Despite the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and other challenges, Ontario Racing Independent Chair John Hayes remains hopeful of a bright future for the horse racing industry in the province.
In a year of unprecedented challenges for horse racing throughout the province, the resolve and resiliency of the estimated 30,000 Ontario residents the industry employs has remained strong in the face of many adversities.
“The 2020 racing season was unlike any other ever seen before in the Ontario horse racing industry,” said Hayes, who has held the position of Ontario Racing (OR) Independent Chair since June 2018. “The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic meant lost race days, revenue shortfalls, and new thinking in terms of product distribution and marketing. As the industry turns its attention to the 2021 racing season, there are still lingering questions regarding what the COVID-19 pandemic will mean for Ontario’s horse racing industry. Increased risk and uncertainty still remain as to wh
Sponsored by:
Second career racehorse This Is Debt and owner Ty Lloyd receive an award. Brandi Lloyd
A warhorse, in racing parlance, is a horse who has made more than 50 career starts. By its very definition, a warhorse has to be not only talented, but also sound and gritty enough to withstand the rigors of an extended campaign.
This Is Debt, a 2005 sorrel gelding, is a warhorse –and is now a first-race speed event horse.
Bred in Ontario by Brian Farrell, he was campaigned by the Farrell family–owned by Bill, trained by Laurie–exclusively at Ajax Downs in a career that spanned from 2007 to 2011. He won or placed in 15 of his 52 starts, earning $57,698, including appearances in the 2008 Maple Leaf and Ontario Bred and Foaled derbies.