TORONTO, April 26, 2023 - The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame has announced its 2023 class of inductees, with luminaries of Ontario Racing featured heavily in the class led by world record holder Bulldog Hanover.
An OSS Super Final Champion at two, the son of Shadow Play won a division of the Somebeachsomewhere, and was just shy of $1 million dollars in earnings at the end of his three-year-old campaign.
At age four he had one of the greatest seasons in harness racing history, posting a record of 14-1-0 in 16 starts, and pacing a new world record mile of 1:45.4 in the William R. Haugton at the Meadowlands.
When he retired from racing at the end of 2022, Bulldog Hanover’s lifetime stats included a record of 28-4-1 in 37 starts and earnings of $2,789,271. Bulldog Hanover is now in his second career, standing stud at Seelster Farms in Lucan, Ont.
Pure Ivory was the female standardbred inductee. The trotting daughter of Striking Sahbra was a two-time O’Brien Award winner and amassed over $1.4 million in her career. As a broodmare she is the mother of 2019 Hambletonian winner Forbidden Trade.
On the thoroughbred side Pink Lloyd was inducted in the Male Horse category. Unraced at two the Ontario Bred son of Old Forrester had a remarkable race record of 29-3-2 in 38 starts from ages three to eight.
In 2017 at age four he went a perfect 8 for 8, all in stakes races and won the Sovereign Award for Horse of the Year. He won a total of eight Sovereign Awards in his illustrious career.
Ontario Bred Formal Gold was inducted in the veteran category. Formal Gold had four graded stakes wins in his four-year-old campaign winner with victories in the G1 Donn Handicap, G1 Woodward, G2 Philip H. Iselin Handicap, and G2 Brooklyn Handicap.
He was placed in graded stakes five additional times during his career, and ran fifth in the 1996 G1 Breeders’ Cup at Woodbine Racetrack.
In the human categories R. Glenn Sikura, the owner/operator of Hill ‘n’ Dale Canada, located in King, Ont., was inducted as a thoroughbred builder.
R. Glenn Sikura, has contributed to Canadian Thoroughbred racing as a breeder, owner, and sales agent while also holding key positions with organizations representing various aspects of the Canadian Thoroughbred industry.
To date Sikura has sold 148 stakes horses that have won over $80,000,000 and 2,500 races, and it is estimated that he personally has delivered most of the approximately 1,500 horses foaled at the farm.
The two standardbred human inductees are Ontario based as well.
Chris Christoforous was nominated in the driver category and Dr. Lloyd S. McKibbin, DVM was inducted as a standardbred builder.
Christoforou has been driving Standardbred horses for 33 consecutive years, beginning in 1990 and continuing until the present time.
In 1993 at the age of 21, Christoforou became the second youngest driver to win a prestigious Breeders Crown race when he drove family owned Earl captured to victory in the Open Trot division at Mohawk.
He has also driven Hall of Famers Astreos and Peaceful Way, and is a 10 time Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final winner.
Dr. McKibbin is considered a pioneer in the advancement of equine veterinary medicine. A graduate of Ontario Veterinary College in 1952, Dr. McKibbin, decided to specialize in equine care, and more specifically lameness, treated patients with acupuncture, cryosurgery and laser therapy.
He was also among the very first people to advocate swimming horses for therapeutic purposes.
Horse owners travelled from far and wide to his small, unassuming clinic in Wheatley, ON for treatment using the ground-breaking methods he employed, all the while acting in the best interest of his equine patients.
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