TORONTO – Once again, Casie Coleman and Richard Moreau will battle for the O’Brien award as Canadian harness-racing’s top trainer.

Coleman and Moreau are both five-time winners of the honour. This year’s recipient will be named Feb. 2 at the O’Brien Awards gala in Mississauga, Ont.

Coleman, a resident of Cambridge, Ont., enjoyed a solid 2018 campaign. She trained 43 winners, and her horses overall have earned $3.1 million thus far. Her stable includes McWicked, a finalist in the older pacing horse category, and Stag Party, who’s nominated as the top two-year-old pacing colt.

McWicked won 12 races this year and earned over $1.6 million. Among the seven-year-old’s victories were the Canadian Pacing Derby and the elimination and final of the Ben Franklin.

The other older pacing finalist is Nirvana Seelster, the seven-year-old son of Camluck that won nine races and more than $245,000 this year.

Stag Party, a son of Bettors Delight, hit the board in all nine of his starts and earned almost $670,000. The other two-year-old pacing colt finalist is Bronx Seelster, a seven-time winner that earned over $383,000 from 12 races.

Moreau, of Puslinch, Ont., sent 305 winners postward and trained horses to more than $4.5 million in earnings, a new personal best.

Bob McClure and Louis-Philippe Roy are the finalists as top driver. McClure, of Elora, Ont., has driven 317 winners and amassed over $5.1 million in earnings and was in the running for this honour in 2016.

Roy, a native of Mont-Joli, Que., now living in Guelph, Ont., had 408 wins and his horses earned over $7.3 million. He led all Canadian drivers in wins and earnings.

Rick Zeron of Oakville, Ont., a three-time winner of the O’Brien Award of horsemanship, is up against Guy Gagnon, who’s a finalist for the award for a second straight year

Zeron trained Hambletonian winner Atlanta — a nominee for the three-year-old trotting filly of the year — and overall had 37 wins and almost $1.65 million in earnings. He also captured 34 driving wins and earned over $702,000.

Gagnon, of Gatineau, Que., has driven 206 winners and horses to earnings of more than $1.1 million. He’s also trained 58 winners while amassing over $340,000 in purse money.