Touchedbyanangel can’t stand still.
The two-year-old shifts his weight between hooves, grabs at a towel with his lips and flicks his ears back and forth, taking in his surroundings.
Owner Yolanda Fellows presses her head to Touchedbyanangel’s in an inaudible pep talk before his race. The Fellowses have high hopes for this young standardbred in his first season.
Around them, rows of painted-white concrete stalls are loaded with excited racehorses dancing in place as grooms bathe them, wrap legs and put bridles and harnesses on. A groom walks a particularly anxious horse, head high, muscles tense, in laps around the block of stalls in an effort to calm him down.
In the paddock, Touchedbyanangel and his competitors are babies. On the track, they are athletes.
On this summer Thursday evening, a string of horses files out of the paddock guided by drivers in colourful silks seated in two-wheeled sulkies. The horses step onto the track at Woodbine Mohawk Park for what is the eighth race of the night. They begin to trot around the seven-eighths-mile oval, falling into line behind the moving starting gate.
Yolanda Fellows prepares Touchedbyanangel for his race on a Saturday night in August at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
Dust hangs in the air, shimmering in the wide beams thrown from floodlights. Owners and trainers watch quietly from the sidelines.
These are the moments the butterflies set in, said Yolanda’s husband, Rob, a longtime Rockwood trainer. He likes to watch alone in silence.
Touchedbyanangel has potential. He has the build and bloodlines, but he’s young, “goofy” and a stallion, making him at times unfocused, Yolanda said. He had mixed success in his first few starts, at times behaving “somewhat naughtily,” Standardbred Canada wrote.
During a warmup earlier on this night, he tossed his head, an antic that can cause a horse to break stride, a race-losing mistake.
But his head was in the game an hour later, and he placed second in the $140,000-purse Ontario Sires Stakes race, winning $30,800. It’s a big purse, but his owners are more pleased that he didn’t break stride into a canter or gallop.
“I can go back and breathe now,” Rob Fellows said.
Rob Fellows watches one of his horses race on a Saturday night in August at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
It is a high-stakes business with escalating costs and, for most, modest returns. And it is getting riskier as market competition steepens and consumer habits evolve.
Once the only form of legalized gambling in Ontario, horse racing is struggling to compete in a growing online betting world that now includes most other sports.
Modernization of the multibillion-dollar betting industry has been “devastating” for horse racing and agriculture in Ontario, said Jim Whelan, president of the Ontario Harness Horse Association.
In 2022, Ontario became the first province to launch a regulated online sports betting program, opening its doors to private gaming operators and shifting betting dollars away from the track. Since horse-race wagering is regulated federally, it’s not available through provincial agencies such as iGaming Ontario.
This followed a 2012 decision to cancel the Slots at Racetracks Program, an agreement that saw a share of revenue from slot machines go toward funding race purses, maintaining tracks and enhancing the sport of live racing.
Ontario Racing is confident its product “is breaking through the noise” of the fast, digital, 24-hour gambling world of the 21st century, said executive director Gordon Thain.
Others have a more pessimistic outlook.
“Horse racing is going to disappear,” Fellows said.
Horses and drivers exercise on the practice track at Rob Fellows Stables near Rockwood.
Chasing a win
Morning comes early at Rob Fellows Stable on Second Line, located in a lush swath of Ontario horse country that spans Flamborough, Milton and the Guelph Eramosa Township.
By 7 a.m. on a misty late July morning, drivers are already jogging on an outdoor track that winds through green fields and leafy forest. A crew of grooms and stablehands are helping Rob, Yolanda and son Kyle, a trainer, exercise and care for Touchedbyanangel and about 50 other horses.
They spend afternoons and evenings at the races, often sending horses to several tracks across the province, and sometimes the United States, to compete in different classes based on age, sex and performance.
Everyone is chasing a win.
As a blur of horses approached the final stretch on a Saturday night at Grand River Raceway in Elora, Randy Switzer hollered from the bleachers, urging on the No. 3 horse: “Get up there, you donkey! Come on. Don’t let the 6 win it.”
No. 6 was the best horse, Switzer explained, but he had his money on a long-shot that would deliver a bigger payout if it crossed the finish line first.
