MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Winsloe's Marc Campbell won the O'Brien Award for horsemanship here Saturday night.
Campbell, 28, registered 186 wins and earnings of $467,980 in 2012.
He also had a productive year on the training side, conditioning 48 winners and horses to more than $219,000 in earnings. Campbell won the annual E.F. Acorn Memorial Driver’s Championship held at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park and is the trainer-driver of Malabrigo, who was the runner-up in the three-year-old filly pacer category following a perfect sophomore campaign.
Casie Coleman, a 32-year-old from Cambridge, Ont., and her connections captured four awards, including a fifth career top trainer honour for Coleman.
In addition, two horses she trained and another she’s a part-owner emerged victorious in their respective categories. Betterthancheddar won the older pacing horse honour while Michaels Power was tops in the three-year-old pacing colt division and was voted Canada’s horse of the year.
Coleman trained 223 winners in 2012 and earned in excess of $6.8 million in purse money. In August, she became harness racing’s youngest trainer to surpass $40 million in career earnings.
Sylvain Filion, 43, a native of Saint-Andre-D’Argenteuil, Que., now living in Milton, Ont., was named Canada’s top driver for the first time. He claimed 434 wins and a personal-best $8.6 million in earnings.
Filion was the regular driver for Wheeling N Dealin, voted Canada’s two-year-old trotting colt of the year and topped the charts for drivers in the Ontario Sires Stakes last year.
I Luv The Nitelife was named the top two-year-old pacing filly, finishing with a record of 4-4-1 from 10 races and earnings of $682,574. She paced to a world record 1:50.1 in an elimination of the Shes A Great Lady at Mohawk Racetrack.
Captaintreacherous was voted top two-year-old pacing colt after a season that included $911,277 in earnings and eight wins, with four victories in 1:50 or better — a first by a two-year-old.
American Jewel claimed a second straight O’Brien trophy, this time as the top three-year-old pacing filly. The daughter of American Ideal posted a record of 9-4-2 in 16 starts and earned more than $1.1 million despite suffering a fractured sesamoid at the end of last season.
Michaels Power, owned and bred by American Jeffrey Snyder, was named both top three-year-old pacing colt and Canada’s top horse. Michaels Power won 14 of 20 starts with more than $1.4 million in earnings and gave Coleman and driver Scott Zeron their first Little Brown Jug victory.
Anndrovette successfully defended her title as Canada’s top older pacing mare. A winner seven times in 23 races with earnings of more than $696,000, the season included a dazzling 1:48.1 world-record performance in the Roses Are Red Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack
Al McIntosh Holdings Inc., of Leamington, Ont., and Robert McIntosh Stables Inc. of Windsor, Ont., were named winners of the top breeder awards. Robert McIntosh Stables won this honour in 2007 and 2010.
2012 O’BRIEN AWARD WINNERS
TWO-YEAR-OLD PACING FILLY
I Luv The Nitelife
Owned By Richard P & Joanne Young, Coconut Creek, FL
TWO-YEAR-OLD PACING COLT
Captaintreacherous
Owned by Brittany Farms, Versailles, KY, Marvin Katz, Toronto, ON, Joe Sbrocco, Brecksville, OH, White Birch Farm, Allentown, NJ
THREE-YEAR-OLD PACING FILLY
American Jewel
Owned by Brittany Farms, Versailles, KY
THREE-YEAR-OLD PACING COLT
Michaels Power
Owned by Jeffrey S Snyder, New York, NY
OLDER PACING MARE
Anndrovette
Owned by Bamond Racing LLC, Brick, NJ and Joseph Davino, Clarksburg, NJ
OLDER PACING HORSE
Betterthancheddar
Owned by Steve Calhoun, Chatham, ON, and West Wins Stable, Cambridge, ON
TWO-YEAR-OLD TROTTING FILLY
Bee A Magician
Owned by Melvin Hartman, Ottawa, ON, Herb A Liverman, Miami Beach, FL, David H Mc Duffee, Delray Beach, FL
TWO-YEAR-OLD TROTTING COLT
Wheeling N Dealin
Owned by Ecurie Synergie, Montreal, QC
THREE-YEAR-OLD TROTTING FILLY
Check Me Out
Owned by Raymond Schnittker, Middletown, NY and Charles Iannazzo, Tappan, NY
THREE-YEAR-OLD TROTTING COLT
Intimidate
Owned by Judith Farrow, Hemmingford, QC, Luc Blais, Lochaber Ouest, QC
OLDER TROTTING MARE
Frenchfrysnvinegar
Owned by David S Smith, Rockwood, ON
OLDER TROTTING HORSE
Mister Herbie
Owned by Jeffrey R Gillis, Hillsburgh, ON, Mac T Nichol, Burlington, ON, Gerald T Stay, Buffalo, NY
HORSE OF THE YEAR
Michaels Power
Owned by Jeffrey S Snyder, New York, NY
PEOPLE AWARDS
O’BRIEN AWARD OF HORSEMANSHIP
Marc Campbell, 28, Winsloe, PEI
ARMSTRONG BREEDER OF THE YEAR
Al McIntosh Holdings Inc., Leamington, ON and Robert McIntosh Stables Inc., Windsor, ON
DRIVER OF THE YEAR
Sylvain Filion, 43, Milton, ON
TRAINER OF THE YEAR
Casie Coleman, 32, Cambridge, ON
MEDIA EXCELLENCE AWARDS
The Media Excellence Awards program, established by Standardbred Canada in 2008, is aimed at honouring exceptional work that covers Canadian harness racing in a manner that is extraordinary and of broad national appeal.
Outstanding Written Work - Winner
The Prevention and Management of Equine Gastric Ulcers
Written by Lindsay Day
'The Prevention and Management of Equine Gastric Ulcers', written by Lindsay Day was published in the February 2012 issue of Trot. Lindsay is a Registered Equine Massage Therapist who also researches and writes horse health articles for Trot, Canadian Thoroughbred, Horse Sport and Racing Quarterly.
Outstanding Broadcast
Cam Fella Feature - Winner
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame / Woodbine Entertainment Group
Producers Linda Rainey and Paul Salvalaggio
The Cam Fella feature was initially produced for the 2012 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Awards Gala to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Cam Fella’s sophomore season. It also aired on The Score as part of the Canadian Pacing Derby/Metro Pace broadcast on Saturday, September 1, 2012.
Outstanding Photography
Sovereign award winning photographer Michael Burns, and the resident thoroughbred track photographer for the Woodbine Entertainment Group, is a first time finalist for a Media Excellence Award. Burns’ shot of Dustin Jones and Prestidigitator on a misty morning was published on the WEG website.
