The Canadian Sportsman
Last Call Online
Back To Last Call OnlineJanuary 25, 2010
The latest installment from my weekly Guelph Mercury column…
Saturday was something of a bittersweet night for the connections of Fast Pay at the annual awards dinner for the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario at the Delta Hotel in Guelph.
Just 11 days before the banquet, Fast Pay was found dead, the result of an accident after becoming cast in his stall during the night.
Saturday, Fast Pay, who was driven by Guelph’s Paul MacDonell, will be honoured as the winner of the SBOA’s award for the top three-year-old pacing colt in 2009. The SBOA honours the horses that made the most money in each of eight Ontario Sires Stakes divisions. Fast Pay topped the sophomore pacing colts with earnings of $257,000 in the program.
He also set the fastest mile in OSS history with a 1:49 performance on Aug. 10 at Mohawk Racetrack in Campbellville. The mile was two-fifths-of-a-second faster than the 1:49.2 mark the great Somebeachsomewhere set in 2008 (though Somebeachsomewhere did set a 1:46.4 world record outside of OSS competition).
Lifetime, Fast Pay earned $424,516 and won nine of 32 starts for owners Larry Menary of Cheltenham, Ont., Denis Breton of Welland, Ont. and Phil Silvestri and Joseph Settimi, both of Hamilton.
Menary’s son, David, trained the horse and was the man who picked out and paid $38,000 for the colt as a yearling.
“He was probably my all-time favourite horse,” David told Standardbred Canada the morning of Fast Pay’s death. “He was one of the best ones, and we had so many good times with him.
“He’s one of those once in a lifetime horses, especially for my dad who’s been in harness racing for 40-plus years. I’m glad he had a horse of that calibre.”
Hopefully, a gelding named Haul Away can help ease the pain for the same connections. Haul Away earned $195,720 in the OSS program in 2009 to earn the SBOA’s award for the top male freshman pacer.
The SBOA also honoured the top trainer and driver in the 2009 Sires Stakes program — the same two men that won the awards in 2008. Brad Forward of Woodstock earned the Lampman Cup as the top driver in OSS. Bob McIntosh of Windsor earned the Johnston Cup as the program’s top trainer. Both the Lampman and Johnston Cup are awarded based on a points system. McIntosh was also the trainer of the top two-year-old trotting colt, Text Me ($346,400) and was named the Chris Van Bussel Memorial Award winner, which annually honours a top breeder.
Other winners from the Guelph region include the top two-year-old pacing filly, Western Silk ($287,400), trained and owned, in part, by Casie Coleman of Cambridge. Elusive Desire ($310,000) owned, in part, by Paula Wellwood of Cambridge and trained by her partner, Mike Keeling, was the top three-year-old trotting filly and will also be honoured as the winner of the SBOA stakes race for trotting fillies.
Equity ($333,500), trained, owned and bred, in part, by Charlambos Christoforou of Campbellville, was the top three-year-old trotting colt.
Wilsonator ($249,800), trained by Rob Fellows of Rockwood, is the top two-year-old trotting filly.
Shacked Up ($405,000), trained by American Tracy Brainard, was the top three-year-old pacing filly and also won the SBOA stakes event for pacers.
Standardbred Canada CEO Ted Smith was named the Lloyd Chisholm Award winner honouring meritorious service to Ontario’s harness racing industry.
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