Horse racing uses parimutuel wagering, which means once the track takes a cut, pooled bets are divided among winning tickets. High odds mean higher risk and fewer bettors, meaning the pot is split fewer ways if a long-shot wins. Switzer’s 10-1 odds pick, for example, would have returned double that of the winner, whose odds were 5-1.
Experienced bettors such as Switzer, who has been in the industry as a fan and horse owner for decades, treat wagering like a puzzle. They use a horse’s performance trends, trainer and driver statistics, race conditions — such as distance and track condition — starting-gate position and field competition to calculate the probability of a win or potential value of a bet.
But there’s an inherent unpredictability in racing. Horses misstep, stumble and get boxed in among competitors, costing them precious time in the short, two-minute contests. The thrill of watching a race unfold — especially a tight one — and the dopamine hits that come with even small wins leave bettors wanting more.
“That race could’ve been anybody because it was a tough race,” Switzer said.
A horse and driver streak past spectators during a race at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
Ontario has long been Canada’s harness-racing hub.
As of late 2023, 99 of the country’s 135 racetracks were located in Ontario, a 2024 Statistics Canada report reads. British Columbia came second with nine tracks, followed by Alberta and Manitoba, which each had seven.
This province’s share of tracks and quality of competition make it one of the top jurisdictions in the world, said Ontario Racing communications specialist Dave Briggs. And Mohawk, the only track that races 12 months a year and has million-dollar races, could be the world’s top track, he said.
In the 1970s, a young Rob Fellows started to hang out at the Port Perry Fairgrounds and racing barns. His parents told him not to, which made it all the more appealing.
He helped out and learned a lot.
About 50 years later, he owns one of the province’s largest training barns, and has more than $25 million in purse earnings.
It’s a measure of success, but not of profit.
Owners and trainers estimate per horse it costs about $40,000 to $50,000 a year to pay for feed, veterinary care, training and racing. And that doesn’t include the original cost of the horse, which can range from a few thousand dollars to upwards of a million.
Winbak Farm is one of Canada’s largest and most successful standardbred breeding operations. A refined breeding program over the last 20 years is producing “very fast, slick horses,” said manager Pat Woods.
Despite these improvements, Woods has noticed fewer buyers at sales, and some smaller home breeders have been squeezed out of the industry altogether as a result of rising costs, particularly in the last five years.
“It makes it harder for owners of those racehorses to recoup their money and to make money,” he said.
Some horses earn millions of dollars and some never race. The inherent risk, combined with stagnant purses and growing costs, means the business no longer makes economic sense, Fellows said.
The industry was “cut in half” when the Slots at Racetracks Program ended, said Sandra Snyder, a senior manager with the industry association. Then it was rebuilt. Then a pandemic hit.
“The volume of shock that’s rippled through the industry” has been substantial, she said.
At the same time, costs for horsepeople have “increased at a spectacular rate” with inflation, said Snyder.
It’s a stark contrast to decades ago when Fellows first started. Stabling was free at the track and overhead was minimal, so he could make a $4,000 monthly profit.
Now, a young trainer starting out has hundreds in boarding costs a month, and needs access to a truck and trailer to get from a training centre to the track. It’s going to be a tough ride for the next generation, he said.
“People are working for nothing,” he said.
Rob and Yolanda Fellows don’t take a salary. They have other investments that pay their bills.
Whelan, the harness association president, said he relies on commercial properties for income.
They say they’re fortunate to have investments to fall back on.
Whelan, a fourth-generation trainer and breeder, says his nephew has to race all over North America with a lot of horses to be able to make a living.
Drivers’ incomes vary, and most struggle to make a comfortable living unless they’re at the very top. For the most part they work on commission, typically earning five per cent of any winnings.
Horses, drivers, trainers and owners fill the paddock at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
Grooms and stablehands, which have for years been in shortage, are paid hourly, but the pay is modest and the hours are long.
In 2021, there were more than 1,000 unfilled jobs in the industry, prompting the government to invest $2.1 million to train 250 workers for careers in the horse racing industry. Participants received free training in animal behaviour, handling, care and nutrition through industry partners, as well as up to $3,000 for expenses and paid work placements. Through the program, employers can receive up to $1,000 for each hire.
“Grooms and caretakers are fundamental to the health, welfare and safety of the horses, and therefore are critical to the success of our industry,” Whelan said in a release at the time.
