Even amidst so many racing victories and so many amazing memories, a truly unforgettable moment usually stands out from a career above all others. We asked the two men and the connections of the four equine stars who will this year join the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame — Burning Point, Invitro, Silver Reign, Wesgate Crown, Robert Burgess, and Steve Condren — to share that moment with us (and with you). This is what they said.
As told to Keith McCalmont
Photography courtesy of the Standardbred Canada archives
Wesgate Crown
As told by trainer Raz Mackenzie
I got him as a yearling in October, and he was very quick on his feet, as I remember. The first day we put him on a jog cart, he took off on me and galloped a quarter in 26 seconds; I thought... if I can ever get him to trot that fast weíre going to make lots of money! As time went by, we got him to do that.
Crown was a very likeable horse. There was no meanness to him at all. He was a pretty horse and everybody loved him and he loved everybody. He had a good life, that horse. We went to France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany – man, we went all over. He travelled well and he represented his country very bravely, he did.
When we went to France, he was only four years of age and we were dealing with older horses and different distances. He finished 4th in the Prix de Belgique, and 3rd in the Prix de France. In the Prix D’Amerique, we were 7th in a very big field.
Our trip to win the Lotteria in Naples was incredible. We had Enrico Bellei driving for us and he was half-Canadian and half-Italian, so the people immediately took to our horse. The Italians love their football (soccer) and the passion they have for football carries over to the horses.
The atmosphere was phenomenal. Enrico was such an amazing driver and with him on our side were considered a home player even though we were thousands of miles from home.We won the race and the crowd went crazy. We had a police escort back to the winner’s circle, complete with guard dogs. In the paper the next day, there was a headline that read: San Wesgate a San Siro. (“San” meaning saint.)
Crown truly was a warrior. He wasn’t a big horse, and he did lose races, but he tried hard every time and there was never a bad day with him. When he was on the racetrack he wanted to stay out there. You had to pull him off the track. That’s why I think he was an overachiever — he had the desire to do it.
In my mind, he was unquestionably one of the greatest two-year-olds that ever raced. He started at The Meadowlands in July and then he went to Ontario in September and then he went to Lexington in October, winning the whole way.
At the end of October, we won the Breeders Crown at Pompano in Florida and less than a week later, after driving for 24 hours to get to Garden State, he lost in the elimination of the Valley Victory in shockingly different temperatures. It was his only defeat as a two-year-old and he was justified in it. To prove just how good a horse he was, he went out and won the next week with Walter Case driving him.
He was a terrific horse, he knew how to fight down by the wire, and if he was in it he was going to win it.
Burning Point
As told by breeder/trainer Fred Drouillard
She was smart right from the word go. I remember one time, early on, I was jogging her and we came off the track and she just turned real quick and dumped me off and sheÖwasÖGONE! She skidded across the road and right into the barn. Scraped her knee in the process but that was it. She was a smart horse. She knew where to go and there was no stopping her.
I had her at two and raced her in the Ontario Sire Stakes. She was so competitive and I thought she was a nice mare then, but I always thought there were a couple she couldn’t beat, so I took her down to Florida to race and eventually put her up for sale.
She had five starts for me in Florida before I sold her to the Cuzzins Stable in April of 2003. At the time, I had Kevin Wallis driving for me in Pompano and I told him I was thinking of putting her in the Rose Red racing series at Hazel Park. Kevin had won the Rose Red the year before with one of Jack Darling’s mares, so I asked Kevin if Burning Point was as good as that one.
And he said, ‘I don’t know. I can’t tell you that, but I’ll tell you one thing — she’ll be close enough to see who does win.’
That was good enough for me, so I put her in.
As it turns out, I sold Burning Point the week before the Rose Red and I told them she had a good shot at this race and that they should pay her into it. Well, they made the payment and she finished third in the eliminations and then she won the final for $100,000! They just about paid for her right there!
When they bought her, I said, ‘I hope she goes out and makes a million for you’ — and she made three million!
