Glen Todd, a 'Titan' in Horse Racing Passes Away at 75

“I can’t get enough of racing, I just love it so much.”

You would have heard Glen Todd speak those words almost every time you asked him about the roles he has had in Thoroughbred racing in British Columbia and throughout North America.

And what a list that was. Owner, trainer, breeder, builder, innovator, communicator, betting shop owner, employer, mentor, and friend.

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Canadian horse racing lost a friend as Glen passed away suddenly on March 27 following a procedure in hospital. He was 75.

“He was a titan in the British Columbia Horse Racing Industry,” said David Milburn, president of the B.C. Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and fellow horse owner and friend of Glen. “He was a true force and turned around horse racing here in B.C. It is a huge loss.”

Born on December 20, 1946, Glenn 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,” Glen has said. Glen quickly immersed himself in everything about preparing a racehorse, educating himself from the shedrow up.

Glen was an exceptional businessman who took over his father Jack and mother Eileen’s Pacific Group of Companies, founded in 1954. Glen has been chairman, president, and CEO of Pacific Custom Brokers in Surrey. And while horse racing was his passion, he was also involved in softball and founded the annual Canada Cup International Womens’ Fastpitch tourney at Softball City.

Glen began training horses at Hastings in the early 1970s, doing so until 1985. He set up his North American Thoroughbred Horse Company in 2006 and grew that racing and breeding operation into a powerhouse in his province. Soon his red-and-white-checked silks were flying past the finish line in front in hundreds of races. In 2011, Glen won the Sovereign Award in a tie with Donver Stable for Canada’s Outstanding Owner, and in 2012, NATHC won 34 stakes races, sharing the title of most stakes wins by an owner that year with John Oxley. Glen’s horse Taylor Said won the Grade 3 Longacres Mile that year and was later sold to Godolphin.

In 2016, Glen finally got his B.C. Derby win when Sorryaboutnothing, trained by Glen’s longtime friend Troy Taylor, captured the Grade 3 race.

Behind the racing headlines, Glen 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, formed to revitalize the sport and put it on firmer financial ground.

He played a major role in setting up numerous incentives for B.C. horsepeople for breeding and racing, incentives that, according to Milburn, Glen never claimed himself despite his operation qualifying for thousands of dollars each year.

The Hastings Racing Club was a brainchild of Glen, who dearly wanted to pass on the excitement of horse ownership to the general public. The Club, ready to begin its seventh season, had instant success and has produced dozens of new owners in the sport.

And Glen’s day would regularly begin at 3 a.m. when he sat down at the computer to compile his Derby Bar & Grill newsletter. Named after his restaurant, which doubles as an off-track betting location, the newsletter provided news and headlines from racing, not just at Hastings, but continent-wide.

“I just felt there was a need for daily news,’ said Glen. “I began the newsletter because there was nothing out there about the local racing. Nobody knew what was going on.”

Glen helped people, too, and never wanted any attention when he did. In fact, he essentially made the career of Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Mario Gutierrez, who was plucked from racing in Mexico to ride for Glen at Hastings. Six years later, Mario rode I’ll Have Another to Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories.

Following the Preakness, Glen told one reporter, “[People] need to get a break, and Mario got a break and away he went. There are lots of great singers that never get a break and never get to make records. Mario got a live horse and a little opening there — and he’s proof that there are chances for anybody.”

Glen Todd and his unofficial “adopted son”, Mario Gutierrez; Hastings photo

Fittingly, Mario won the Sunland Derby in New Mexico aboard Kentucky Derby contender Slow Down Andy just hours after Glen’s passing.

Last year, Glen ponied up a $1 million interest-free loan to Hastings to extend the racing season to late summer as the industry continued talks with the province for funding.

Glen has been honoured many times as a member of the BC Sports Hall of Fame, for his long-time involvement with softball, the Softball BC Hall of Fame, the Softball Canada Hall of Fame, the World Baseball Hall of Fame and the BC Thoroughbred Hall of Fame.

There are 40 horses in training at Hastings currently owned and trained by Glen, plus mares and foals at his Todd Manor Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, which he acquired about five years ago. Glen leaves two daughters, Dana and Shelley, the latter who oversees the Kentucky farm.

Hastings Racecourse issued a statement on March 27, “We are saddened to hear of the passing of Glen Todd. His passion and commitment to the industry were unparalleled and will be sorely missed. We will commemorate Glen in a manner that is befitting of his almost 60-year legacy in the thoroughbred industry.”

That legacy will live on, said David Milburn. “His work in racing here has put racing in good shape. Glen set up racing here for the future.”