Canadian Hall of Fame

Canadian Hall of Fame jockey and racetrack superintendent Irwin Driedger was awarded the Racetrack Superintendent's Innovator Award during the 2024 Track Superintendent's Field Day. Irwin passed away on May 20, 2023. The award represents accomplishments from the period of 2006 to 2018 when Irwin was the Director of Thoroughbred Racing Surfaces at Woodbine Racetrack. The Racetrack Superintendent's Innovator Award is given to recognize the critical professionals who maintain the racing surfaces for safety and fairness. Previous recipients of the Racetrack Superintendent's Innovator Award includes Joe King, Leif Dickinson and Dennis...

Owner/breeder Charles E. Fipke, a Canadian geologist and diamond prospector who has made an impact on the sport on both sides of the border, will be inducted as part of the 2022 class in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. The other Thoroughbred inductees include jockey Eurico Rosa Da Silva, as well as horses Court Vision (Gulch) and Alydeed (Shadeed). Fipke has been involved in Thoroughbreds for over 40 years. His Sovereign Award winners are all homebreds: Not Bourbon (Not Impossible {Ire}), Impossible Time (Not Impossible {Ire}), Perfect Soul...

Canadian Hall of Fame jockey Don Seymour, who stamped himself one of the nation's leading riders after riding two Triple Crown winners, died June 26 at his home in Barrie, Ontario. Surrounded by his family, including his mother Mary, at the time of his death, he reportedly had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease since earlier this year. He was 59. Born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Seymour was a leading rider in Alberta in the 1980s before relocating to ride at Woodbine Racetrack in Etobicoke, Ontario. Best remembered...