I still own Burning Point’s mother and I’ve been trying to get another filly out of her, but I’ve not had any success with that so far. One thing for certain though, if I do get one she’s not for sale!!
I’m great friends with Shelby Novick (part-owner of the Cuzzins Stable) and I’m real happy for their success with Burning Point. She didn’t miss a cheque as a three-year-old and Shelby always gets on my case about the one time I drove her in Florida — it was her very first start off a qualifier and I wanted to make sure she was going to stay flat. I finished sixth with her and because there were ten horses in the race, she made $122. Shelby jokes that if it wasn’t for me, she’d have made money every start but she did make money that day. Just not very much!
Thanks to Burning Point I’ve won two Breeders Crown trophies as a breeder, one as a three-year-old and the other for aged mare, and they’re my pride and joy. Everyone strives to get one of these trophies and I’ve got two. It’s quite an honour.
Invitro
As told by breeder/owner Gord Irwin
She was born at Murray Ross's farm in Norwood and I saw her for the first time when she was just two days old. At that stage she was just a little mare with a big white blaze down her face. If you had to think she was something special then, you wouldnít. She was just a normal looking filly.
But I soon realized she was special when she started in the Grassroots at Peterborough. She won her first race at Kawartha by sitting last and then lapping the field. The race established her style — racing off the pace and coming home.
My greatest memory with Invitro was winning The Roses Are Red. This was a very special moment for me because Jack Kopas, who was the trainer of Roses Are Red, was a very good friend of mine.
I watched that race from the end of the track, and it wasn’t the best of vantage points. She was sitting second behind Burning Point that night, and I could see her coming down the stretch and making her move, but she was racing right at me and I didn’t know where she’d finished until Paul MacDonnell let me know when he was bringing her back.
It was such an emotional moment and I was very proud of winning that race.
As good as that win was, I would have to think her best effort was in the Breeders Crown when she finished second to Rainbow Blue. She always raced from off the pace and this was about the only time she changed her racing style. We supplemented her to the race for $62,000 (U.S.) so there was a lot at stake.
Normally she’d sit off the pace and then Paul would move her at the quarter or move her at the three-eighths, but on this night Paul set out of there and cut the mile to the quarter. She went quick and then he let Rainbow Blue go and followed her. Paul used her hard in that race and she still fought on for second. That would be the toughest race she ever went and she really made me proud.
Invitro was a class act but Paul made her the horse that she was. He got along really well with her. He has a tremendous set of hands and patience and a special way with young horses. She’s a class act, this horse. One of the proudest moments in this industry is having a homebred like her accepted to the Hall of Fame.
Robert Burgess
I got started in this game more than forty years ago. A group of us claimed a horse for little money and had modest success.
My breakthrough horse was Amity Chef. It all came about because my son, Blair, had decided he was going to take a shot at training full time. To get started, we acquired seven or eight yearlings and he headed south with them. These were bargain basement yearlings and all but Amity Chef were immediately forgettable.
In fact, we knew immediately Amity Chef was special because the seven or eight other yearlings were helpless by comparison. He had a lot of early speed and it put him in a different class.
Blair drove him as a two-year-old and won the Champlain here with him and then he went on to great success as a three-year-old, and although he didn’t win every race, he was the best three-year-old in America. He won practically every start and had tremendous high speed at the end of a mile.
We were elated to have the three-year-old colt of the year and the horse put Blair and I on the map.
The next year we bought another son of French Chef named Frugal Gourmet and he won the Meadowlands Pace. We had the champion two-year-old and the champion three-year-old in the same year.
The best horse we ever had, though, was Glidemaster. He’s just getting started at stud now. He was the most remarkable horse we ever had and I’ve never been more proud of a horse than when Glidemaster won the Yonkers Trot to complete the Triple Crown.
We had won the first two legs, the Hambletonian and the Kentucky Futurity in good fashion, but Glidemaster is a very large horse and he’d never raced on a half-mile track. To prepare him for the final leg, we trained him over at Flamboro in :56 on the half-mile track to see if he could get around the turns.
