The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (CHRHF) Induction Gala took place on Wednesday evening, Aug. 7 at the Mississauga Convention Centre and honoured the Class of 2024 and some of the biggest names in the country’s Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing industries.
The Thoroughbred industry side of the CHRHF Class of 2024 included Glen Todd (Thoroughbred Builder), Starship Jubilee (Female Thoroughbred Horse), Patrick Husbands (Jockey), Channel Maker (Male Thoroughbred Horse), Danny Vella (Thoroughbred Trainer) and Richard Grubb (Thoroughbred Veteran).
Born on December 20, 1946 in British Columbia, the late Glen Todd fell in love with horse racing as a child, attending the races with his father who had met Glen’s mother at Hastings racecourse in 1939. “There is a lot of history of racing in my family,” he said. Todd quickly immersed himself in everything about preparing a racehorse, educating himself from the shedrow up. Todd was an exceptional businessman who took over his father Jack and mother Eileen’s Pacific Group of Companies, founded in 1954. Todd began training horses at Hastings in the early 1970s, doing so until 1985. In 2011, he won the Sovereign Award in a tie with Donver Stables for Canada’s Outstanding Owner. Throughout his life he was an owner of hundreds of racehorses. Behind the racing headlines, Todd worked tirelessly to promote and improve the B.C. racing industry. In 2009, he was part of the B.C. Horse Racing Industry Management Committee which was formed to revitalize the sport and put it on firmer financial ground. He also extended an interest-free $1-million loan to fund purse money and keep races going at east Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse over the summer of 2021, and at the time he said he was not looking for accolades, just that he wanted to keep jobs in place and horses running. He has been described as an owner, trainer, breeder, builder, innovator, communicator, betting shop owner, employer, mentor, and friend.
Throughout her career Starship Jubilee (trained by Kevin Attard, co-owners with Soli Mehta, later owned by Blue Heaven Farm) was one of the top race mares in North America, despite her $6,500 yearling purchase price. The filly’s honors and accomplishments were numerous including being named the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year and the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Champion Female Turf Horse in Canada. In addition to being a 2-time G1 winner and 6-time graded stakes winner in Canada, she accumulated over $2 million in purse earnings. Most impressively, Starship Jubilee is the only horse ever to win the G1 E.P. Taylor and the G1 Woodbine Mile, the latter of which saw her defeat male horses. Starship Jubilee was also highly successful in the United States winning the G2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga, the G2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs, and is the only 3 time winner of the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park.
“I wish I could say we had some knowledge on how far she would ride up before we bought her, but we bought her as a broodmare prospect,” said Adam Corndorf of Blue Heaven Farm. “We spoke to [trainer] Kevin [Attard] after we bought her and he was convinced the best days were ahead of her.”
“We made the decision to put her back in training as a six-year-old and it turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to us in this business.” Cordorf owns Blue Heaven with Bonnie Baskin.
Starship Jubilee has a two-year-old by Medaglia d’Oro, a yearling by Quality Road, a weanling by Flightline and she is in foal to Gun Runner.
Patrick Husbands became one of the most popular and productive jockeys in Canadian racing history during his 30 plus years riding at Woodbine. Before emigrating to Canada in 1994 from his native Barbados, Husbands had already enjoyed considerable success in his country of birth as a Champion rider and the youngest jockey to win the prestigious Gold Cup. Husbands went on to capture eight Sovereign Awards as Canada’s Champion jockey from 1999-2014. His initial popularity came among the local Bajan community but quickly grew to universal acceptance with each passing race victory and ensuing championship season. Of Husbands’ countless achievements, one of the most noted came in 2003 with his expert handling of Triple Crown winner and future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Inductee, Wando, for the late Gustav Schickendanz and trainer Mike Keogh, both Honoured Members of the Hall. Additionally, CHRHF Honoured Member, Mark Casse has been a strong supporter of Husbands, with Hall of Fame horse Sealy Hill, 2023 King’s Plate winner Paramount Prince as well as Queen’s Plate winner Lexie Lou, who was inducted to the CHRHF in 2019. Throughout his spectacular career Husbands has won 3,630 times earning $178,477,012 USD through the end of 2023.
Sir Challenor Jones, former jockey in Barbados, presented Husbands with his Hall of Fame ring.
