Trainer Casse headlines Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductees

TORONTO – It’s another career milestone for trainer Mark Casse.

The seven-time winner as Canada’s top trainer headlined the 10 newest inductees into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame on Tuesday. The thoroughbred class of 2016 also includes horses Wise Dan and Dahlia, Dr. Michael Colterjohn and veteran announcer Daryl Wells, Sr., both deceased.

The standard class includes horses Odies Fame and San Pail, owner/breeder John Ferguson Sr. and journalist Bruce Johnston of Aylmer, Ont. (both deceased) and driver/trainer Yves Filion. The newest inductees will be enshrined Aug. 3.

Casse, 55, has enjoyed an illustrious career in Canada, having captured top trainer honours at Woodbine Racetrack on 10 occasions. Two years ago, he captured his first Queen’s Plate with filly Lexie Lou, who also won the Woodbine Oaks that year.

In 2015, Casse also claimed his first Breeders’ Cup Grade 1 wins with Tepin and Catch a Glimpse.

Ferguson played left wing with the Montreal Canadiens (1963-’71) and upon retiring also served as an NHL coach and GM. But he was also heavily involved in horse racing as an owner, breeder and track manager.

The Vancouver native died in 2007 at the age of 68. As an owner his best horse was Hardie Hanover, Canada’s top three-year-old filly in 1994 who won the Fan Hanover and Breeders Crown and over $718,000 in purse money.

Filion, 69, of Saint-Andre-D’argent, Que., drove in over 18,000 races, winning 4,387 while amassing $26.7 million in earnings. As a trainer he had 273 winners and claimed over $3.7 million in purses.

Filion joins his brother, Herve, in the Hall of Fame, while his son, Sylvain, was Canada’s top driver in 2012, ’13 and 2015.

Colterjohn was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and immigrated to Lindsay, Ont., with his family at the age of 11. One of Canada’s top equine reproductive veterinarians, he joined Gardiner Farms in 1987 and soon became its president.

Under Colterjohn’s management, Gardiner Farms became one of Canada’s most respected and accomplished breeding operations and a significant player in the Canadian-yearling market.

Wells Sr. began his career as an announcer for the Ontario Jockey Club in 1956, an assignment that included calling races at Fort Erie and Greenwood. Some 20 years later, he concentrated exclusively on races at Woodbine Racetrack, providing an opportunity for his son, Daryl Wells Jr., to take over at Fort Erie.

Among the elder Wells’ calls were of Northern Dancer winning the ’64 Queen’s Plate and Secretariat’s final race at Woodbine in 1973. He died in 2003.

San Pail, bred by co-owner Glenn Van Camp of Port Perry, Ont., won 52 of 114 races and earned over $3.1 million before retiring in 2015. He received the O’Brien Award as Canada’s top older trotting horse in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and was named Equine Canada’s Canadian Bred Horse of the Year in 2011.

San Pail was also inducted into the Scugog Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

American horse Wise Dan was a dominant thoroughbred on both sides of the border. He captured consecutive Ricoh Woodbine Mile titles in 2012-’13, then went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile races and American horse-of-the-year honours in both years.

Wise Dan retired in 2014 at age seven after registering 23 wins in 31 starts and earning over $7.5 million.