Fifty years ago, the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame honoured its first class of inductees, and what a group it was.
by Jennifer Morrison
You can only imagine the daunting task a group of Canadian horse racing publicists, officials, media members and horsepeople had when selecting the first inductees to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
The creation of a Hall of Fame was a long time coming, considering the history of horse racing in Canada dates back to the late 1700s. It wasn’t until 1973, when a group of passionate horse racing publicists, writers and officials from across the country began to discuss the idea at the annual meeting of the National Association of Canadian Racetracks (NACRT) convention. It was time the sport recognized the early greats and contemporary humans and horses of Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing in this country.
“I had been thinking about a Canadian Hall of Fame for horse racing for some time,” said Bruce Walker, former longtime publicist for the Ontario Jockey Club (OJC) and today an inductee of the Hall of Fame. “We had a lot of racing writers back then covering the NACRT but they had little to write about as the meetings were held behind closed doors. I thought announcing inductees into a Hall of Fame was a perfect way to wrap up the convention.”
For three years, the Hall of Fame “committee” devised rules and regulations, discussed a possible physical site for the Hall (that wouldn’t come for 20 years) and developed an induction gift of a ring, much like the Stanley Cup ring worn by one of the Hall’s founders, NHL legend John Ferguson.
“John was the one who offered to travel to Saratoga to meet with the officials of the National Museum and Horse Racing Hall of Fame to examine their rules,” Walker said.
The first inductees were announced in 1976: 24 members of the Thoroughbred side and 20 in Standardbred racing.
Appropriately, two of the first builders of horse racing in Canada were among these initial inductees.
E.P. Taylor, founder of the famed Windfields Farm in Oshawa, ON and Maryland, and J. Elgin Armstrong of Armstrong Brothers, each put Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing and breeding on the international stage.
Taylor (
above / Skip Ball photo) consolidated a dozen racetracks in Ontario and built Woodbine racetrack in 1956. He created, and became president of, the Ontario Jockey Club and bred the most important stallion of the 20
th century, Northern Dancer, the first Canadian-bred to win the Kentucky Derby. Northern Dancer joined Taylor on the list of first Hall of Fame inductees as did Taylor-bred Nijinsky II, a son of Northern Dancer who won the 1970 English Triple Crown, and Taylor’s Belmont Stakes and Queen’s Plate winner Victoria Park.
Armstrong and his brother Ted founded ABC Farms near Brampton, ON, the famous orange barns that produced Standardbreds that won or produced winners of every major race in North America such as the Little Brown Jug, Cane Pace, Messenger, and others. Armstrong had a blue hen collection of broodmares and stood the top stallions in the sport.
Armbro Flight, bred by Elgin (
above), Ted and Charles Armstrong, was also an original Hall of Fame inductee with three Horse of the Year titles in the 1960s, five world records and 51 wins from 65 starts. Armbro Flight became one of Canada’s great broodmares, producing Hambletonian winner and millionaire Armbro Goal and world champion Armbro Regina.
Another Armstrong star, Dotties Pick, also made the grade in that first year of Hall of Fame inductions as a top class race mare and producer.
Seven other formidable builders were inducted in 1976 on the Thoroughbred side including Joseph Seagram who won 15 Queen’s or King’s Plates and played a role in the creation of the Ontario OJC. His horse Inferno, considered Canada’s first great racehorse, was also a member of the inaugural Hall of Fame class.
William Hendrie was a founding father of the OJC whose Butter Scotch won the Plate and had sons go on to have integral roles in Canadian racing and breeding. Jean-Louis Levesque developed one of the most successful racing and breeding operations in the 1970s and one of his greatest homebreds, La Prevoyante, was undefeated in 1972 in Canada and the U.S.
Canadian owner Commander J.K. L. Ross and his Kentucky Derby and Triple crown winner Sir Barton were both inducted in the first year of the Hall.
Among the champions who rode or drove the great horses and were pledged into the 1976 Hall of Fame were Canadian born rider George Woolf and Canadian resident John Longden plus driver Herve Filion, who set a longstanding record of 637 wins in one season in 1968, and Joe O’Brien (
above), a trainer, owner and driver considered one of the best horsemen in the sport.
THE FIRST 44 INDUCTEES
Thoroughbred Builders
William Hendrie
Jean-Louis Lévesque
T.C. Patteson
Commander J.K.L. Ross
Joseph E. Seagram
Robert James Speers
Austin C. Taylor
E.P. Taylor
Thoroughbreds
Bunty Lawless
Duchess of York
George Royal
Horometer
Inferno
Joey
Kingarvie
La Prevoyante
Nijinsky II
Northern Dancer
Shepperton
Sir Barton
Victoria Park
Jockeys
George Woolf
Johnny Longden
William (Smokey) Saunders
Standardbred Inductees
Builders
J. Elgin Armstrong
Lt.-Col. Dan MacKinnon
Maurice Michaud
The Hon. Earl Rowe
Drivers/Trainers
Herve Filion
Vic Fleming
Joe O’Brien
Roger White
Standardbreds
Armbro Flight
Chilcoot
Dominion Grattan
Dotties Pick
Dr Stanton
Fresh Yankee
Grattan Bars
Invincible Shadow
Silent Majority
Strike Out
Tie Silk
Winnipeg
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