For many in the business, it’s a family affair.
At the age of 60, Rob handed over the reins to his son, Kyle, a step toward transitioning the business.
It’s “hard to surrender control,” Rob told Standardbred Canada at the time but, after decades of being at the races most nights, it was time to begin to slow down.
Kyle and Rob, now 63, train horses for owners across the continent, often holding a percentage of ownership themselves.
Rob and Yolanda still typically start their day before sunrise, often finishing after midnight. Then they get up and do it all over the next day. When he’s not jogging horses, Rob is in his office at one end of the barn, discussing horses with clients, checking race schedules and making sure he has the right number of staff and trailers to take horses to races.
“I’m addicted,” he said.
Take Touchedbyanangel, who cost $97,222 to buy as a yearling and, on paper, is a surefire winner. He shares a sire with Logan Park, a seven-year-old Fellows-trained gelding with 40 wins and more than $2 million in earnings, one of the fastest trotters in the province.
But it has taken Touchedbyanangel time to focus and mature in his first season of racing. In July, Fellows was nervous, noting the colt is “good enough — if he behaves.”
Yolanda Fellows bathes Touchedbyanangel after a warmup session at Mohawk.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
Not all horses have the “it” factor, an uncalculable blend of brain, brawn, work ethic and confidence, and there isn’t a formula that guarantees a winner.
Even those who have been in the business for nearly half a century can’t say what makes a horse great.
“If I knew that, I’d have no losers,” Fellows said.
Outweighing his love for competition is a love of horses.
“I’ll make a doctor’s appointment for them before I’ll make one for me,” he said. “We owe our lives to them.”
Dwindling fan support
It’s Saturday night in late August at Mohawk.
There’s a group of beer-drinking young men in matching floral shirts. A few families at picnic tables, kids leaning over the rail, mesmerized by the four-legged athletes. Older regulars poring intently over number-dense programs packed with statistics about horses, drivers and trainers.
There’s a hum of chatter among spectators along the track apron, occasionally interrupted by a brief crescendo of shouts and cheers as hooves thunder down the stretch toward the finish line.
Inside, a smattering of people — mostly older men — sit at cafeteria-style tables watching races from across North America on screens and sipping from paper coffee cups.
The grandstands are largely empty, a sea of blue folding seats, with a few patrons scattered here and there.
Twenty years ago, “they’d be packed,” said Switzer. If you wanted to place a bet, you’d have to show up at the track.
Now, many fans watch from home on a phone or computer, he said.
With the fans went a special section with a movie-sized screen to watch the race, a roast beef dinner that regularly drew a queue of eager diners and the energy of a roaring crowd competing with the announcer’s booming voice.
“The good old days,” he recalled.
Switzer’s brother, a trainer, sparked his initial interest in the industry, along with a dwindling group of childhood friends from Georgetown who still meet at the track to socialize. The races are exhilarating, the group says, especially on a night like Aug. 23 that draws “the best of the best” horses for eliminations and finals.
“It’s my Saturday night out,” Switzer said. “People come and you’re just yelling and screaming, and if you have your own horse you go out for the picture if he wins.”
“This is what they used to do for fun,” she said.
Races were elegant, occasions to sport stylish attire and wide-brimmed hats. But racing has lost its cultural prominence and fan support has dwindled in the last several decades. Other than a handful of major races such as the King’s Plate, the Kentucky Derby, and the Royal Ascot in England, racing has largely traded glamour for baseball caps and shorts.
A race program is tucked into a colourful pair of jeans on a Saturday in August at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
And with the shift from attending live events to at-home viewing with near-limitless options, the pressure is on race tracks to provide high-quality entertainment for those who do come.
Attitudes toward horse welfare have also shifted, yet another reality the industry must navigate.
Horses can get injured and die. In one high-profile incident from 2014, two horses had to be euthanized because of their injuries in a crash at Flamboro Downs.
People are more animal aware than ever, and that’s a good thing, Briggs said. It’s an advantage for the sport, whose free trackside viewing makes it transparent by nature.
“Unlike online casinos, where it’s hard to get warm and fuzzy about a slot machine on your phone, you can come out and get close to a horse and see all different shapes, sizes, colours and personalities,” he said.
