Page 6 - September 2005 The Game

6 The Game, September 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Inducts Eight New Members
Joe Bakos & Jimmy Brown Pass Away in August
The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame at Woodbine Racetrack inducted eight new members including six horses and two people at the 2005 Induction Ceremony & Fundraising Dinner held at the Toronto Congress Centre in Toronto on August 25.
David Willmot, Chairman and CEO of Woodbine Entertainment Group and harness horse trainer Stew Firlotte are the people to be recognized for their careers and exceptional accomplishments.
The outstanding Standardbred trotters, Glorys Comet and Garland Lobell will also be inducted along with the accomplished Thoroughbreds Cool Reception and Norcliffe. The Veteran's Committee unanimously elected Standardbred Armbro Omaha and Thoroughbred Anita's Son to complete the lineup of 2005 inductees.
David Willmot, owner of Kinghaven Farms, and the person considered to have had the greatest impact on horse racing in North America during the past 10 years will be recognized in the Builders' category.
Industry officials, representing both breeds, have lauded Willmot's influence in rescuing the financially troubled Ontario Jockey Club in the mid 1990s and making it the model for other racetracks. The
55-year-old Chairman and CEO of Woodbine Entertainment and his father, D.G. Willmot, built Kinghaven Farms into one of Canada's premier breeding and
racing stables. Past champions include Izvestia, With Approval, Carotene, Alywow and Play The King. Willmot was the first Canadian to be president of Harness Tracks of America, and is co- owner of Standardbred champions Cabrini Hanover and Southwind Allaire.
Norcliffe, an exceptionally talented racehorse during the 1970s at Woodbine with 14 victories and over $434,066 in earnings, added more lustre to his stature during an abbreviated but impressive stallion career that produced 33 stakes
winners while standing at Gateway Farms, Hyllview and Crescent Farm.
Owned by Lt. Col. Charles Baker, trained by Roger Attfield and ridden by Jeff Fell, Norcliffe was Canada's Horse of the Year in 1976 following a tremendous season that included victories in the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes. He also won the richest races for Canadian-breds at ages two, three and four - the Coronation Futurity, Queen's Plate and Canadian Maturity.
Cool Reception, a son of Nearctic- Windy Answer is regarded as one of the top Canadian breds for his outstanding racing ability but more so for the courage he displayed in finishing second in the 1967 Belmont Stakes while running the last 200 yards of the race on a broken foreleg. Trained for much of his career by Hall of Famer Lou Cavalaris, he won seven races in a row including Canada's two richest events for two-year-olds, the Coronation Futurity and The Cup and Saucer Stakes.
Anita's Son, bred in Ireland but shipped to Canada as a weanling, was a winner of a record 16 stakes races on the Ontario Jockey Club circuit and finished second or third in nine other stakes for owner M.J. (Jim) Boylen's Lanson Farms in Malton, Ont. and Hall of Fame trainer Art Warner. He won races at various distances from six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles and competed on the dirt and the turf. The son of Krakatao
and Anita was Canada's leading handicap horse in 1960 and 1961.
Hastings Park and Fraser Downs' veteran track announcer, Dan Jukich,
hosted the gala ceremony and Dennis Hull, former NHL player with the Chicago Black Hawks and Canada's World Championship team was the featured guest speaker.
Information courtesy of WEG Media Relations Dept.
Dennis Hull, former NHL player with the Chicago Black Hawks and Canada’s World Championship Team, was the guest speaker at this year’s Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Dinner.
Hull was great fun and had the crowd in stitches with his funny stories and jokes.
Following a battle with lung cancer, long-time horseman Joe Bakos passed away at Trillium Healthcare Centre in Mississauga at 4:53 pm on Saturday, August 20. His wife Vera, his daughter-in- law Rita Courtney and his granddaughter Lisa were at his side. He was cremated and a visitation was held on August 22 and a memorial was held the following day at Woodbine Racetrack.
Jimmy Brown began a career on the racetrack in his mid-teens. He worked as a groom for Frank Merrill at tracks which no longer exist in Southern Ontario. He spent more than 20 years with the Ontario Racing Commission before retiring at the same time as his wife Barb to spend their retirement together riding their horses.
Jimmy passed away at 2am on Thursday, August 18 of a heart attack as a result of a battle with a serious illness.
Jimmy leaves behind his wife Barb along with his sons Charlie, Todd and James Jr.. He was cremated and at the family’s request there was no memorial service.
Editor’s Note: There will be feature stories on both Joe Bakos and Jimmy Brown in the next issue of The Game.
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Bob Webb, WEG’s Manager of Fire Safety Services has said that there will be some sort of recognition given to two Woodbine trainers who bravely assisted security personnel to put out a fire which started outside of Barn 18.
The fire was put out after trainers William Therannos and Noel Randall grabbed water hoses to douse the flames coming from a disposal truck and disposal bin which had caught fire after flammable paint from cans leaked down from the bin onto the hot engine of the truck as it was being dumped. There were no reports of injury.
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