In order to race the horse at Yonkers, our ownership group had to pay a $70,000 supplemental fee to be eligible for the Trot, which only added to the pressure of that race. I remember before the race being worried about him breaking, as you do with trotters, even though it wasn’t one of his traits. As it turns out, I needn’t have worried, he won going away and set a track record doing it.
Silver Reign
As told by trainer/driver Bud Fritz
She was about as nice an animal as you could sit behind. She could take the lead or you could get her spotted in a race pretty good, as well. She was just about as perfect a horse as youíd want to hook to a race bike. There may be faster horses but she had class.
I raced her all over Ontario in the sires stakes from Windsor to Ottawa, all the way up north to Sudbury. With the sires stakes, you’d go wherever the races are.
Over the years, she won a fair few races, but I’ll never forget the time I drove her down at The Meadowlands in the Sweetheart Series. We won our elimination and that set us up for the finals.
Her versatility is what allowed her to compete at such a high level. She didn’t have to race in front the whole time, and that’s why she was such a good mare.
Sometimes we would leave the gate quick and control a race, but she would also behave herself in the hole, and when you get into those kind of races, especially that Sweetheart race, a smart horse is key. You can’t just say you’re going to make the top when there are world-class horses in the race.
As it went, we didn’t race on top in either the elimination or the final. I got a good trip in the final and I was driving down the stretch and practically had the race won only for John Campbell to get out from behind me and nip me at the wire. He didn’t even straighten his mare’s head up when he got her out of the hole. He just went sideways with her and still won. It was a good cheque but it would have been nicer to win it!
Steve Condren
I won with my very first lifetime drive. That was way back in 1977 in the Orangeville days, with a horse called Farm Tarra. She was a green filly belonging to Tom Artandi and he sent me out there to drive her. I'd just got my license and she ended up being a winning one for me.
A lot has changed over the years I’ve been driving. When I got started, we didn’t have the modern sulkies we have today, or some of the equipment that might have made life at Greenwood a little easier. I enjoyed many good years at Greenwood, but I sure don’t miss the drive down there. At times, Greenwood felt like the coldest place in the world. I remember going to the gate and putting Vaseline on any bare skin on my face so I wouldn’t get frost bite. We don’t race in those conditions anymore. I guess we were all a little bit crazy back then.
I’ll always be fond of Greenwood though because it was the site of two of my favourite drives — the North America Cup with Goalie Jeff and the Maple Leaf Trot with Natural Image.
Goalie Jeff was such a great horse. He was parked the whole mile and somehow we managed to catch cover coming around the last turn and it just carried him the length of the stretch. We charged down the lane and it was just too close to call when we hit the wire. It was a different story, but same result, with Natural Image. On that night, I had the lead through the stretch and we were fighting tooth and nail to the wire. I wasn’t sure I had either race won and both times I had to endure a four-minute photo.
It’s strange to say, but it seems like most races I only win by a whisker. At that point the race was over, and the waiting was pure agony... but when the judges posted the result, I was ecstatic! The photos from the finish of those races are fantastic.
I’m very proud of going over $100 million in earnings for my career, especially with 99% of that being in Canada. I’ve managed to win consistently over the years, thanks in large part to all the great friends I’ve made in this game.
When you’ve been a driver as long as I have, you know that wins can come from a lot of different places. There was a horse early on in my career that I won a lot of races with called Tuscount Hanover. He was just a $6,000 claimer but it didn’t seem to matter how I drove him, he’d still find a way to win. In the early part of my career, he gave me a boost and that horse still sticks in my mind. He was a classy fellow and had been around quite a few years with other trainers. I may have caught him at the bottom of his career but he was a classy old race horse, with a huge heart, and he knew what it took to win. We can all learn something from him!
Congratulations also to the Eel and W.J. Hyatt, who are now honoured as legends in the hall.