Like hunting dogs or any other purpose-bred animal, standardbreds have racing in their DNA and often share human passion for it, he said.
“This is what they love to do because it’s built into their breeding,” he said.
At the same time, the industry rules have tightened, bringing stricter safety standards for four-legged athletes. Greater investment in track surfaces and maintenance, increased veterinary oversight and limits on whip use are among the reforms. Horses from each race are typically tested for drugs.
“For people to race horses and have success, the route to that is the utmost care of their animals,” Briggs said.
Engaging new fans
Reverend Hanover gets attention in front of Woodbine Mohawk Park in August. The horse is an ambassador for the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
Reverend Hanover is parked outside the Mohawk track in a makeshift pen, exchanging pats and selfies for carrots from spectators and casino-goers.
People offer him pieces of carrot in outstretched hands, giggling when his whiskery muzzle grazes their palms.
Rev is retired but still spends most summer Saturday nights at the track. Now in his teens, the standardbred trots around the track in between races, taking spectators for a lap.
“He loves it,” said Joanne Colville of the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society (OSAS).
Rev’s every move is felt from the lightweight sulky, which bounces gently as he picks up a steady trot, his back rising and falling. Hooves thud and wheels rattle as drivers pass him at a faster version of the two-beat gait under the bluish glow of floodlights. Rev is confident and focused, unlike some of the two- and three-year-olds warming up around him.
Seven to eight patrons can enjoy this free experience each Saturday in the summer, after they sign a waiver with customer service.
“It also allows them to have a look at what goes on in the paddock before, during and after a race with all the work that goes into the horses, watching them get bathed and stripped and walked and cooled out,” Colville said.
Raised in the industry, Colville is also a breeder, Standardbred Canada director and track outrider, responsible for patrolling the track on horseback to escort nervous and unruly youngsters and help ensure human and equine safety.
Joanne Colville sits on her horse, Jay, at Woodbine Mohawk Park. In her role as a track outrider, she is responsible for patrolling the track on horseback to escort nervous and unruly youngsters and help ensure safety.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
Rev’s job is twofold: to put smiles on faces and introduce newcomers to the sport and breed.
After earning more than $550,000 in his career, he’s an ambassador for OSAS, which works to rehome and find second careers for race horses, who usually retire well before the mandatory age of 14.
Mohawk’s Drive With Us program, the only one in the province, is one of the ways the industry is working to engage spectators and attract new audiences to the track. Fundraisers, a pizza oven and a petting zoo for kids are some of the other strategies.
On a holiday Monday in August, families flocked to Grand River Raceway for free fun at Industry Day. While horses thundered past the stands, kids licked ice cream cones, pet ponies, llamas and goats, and played inflatable axe-throwing and other games.
Under tents, University of Guelph’s equine department and feed companies offered horse-related education and crafts.
Aimen Yasin of Milton stumbled on the event while scrolling on social media that morning. She saw “horses” and “kids,” and 20 minutes later, the family of four was out the door.
“It’s the first time coming to any kind of race event,” said the mom of two kids aged five and one. “I’m really happy to be here.”
Industry Day, which used to be for racing insiders, has evolved in its 36 years into a community event.
The aim is to show “racing at heart,” but also attract newcomers with fun and food, said Louise Frost, marketing manager for the Grand River Agricultural Society, which owns the track land.
“A big strategic objective for us is to be able to bring new audiences into what has typically been seen as an older sport, so by doing community-style events we’re able to bring sort of those younger families and engage them in a different way,” she said.
‘Moving pieces’ of a race night
Gary Guy announces Friday night races from his booth overlooking the track at Grand River Raceway in Elora.
Kate McCullough/The Hamilton Spectator
In a dimly lit booth overlooking the track, Grand River Raceway’s Gary Guy exchanged quips with an announcer on the track as Race 7 horses paraded out of the paddock.
“Let’s get a look of this field,” he spoke into a headset, poring over the race program chock-full of stats and performance history. “Sugar, well, we have a little difference of opinion. I’m on Allstar Twinkle, but you’ve got No. 3.”
A former radio man, his love for horse racing runs deep.
Guy has never been on vacation, and he’s only missed two race days — for cancer treatment — in more than three decades of announcing at the Elora track and Barrie’s Georgian Downs in the summer, and Dundas’s Flamboro Downs, where the season starts in early September, from fall through spring.