“Dream come true, I’m proud of every moment,” said Husbands. “Seeing this ring here, wow. I’m from a small little family in Barbados, four boys, four girls, Mummy and Daddy. We had a small little farm with cows, pigs and sheep and a little donkey called Daisy, who we all started on.”
“My Dad only saw me ride two horses before he passed away, that was tough. My mum passed away a few years later.”
Husbands came to Ontario on the advice of his brother Anthony after he suffered a plethora of injuries in the early years of his riding career.
Bred in Ontario by Ivan Dalos, Channel Maker, is a Canadian and US Champion and multiple Grade 1 winner. Channel Maker was a fan favorite during his eight seasons of racing that began in 2016 in Ontario under the tutelage of trainer Danny Vella, also an inductee of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2024. Later trained by Bill Mott, Channel Maker was owned at various times throughout his career by a combination of interests including Joey G Thoroughbreds, Wachtel Stable, Gary Barber, R. A. Hill Stable and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing. Channel Maker is the 3rd richest Canadian-bred racehorse of all time with earnings over $3.9 million. He raced an incredible 8 years, from age 2-9, and set the record for the most Breeders Cup starts by any single horse – a record 6 times. He won the 2017 Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion 3-year-old colt and the 2020 Eclipse Award as North America’s top turf male. In 2020, the durable gelding swept 2 prestigious Grade 1 races – the Sword Dancer S and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, to become an Eclipse Award winner as Turf Male Horse. Following his retirement from racing in 2023, Channel Maker was donated by his connections to Old Friends Retirement Farm in Kentucky where he now resides.
Conditioner, Danny Vella, was twice named Sovereign Award winning trainer, and has scored one hundred and thirty-five (135) career stakes win. He won the coveted Queen’s Plate twice in his career, in 1994 with Basqueian and in 2012 with Strait of Dover. Vella began his winning ways in 1985 but his breakthrough came in 1991 when he started training for the stable of Frank Stronach. Early successes came with Hero’s Love in the E. P. Taylor stakes and Explosive Red in the G1 Hollywood Derby. In 1994, Vella captured nineteen Woodbine stakes in an outstanding season headed by Queen’s Plate winner Basqueian, King Ruckus, Champion Sprinter and Honky Tonk Tune. Fifteen more Woodbine stakes were won in 1996 giving Vella fifty-eight added money wins in an outstanding three-year stretch. Other stakes winners he trained include Cash Ticket, Phantom Light, Knights Templar, Field Commission, and most recently, Alpha Bettor. In 2012, Vella transformed Wally and Terry Leong’s Strait of Dover into a poly track winner with a victory in the Marine. Vella’s statistics during a training career that concluded in 2022 include 5,740 starts (869-841-7) and earnings of $39,438,727.
“I’m completely overwhelmed by this. I want to thank my employees over the years, a lot of work went into me being up here. I want to thank my owners.”
Raised in Ridgeway, ON, veteran category inductee Richard Grubb began his riding career in 1966. At the age of 16, he won the first race he ever rode as a professional followed by 1,606 more career trips to the winners’ circle, before concluding his riding career in 1989. In 1967 he was Canada’s leading Jockey with 230 victories. That same year he won seven straight races on an eight-race card, a feat never duplicated. Grubb rode some of the country’s most time-honoured stars including Mary of Scotland, and Rouletabille and 1968 Horse of the Year, Viceregal. Among his stakes wins was the 25th edition of the Manitoba Derby in 1973 aboard Zaca Spirit. During his career, Grubb won over 100 major races and was presented the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award in 1997. Following his retirement from racing in 1989, he became a senior Steward with the Ontario Racing Commission, a position in which he served for 24 years.
“I grew up on a small farm in Ridgeway and we had a variety of animals and crops and plants,” said Grubb. “One day out of the blue my Dad said to us, let’s go see the horses. I had never been to a track in my life. That changed my whole life, it was like going to another planet. I was determined to become part of that world.”
Grubb thanked Lou Cavalaris, trainer, and Ed O’Sullivan, exercise rider, as early mentors.
“I loved being a jockey but it was a very stressful thing for me. I fought weight on a daily basis.”
“I would like to take you back now. 1965 barn 10, 5:30 in the morning. I am a teenager and I see Lou Cavalaris, Jim Bannon, Robin Platts, Gil Rowntree, Avelino Gomez in the shredow. Tonight it comes full circle for me. I join them in the Hall of Fame shedrow.”
Watch the ceremony:
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