Greg Blanchard said an old Charlottetown Driving Park horse named John The Third was the first horse that really captivated his attention and played a key role in his career in racing.
“(John The Third) was a Saturday night top-class horse,” said Blanchard the Raceway Manager at The Raceway at The Western Fair District in London, ON. “I’m going to say I was seven or eight years old when he was around. Emmett ‘Cowboy’ Bernard used to drive him. He was a charismatic horse. I remember he was a great, big round horse. He looked like he was overweight. He had a big gut on him. He carried his head up in the air. He just had a lot of charisma.
“I liked the horse and the driver. The combination was great. I used to love watching him.”
John The Third, a son of Bret Hanover out of Cindys Knight, was owned by Mac Lennan Farms of Charlottetown. The pacer earned $75,012 lifetime over six racing seasons, ending his racing career in 1979. John The Third won 29 of 132 career starts and took his mark of 2:03.4h at age seven at Charlottetown.
Blanchard isn’t sure John The Third was the horse that changed his life per se, but he does think the pacer stoked his interest in the game.
“If there was a horse early on that really captivated my attention and really got me looking at racing it was him.”
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