The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame is pleased to name three people and three horses to be inducted as the Hall’s Class of 2021. As previously announced, the Board of Directors agreed to reduce the number of inductees for the Class of 2021 to three per breed. This will allow for the 2020 and 2021 inductees to be properly recognized together, once a gala event may be hosted.
The Hall determined additional inductees will be added in 2022 and 2023 to offset the smaller class of 2021.
The Standardbred Election Committee inductee selections for 2021 include Builder Jim Bullock, Driver Randy Waples, and Female Horse Great Memories.
Erin, Ontario resident Jim Bullock has made immense contributions to the Canadian harness racing industry over the past 30 plus years as an owner, breeder, stallion syndicator, race track administrator and organization leader. Following his purchase of Glengate Farms in 1992, he stood three stallions that are now members of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame — Balanced Image, Angus Hall and Apaches Fame, and each stallion has had immeasurable impact on the Canadian harness racing landscape. While Bullock has suspended the stallion division of Glengate, he continues to be active as a breeder with a broodmare band of approximately 30 top quality, trotting-bred mares, built largely by retiring some of his most successful race horses including Gramola, Juanitas Fury, Pepi Lavec and Oaklea Odessa. Bullock’s Glengate Farms can also lay claim to being co-breeder of double millionaire Art Official, world champion JL Cruze who went on to make over $1.6 million and CHRHF inductee Odies Fame. It also seems rather fitting that Glengate Farms-bred Great Memories is also included in the CHRHF Class of 2021.
Jim has worked with leading organizations in the industry such as the Woodbine Entertainment Group as a director and the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association where he served as the organization’s president for more than nine years. Jim also played a significant role in the SBOA New Owner Mentoring program, created to introduce and educate new owners to the industry. In 2013 he was recognized by the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association with the Van Bussel Award for exemplary service and the Lloyd Chisholm Achievement Award for meritorious service.
Although 2021 Driver Inductee Randy Waples was born with harness racing in his blood, he still needed to earn what he accomplished as a driver. After spending close to 10 years honing his craft at tracks throughout Ontario, the trajectory of his career changed in 1996 when he won 150 races in 1,197 starts in what would be the first of 22 consecutive years as a driver with earnings reaching into the millions. The three-time O’Brien Award as Canada’s Driver of the Year, Waples also has a long list of stakes victories on his resume including the 2012 North America Cup with Thinking Out Loud, three Maple Leaf Trot wins with San Pail (CHRHF Class of 2016), as well as Breeders Crown Championship wins with San Pail and Dreamfair Eternal (CHRHF Class of 2014) and two wins in the Canadian Pacing Derby with Strong Clan (1997) and State Treasurer (2016). Other notable accomplishments include four Battle of Waterloo wins and leading driver in Ontario Sires Stakes earnings in 2001, 2002 and 2010.
In April 2018 when harness racing moved from Woodbine to permanently reside at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Randy Waples was declared the all-time leader in wins at the Toronto facility with 2,605 victories. Nationally Waples is the all-time leading money-winning driver of races held in Canada, sporting more than 6,600 wins and $131 million in purse earnings. While the majority of Waples career has been spent on Canadian soil, his name was also added to U.S. record books when he won the Kentucky Sire Stakes Final at The Red Mile in 2000 with Real Desire, for trainer Blair Burgess (CHRHF Class of 2017), in a time of 1:50.4, a world record at the time for two-year-old pacing colts.
The 2021 Standardbred Female Horse Inductee Great Memories is a daughter of CHRHF 2000 Inductee Apaches Fame and out of Armbro Emerson daughter Save The Memories. Purchased as a yearling by Kenneth Fraser and Duane Marfisi, who also trained the filly, Great Memories’ race career was cut short due to an injury at age three.. Bred by fellow CHRHF Class of 2021 inductee Jim Bullock at his Glengate Farm in Campbellville, she now resides a few kilometres up the road in Rockwood and is owned by Ontario Standardbred nursery Warrawee Farm.
Among Great Memories’ offspring are two world champions: Warrawee Needy and Warrawee Ubeaut. A winner of 29 races and more than $1.25 million, Warrawee Needy was freakishly fast at two (1:49.4s), faster still at three (1:48.4s) and the fastest in the world at four (1:46.4) for trainer and CHRHF Inductee Carl Jamieson. Named the 2011 O’Brien Award winner for two-year-old pacing colts/geldings, Warrawee Needy was virtually unstoppable as a freshman, ending his nine-win rookie season by capturing the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Racetrack. At age three, Warrawee Needy duplicated his stakes-winning and record-setting ways. After setting an OSS speed record of 1:49.4 at two, he also set the record for three-year-olds with a 1:48.4 performance as a sophomore. At four, he won an Aquarius Series leg, his US Pacing Championship elimination and his William Haughton Memorial elimination at the Meadowlands Racetrack in world record time.
In her first season on the racetrack in 2018, Warrawee Ubeaut won seven of 12 races and earned a division-leading $646,995 en route to divisional honours in the U.S. Her wins included the $600,000 Breeders Crown and $207,000 Kentuckiana Stallion Management Stakes. In addition, her 1:48.3 victory in a $61,250 division of the International Stallion Stakes at Red Mile made her the fastest two-year-old pacer (regardless of sex) in harness racing history. At age three Warrawee Ubeaut continued to impress matching her lifetime mark, again at Lexington, and winning 12 of 19 starts for earnings of $1,066,415, including an eight-race win streak. Notable wins included the Breeders Crown, the Jugette elimination and final and in doing so equalled the world record for a three-year-old pacing filly over a half-mile track. Her 2019 efforts were rewarded with a Dan Patch Award for her age category. As a four-year-old, Warrawee Ubeaut added the Roses Are Red title to her resume and lifted her earnings to nearly $2 million by season’s end.
Great Memories’ 10 racing age progeny have earned more than $4.2 million with four horses — Warrawee Needy, Warrawee Ubeaut, Warrawee Vital and Big Bay Point — breaking the 1:50 barrier and two surpassing the $1 million earnings mark.
(Canadian Horse Racing Hall Of Fame)
