was breaking the news to long-term, “very dedicated” staff, some of whom had worked at the farm for decades. “It was a huge operation, nothing but first class. We certainly had a wonderful operation there,” said Gunn.
She also served as president of the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association (SBOA), was a Standardbred Canada director, and an Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association director, all voluntary roles, during her time at Armbro.
“All of those [roles] were when I was at Armstrong Farms. I left in January 2005, after we had a sale in the fall of 2004 where we liquidated the last mares that we had and we finished with an auction of the farm equipment. We had the final party for the staff… The financial accountant and I stayed on until there wasn’t any more to do. I stayed on until the end,” said Gunn.
The newly-elected CHRHF Standardbred Builder helped introduce additional changes necessary to sustain the Canadian harness racing industry through turbulent times.
“I was part of a team that oversaw the amalgamation of the Canadian Trotting Association and the Canadian Standardbred Horse Society,” said Gunn. “The industry was contracting and I think both boards, the CTA and CSHS, decided that the best option, financially, at that stage, would be to amalgamate those two separate entities [into Standardbred Canada]. It had been decided by the Standardbred Horse Society that we would form a committee to review the best possibilities for industry survival. That’s where the idea came from, to amalgamate the two.”
As at Armbro Farms, Gunn stayed aware of the need to balance present savings with future costs, and not just on the financial side. “You had very valuable long-term staff in both of these organizations [CTA and CSHS], and you had to do the right thing for the industry, but you also had to be very cognizant of the human element, of the uncertainty for certain people,” she said.
Meanwhile, while Gunn was making a name for herself at Armstrong’s, her late husband, Dr. Michael Colterjohn, was working at the Thoroughbred racing and breeding establishment, Gardiner Farms of Caledon, Ontario. Starting there in 1987, he became farm president in 1990. After the passing of founder George Gardiner’s wife Helen Gardiner (in 2008), Colterjohn and Gunn established Paradox Farm Incorporated. Gardiner Farms farm manager Sherry McLean stayed on with the new venture.
“An important point is that it was not about carrying on a legacy. It was so Mike and I could continue in the livestock breeding business with a fantastic broodmare band, which Mike had built as the president of Gardiner Farms,” explained Gunn. “The Gardiner estate was now liquidating the farm’s assets after Helen’s death, so we purchased the livestock. That was the only asset we purchased. Mike was not involved with the estate, other than advising regarding the farm.”
“We moved that livestock to the old Armstrong Farms, where we had leased part of the old farm to house them,” recalled Gunn, adding that the former Armstrong Brothers’ property had a new owner by this time - Lothlorien. Only the stallions remained at the Gardiner Farms site, as the rest of the horses were relocated to the new spot.
“We did not work for Lothlorien. The [Armbro] farm had been sold to Lothlorien, so we were leasing the property from Lothlorien. I knew it inside-out,” said Gunn. “We started our own embryo transfer operation.”
When veterinarians Gunn and Colterjohn began breeding Thoroughbreds there, continuing the Gardiner Farms’ bloodlines at the new location, someone joked that it should be called “Pair of Docs” Farm. The pun didn’t resonate with Gunn, but a sound-alike name did: They named it Paradox Farm.
“The ultimate paradox is that he’s in the Hall of Fame as a Thoroughbred Builder, and he was [originally] the biggest Standardbred guy, who totally did Standardbred racetrack work. And I’m being inducted on the Standardbred side, and I came in first with Thoroughbreds,” said the 2024 honoree.
Always an athlete, Colterjohn battled brain cancer in his final years. “2012 is when we lost him, so I just stepped down from all the boards then,” said a tearful Gunn. “I’m still a big believer in Equine Guelph,” with education programs led by “driving force” director Gayle Ecker having earned Gunn’s praise.
Sherry McLean, whom Gunn called a friend who had been “very instrumental with Gardiner Farms,” helped with the dispersal of the Paradox Farms broodmares soon after Colterjohn’s passing.
“When we took the horses to Kentucky for the sale, it was my sole decision to liquidate,” said Gunn. “We had a reasonable sale [in Kentucky] although we took a hit on any mares in foal to Ontario sires [due to the end of the Ontario Slots at Racetracks Program]. We also sold the stallion Philanthropist to Drakenstein Stud Farm [in Cape Town, South Africa] the same year.”