Some tracks race on alternating nights to maximize viewership.
The industry is small and tight-knit, with low employee turnover. Nearly everyone is a familiar face — or the relative of one, he said. For most, somebody — a mother, uncle, cousin or friend — is the reason they’re in the industry.
“This is my family,” he said. “Most people have to work for a living. I don’t. I come in and enjoy myself.”
His is one of many in a vertical maze of offices, each filled with people who make race night happen.
Below him, a team in a television studio co-ordinates live racing and replays. Behind a partition, a player-services supervisor manages wagering, schedules races, oversees tellers and communicates with judges.
High above the grandstands, a videographer pans from his perch by a window and a man waits to snap the photo finish.
“Everybody co-ordinates with everybody is kind of how it has to happen,” said MacDonell, whose father, Paul, is a famous driver.
“There’s so many moving pieces to a race night,” she said.
Horse racing slows as bettors shrug and turn away
The best view in the house is for the judges, who sit at a counter facing two large rectangular windows offering panoramic views of the track below.
“We oversee the races, just like a referee would watch a football game and make sure all the rules are being followed,” said senior race official Emma Pote.
Horses are not allowed to interfere with one another or start galloping.
Drivers are monitored for how they use a whip. In the rule book for standardbred racing, “aggressive action, which is characterized by inhumane, severe or brutal activity,” is a violation of the rules.
Horse racing slows as bettors shrug and turn away
In addition, whips can’t be used “where the horse is not visibly responding” and “where the horse is not in contention for a meaningful position.” It’s also a violation if drivers raise a hand above their head or use “more than acceptable wrist action.” This limits the force with which a whip can be used.
Violation of the rules can result in penalties, including monetary, suspension, placement and disqualification.
Over the radio, the starting car receives a two-minute warning.
Ultimately, this race was uneventful, Pote said. A flapping saddle pad threatened to interfere, but, to the judges’ relief, it stayed in place over the finish line.
The winner and second-place horse were sent for drug testing. At least one horse is sent each race, usually the winner. Unusual performance can also cause a horse to be selected for testing, judges say. They also try to select horses from different trainers throughout the night.
Once they’ve reviewed race footage, especially the last few lengths and any incidents, they make the results official and payouts can begin. If a first-place horse bothered one that came second or third, judges might opt to bump them down, changing payouts to owners, drivers, trainers and the public.
“Four, three, two, five on the board,” Pote called, naming the order of top finishers.
And then it all starts again.
“We’re pretty lucky we get to sit up here and overlook all of this,” she said.
Emma Pote watches the end of a race from the judge’s box overlooking the Grand River Raceway track.
Kate McCullough/The Hamilton Spectator
Life after racing
Retired racehorses can go on to work on farms or get retrained for other disciplines, such as show jumping.
There’s been an increased push to find retired racehorses permanent homes after their careers end, with organizations such as the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society (OSAS) in Campbellville and the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society in Erin helping to retrain and find second careers for racehorses.
Founded in 1996, OSAS takes in retired standardbreds and works to match them with adopters looking for a pleasure or companion horse, or even a competition horse in a new discipline.
The “stars” of the organization are the foster and retraining homes, who among them have anywhere between 20 and 25 retired standardbreds at any given time, administrator Colville said.
First, horses go to farms where they decompress for a minimum of 15 days after racing. Then, they go to a farm in Tottenham for retraining.
The organization is heavily backed by the racetracks, breeding farms and Ontario Racing, as well as private donations. Colville is one of two employees, the other does marketing and social media.
Finding a horse a forever home is an art, Colville said. OSAS usually gets potential adopters to the retraining centre to meet with several horses.
“You may think that one is a great fit for you and really when you get there you just don’t make that connection,” she said. “They’re like people. They all have personalities, too.”
Horses can live 25 to 30 years, with many leaving the track before age five. The goal of OSAS is to find them a “forever” home where they’ll be safe from the uncertainty of auctions, where “kill buyers” purchase horses for slaughter.
OSAS typically has between 20 to 25 horses in foster care, though during the pandemic that hit in 2020, their numbers jumped to as many as 35 as many areas of the industry came to a halt.
The ones that live with Colville are used “to showcase the versatility of the breed.”
