Five Ontario Sired horses are the toast of Canada after winning O’Brien Awards in their respective divisions Saturday in Mississauga, ON.
L A Delight, a homebred daughter of Bettors Delight out of West Of L A owned by trainer Bob McIntosh of LaSalle, ON and his partners C S X Stables of Liberty Center, OH and Al McIntosh Holdings Inc, Leamington, ON was named Canada’s two-year-old pacing filly of the year. L A Delight was almost flawless in 2015, winning 11 of 12 starts and $704,000-plus in purses. After a third-place finish in her lifetime debut, she put together an 11-race win streak with Randy Waples at the reins, knocking off many stakes including a season-ending personal best 1:51.2 effort in the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Racetrack.
Canada’s three-year-old pacing filly of the year,
Solar Sister, won eight races and more than $554,000 with several stakes victories including the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Racetrack. The homebred daughter of Mach Three—Cabrini Hanover is owned by David S Willmot of King City ON and Clay Horner of Toronto, trained by Gregg McNair and driven by Doug McNair.
Caprice Hill, voted two-year-old trotting filly of the year, was never worse than third in 10 starts in 2015, while scoring seven wins and bankrolling more than $593,000. She put together an impressive five-race win streak that kicked off with an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold event at Georgian Downs in June, and concluded with an OSS Super Final Win in October. The daughter of Kadabra—Bramasole is owned by Tom Hill of Hamilton, ON and trained by Tony Alagna. Caprice Hill was bred by Hanover Shoe Farms.
Bee A Magician, Canada’s Horse of the Year in 2013, added another O’Brien trophy to her war chest, this time in the older trotting mare division. The Kadabra—Beehive mare had an incredible season winning 10 races, $1.1 million-plus in purse earnings. Her season was highlighted by a spectacular victory in the prestigious Maple Leaf Trot at Mohawk Racetrack for owners Mel Hartman of Ottawa, Herb Liverman formerly of Quebec and Toronto and David McDuffee of Delray Beach, FL. Bee A Magician is trained by Richard “Nifty” Norman and driven by Brian Sears. She was bred by White Birch Farms of New Jersey.
Lady Shadow rounded out the Ontario Sired O’Brien Winners. The Winbak Farm bred took the older pacing mare division for David C Kryway of Amherstburg, ON, Carl L Atley of Xenia, OH, Edwin J Gold, Phoenixville and BFJ Stable of Philadelphia, PA. Lady Shadow, a daughter of Shadow Play—Lady Camella is trained by Ron Adams.
Ontario residents dominated the O’Brien people awards.
Richard Moreau of Puslinch, ON won his third straight trainer of the year title.
Sylvain Filion of Milton, ON won his third career driver of the year award and
Dr. Ian Moore of Guelph, ON earned the O’Brien Award of Horsemanship. Owner/breeders
Al Libfeld of Pickering, ON and
Marvin Katz of Toronto were named the Armstrong Breeders of the Year.
Ron Adams of LaSalle, ON won The Future Star Award.
Cindy Acton, 29, of Woodstock, ON, was honoured with the Outstanding Groom Award for 2015, which was sponsored by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. Acton works for the Ben Wallace Stable.
Moore’s star,
State Treasurer, was named both horse of the year and older pacer of the year.
Other O’Brien Award winners were:
Control The Moment in the two-year-old pacing colt division;
Wakizashi Hanover in the sophomore pacing colt class; Southwind Frank in the two-year-old trotting colt class; Mission Brief in the three-year-old trotting filly division; Pinkman in the sophomore trotting colt class and Resolve in the older trotting horse division.
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