Gunn would later help Audrey Campbell, mother of Lothlorien owner Sue Grange, select yearlings and broodmare in 2005, for their mother/daughter ownership team. “Audrey was partners with Jeff Snyder, and they owned Rocknroll Hanover [p,3,1:48.3; $3,069,093]… When they eventually became [Standardbred] breeders, Sue Grange asked me if I would help them buy some broodmares.” Gunn was already doing embryo transfer work with Grange’s Warmblood mares.
Grange asked Gunn to select three broodmare prospects to help ensure the success of their now first-crop stallion, 2005 Dan Patch Horse of the Year, Rocknroll Hanover, who was owned by Snyder, Lothlorien, and Peretti Racing Stable. Gunn said she was happy to help.
Gunn said she met with “Pedigree Matching” system developer Norman Hall around that same time. “Norman Hall gave me some [Pedigree Matching software] on a floppy disk. He booked a 30 minute appointment with me. Three-and-a-half hours later… in a nutshell, I am a huge believer. He also asked me to write a forward to a book he wrote, Queen Among Queens [about Standardbred maternal families].”
“So we bought Belovedangel [p,3,1:50.3; $698,471], Please Me Please [p,1:51.2s; $1,033,155], and Kikikatie [p,3,1:50.3; $1,415,566],” recalled the veterinarian. “Sue was on the phone, in my ear [during the bidding], and she [Kikikatie] was the highest-priced mare ever sold. That’s not something you want on your CV, that you bought the most expensive broodmare ever sold,” she said with a laugh. But Kikikatie proved worth the $500,000 investment, with all five living foals retained by Lothlorien taking marks of 1:50 or faster, and each earning six figures on the track.
Two of the five, Rockin Image and Tellitlikeitis, have even gone on to have successful stud careers as well.
“We still have Rockin Image [p,3,1:48.2; $903,424], owned by Lothlorien Farm Corp. of Cheltenham, Ontario,” said Gunn. “We put him in Indiana, when they placed the slots there, and you know, a lot of people told us exactly how they thought he would do, and I’m excited to say their thoughts were completely wrong.” Lothlorien is also standing Tellitlikeitis (p,3,1:48.4s; $513,917) at Victory Hill Farm in LaGrange, Indiana.
“After Audrey passed, Jeff asked Sue to be partners on a couple of yearlings. Jeff had been so good to Audrey, so Sue said yes. Jeff’s team and our team agreed on two yearlings, and they ended up partnering on Well Said [p,3,1:47.3; $2,690,820] - a $240,000 Harrisburg yearling - as well as Venice Menace [p,1:51.2f; $161,305]. Sue only went to the [Little Brown] Jug once in her life, and she won it with Well Said,” Moira smiled.
The late Sue Grange’s daughter, Ariel, has carried on the Lothlorien name in equestrian sports, primarily in show jumping.
No longer active as a working reproductive vet, Gunn has stayed physically active, having recently completed the London Marathon at the time of this interview. “I was self-employed and did reproductive vet work for Sherry [McLean] for a few years, but then I decided that I’m putting down the ultrasound,” she told TROT.
Looking back at how she landed in the field of equine medicine that helped shape her Hall of Fame career, Gunn mentioned how comments from Gale Munroe at Belmont Park guided her towards her focus as a reproductive veterinarian. “She was the office manager for Dr. Carl Juul Neilson. She and I are good friends to this day,” added Gunn.
She also gave “a huge shoutout” to Dr. John Hayes, “a person that I’ve had a business relationship with for many years in this industry, at Armbro, working as a veterinarian, with him as a trainer, and at various functions.”
Gunn also shared her respect for Dr. Bridgette Jablonsky, former farm manager/veterinarian and executive vice-president of Hanover Shoe Farms. Many more women have entered the equine veterinary field since she graduated from The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, Scotland, a fact for which Gunn said she’s grateful: “It’s certainly nice when you apply for a job and know that you have a good chance based on your qualifications.”
Gunn is now married to Marv Chantler, the well-known Standardbred owner/breeder (Mardon Stables). Chantler, the former vice-president of the board of directors for Matthews House Hospice in Alliston, Ontario, won the U.S. Harness Writers Association’s 2016 January Davis Humanitarian Award for his contributions there. Gunn said she’s now gotten her pilot’s license, mentored by Chantler, and has entered “the next phase of [her] life.”
Her only son, Duncan Colterjohn, a Columbia Business School graduate, works in finance in New York.
Congratulations Moira!