Her daughter and other volunteers ride off-track standardbreds at events, including English shows in Ancaster Fairgrounds and events with the Hamilton and Wellington-Waterloo hunt cubs.
“We like to go out and expose the breed to as many people as possible,” Colville said.
Photo feature: A summer morning at Fellows farm
While they likely need to be trained for a rider and saddle, standardbreds enter second careers with tons of exposure to loud noises, bright lights and a buzz of activity — things that might scare or stress other horses.
If their bloodlines are good, they may be used to produce a new generation of racehorses. Others go on to do farm work, particularly in Mennonite communities, and pleasure driving.
Increased boarding costs, however, are deterring prospective horse buyers, Colville said.
“It’s getting very expensive,” she said.
Future of the industry
Anthony MacDonald is the owner of TheStable.ca, one of several Ontario-based operations offering fractional ownership of racehorses.
Owners can purchase as little as one per cent of an equine athlete and pay about $25 a month toward their training and care.
In return, clients get regular updates on their horse from a travelling MacDonald, a portion of any winnings and the thrill of watching their horse cross the finish line without the work, time and money involved in traditional ownership.
The idea is to make ownership “fun, accessible and affordable,” said director of business development Kelly Spencer.
“Harness racing really is a hidden gem,” she said. “It’s not something that a lot of people know a lot about because it is a high-barrier sport.”
It’s a 250-year-old sport steeped in tradition, but it’s also evolving.
TheStable.ca is an example of how. It engages new and former owners, and brings fractional owners, along with family and friends, out to the track.
It gives people who wouldn’t otherwise get involved an opportunity “to discover harness racing in a meaningful way, which I think is important for the communities where these racetracks and stables reside and important for the future of an industry,” Spencer said.
Tourism is a slice of the industry contribution to Ontario’s economy. The industry offers destination events, such as the $6.7-million Breeders Crown at Mohawk on Oct. 25 and 26, one of the most prestigious championship series in harness racing.
Another calendar highlight, the Sept. 20 Mohawk Million for two-year-old trotters and the Metro Pace for pacers of the same age, each with a seven-figure purse, aims to spotlight the “next wave of superstars,” Woodbine communications said in 2024.
The Canadian Trotting Classic for three-year-olds, which has a $400,000 purse, also takes place the same day.
A significant agricultural subsector, the industry employs veterinarians, farm supply, transportation, tack making and animal feed, including commercial feeds and hay.
Its $1.9-billion contribution to gross domestic product and 23,000 jobs are common defences of the industry that is subsidized by the province to the tune of about $100 million a year.
Preserving a long-standing tradition, sport, and communities that rely on it are also worthy causes, proponents say.
Livestreamed races and digital wagering platforms are among the ways the industry is modernizing. In August, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. (OLG) added parimutuel wagering to its digital platforms, exposing horse-race wagering to wider audiences.
Online databases that track horse performance, driver statistics, earnings and pedigree offer transparency and insight for stakeholders, influencing everything from training and racing decisions to breeding to managing risk. For example, statistics on injuries and earnings can help owners decide when to sell or retire.
An initiative to use artificial intelligence to help populate race cards is in the early stages, said Ontario Racing’s Snyder. The technology would analyze stats and assign each horse a single rating based on past performance, allowing race programmers to more accurately match ability and create a highly competitive field.
A clear winner discourages betting, while a field with five or six horses of similar ability drives wagering activity, Ontario Racing says.
“A race secretary would tell you that the perfectly assembled race has … all 10 horses at the finish line at the same time,” she said. “Using algorithms, taking in more information just helps you get closer to that goal.”
Rob and Yolanda Fellows’ daughter, Tiana, dries off Touchedbyanangel after a warm up at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Mathew McCarthy/Waterloo Region Record
As for Touchedbyanangel’s future?
Fellows is “cautiously optimistic.”
“When I sit behind him, his maturity level is getting better and better as the summer goes on,” he said.
In a late August warmup, he tossed his head, danced sideways and, when another horse passed him, took off.
But at race time, he locked in, focused on the task at hand.
He placed fourth in the William Wellwood Memorial Final on Aug. 23, with a $485,000 purse, winning $34,920. Fourth or fifth place was what Fellows had hoped for since two of the horses who beat him were from the United States.
“It’s a good night,” he said.