Page 4 - The Game July 2006

4 The Game, July 2006 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Hall of Fame Constantly Expanding
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By Peter Gross
The month of June opened with an understated wine and cheese get-together at the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame at Woodbine. The gathering served three purposes, as described by Hall Director Louis Cauz, who took over the project ten years ago.
“We wanted to bring together and introduce the associate members and have them receive their Hall of Fame pins,” said Cauz, who has been involved with horse racing since the early 60s, “As well, we’re showing off the first part of our three-year renovation of the hall so that every horse that has ever been induct- ed since 1976 would have their
picture and story put up on the wall. We’re becoming much more democ- ratic in that process. And the third part of the day was to introduce the eleven new members to the Hall of Fame. They will inducted 24th at the Mississauga Convention Centre.”
Woodbine’s in-house announcer/handicapper Jim Bannon was the Master of Ceremonies and emphasized the importance of individual contributions to the Hall.
“The Hall of Fame would like to
recognize those that are associate
members because by lending finan-
cial support they help keep alive
these stories that are so important to our entire fabric front and centre,” said Bannon.
Several people with remarkable ties to the history of horse racing in Canada stepped up to accept the attractive pins. Among the deserving recipients were Sam Lima of the Toronto Thoroughbred Racing Club, Rebecca Bannon, Jim’s 12-year-old daughter who made a personal donation, and Bridget Bimm of the Jockey Club of Canada who not only pretty well single-handedly puts together the Sovereign Awards every year, but is the ideal person to call when you need hard-to-find information on an obscure sire. Bannon paid tribute to the recently deceased Steve Stavro who had a profound influence.
“The impact that Steve had as a breeder, as an owner and as an executive has moved this game along significantly,” said Bannon. “And he is responsible for some of the greatest upsets in Canadian Racing history.”
Stavro’s shockers include Benburb winning the 1992 Prince of Wales, beating Alydeed, and in that same year, hitting the wire ahead of A.P Indy in the Molson Export Million and paying $65.50. In 1999, Stavro’s Thornfield won the 1999 Canadian International as the longest shot on the board at 19-1.
Brandon Winchell is a pilot with United Airlines, but he grounded his jets long enough to accept his pin. Winchell’s history of racing in this country has some long and historic texture.
“He’s the great-great grandson of Abe Orpen,” explained Cauz, “Orpen was a racetrack owner, a great philanthropist and entrepreneur who staged the Man O War, Sir Barton match race at Kenilworth park in Windsor, in 1920.”
Cauz would not specify how much Winchell has donated to the hall, except to quantify it as the largest individual donation ever received.
Others recognized for their generosity to the Hall were Steve and Peter Nixon whose great-grandfather J.J. Nixon saddled five King’s Plate winners, Mel Lawson from the Jim Dandy Stable, Bruce Paquette a great supporter of horse racing and Syd Cooper whose RMC Stable raced John The Magician.
Those who have visited the Hall of Fame previously will notice the significant changes. Until now, several inductees might have
suffered by minimal description. Cauz has amended that by creating a wing with pictures and rewrites of every horse welcomed to the Hall since 1976.
“Every horse is going up,” said Cauz, “It was a challenge to create extra space because we’ve put up 56 story lines and pictures of those horses. Every story has been updated with complete career statistics, so if a horse was a stallion, like Northern Dancer or Nijinsky II there is now complete information on the great horses heproduced.”
In a few unfortunate cases, there have been no available visual renderingsofhistoricracehorses.
Louis Cauz, hall of Fame Managing Director, reveals the new panels now on display.
“We were looking for Gallant Kitty, Major Presto and Duchess of York,” said Cauz with a touch of remorse, “And there’s two from 1860 that we’ll never get - Yellow Rose and Terror. Yellow Rose is the dam of Don Juan, the first Queen’s Plate winner, 1860 and Wild Rose who won it in 1867. Her daughters produced Queen’s Plate winners as well and Terror was the sire of four Queen’s Plate winners.”
Both Cauz and Bannon felt it was important for the Hall to attract some attention to itself because it will cost about $150,000 over the next three years to complete this phase of expansion. Woodbine generously rents the space for
$1 a year (or five of those 20 cent superfectas), but the historic museum relies on the generosity of those who believe in the game. “Our main fundraiser is the dinner in August where we induct the new members,” said Cauz, “Anyone interested can go into our website and learn about our associate membership and how to get
a donation form.”
The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame depends on the
industry. Cauz says it gets great support from the HPBA and the OHHA and recently they have solicited contributions from Alberta and British Columbia and other provinces that have produced significant contributions to the history of racing.
“Because this is the Canadian Hall of Fame,” emphasized Cauz “If you look at the birthplaces of the horses, jockeys, trainers and builders you’ll see that more than half are from out of Ontario.”
On August 24 at the Mississauga Convention Centre, eleven worthy names will be inducted into the Hall. Bannon feels that the elective process can sometimes be a cruel one.
“When you consider the importance of some candidates, it’s staggering that they didn’t get in,” he said, “But some of them are left there with ten or eleven votes and you need twelve to get in and sometimes it’s heartbreaking, but on the other side those that do get in you know that you in a very exclusive club.”
And talk about your Hall of Fame Calibre guy. Guest speaker at the Induction Ceremonies will be legendary jockey Pat Day.
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