Harness: Forbidden Trade takes Somebeachsomewhere Horse of the Year honor

Hambletonian champion Forbidden Trade went home with the Somebeachsomewhere Horse of the Year Award and the crown as top 3-year-old colt trotter from Canada's O'Brien Awards presentation on Saturday night.

Trained by Luc Blais for owner Determination and regularly driven by Bob McClure, Forbidden Trade won eight of 14 starts in 2019. In addition to his win in the Hambletonian final, he also won multiple Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series legs and the Gold Super Final.

McWicked, the 2018 Horse of the Year in both the United States and Canada, was victorious in the older pacing horse category again. The now-retired McArdle stallion had been trained by Casie Coleman for owner S S G Stables.

Richard Moreau was the night's other major star, winning the Trainer of the Year Award for an unprecedented seventh straight time. Moreau's charges collected 285 wins and earned over C$4.5 million in 2019. Moreau's regular driver, Louis-Philippe Roy also defended his Driver of the Year Title.

Bob McIntosh won a pair of O'Briens, securing the trophy in the 3-Year-Old Filly Pace category with his homebred Sunny Dee and then another of his homebreds, Only Take Cash, tied for the honor in the 3-Year-Old Filly Trot division with Evident Beauty.

Marvin Katz, Howard Taylor, Caviart Farms (Buck and Judy Chaffee), Crawford Farms Racing (Al and Michelle Crawford), Claude Hamel, and Ben Baillargeon were also multi-time winners during the night.

Katz won as co-owner of top 2-Year-Old Pacing Colt Tall Dark Stranger and also teamed up with longtime partner Al Libfeld to take the Armstrong Breeder of the Year crown. Taylor and the Crawfords co-own Atlanta, the top Older Trotting Mare and also are part of the ownership group of Tall Dark Stranger, and the Chaffees are the other partner on Tall Dark Stranger, and their Caviart Ally was named best in the Older Pacing Mare category. Hamel bred and co-owns and Baillargeon trains HP Royal Theo, the O'Brien Award winner in the 2-Year-Old Colt Trot division, and Hamel and Baillargeon co-own and Baillargeon trains Musical Rhythm, the best older trotting horse in Canada last year.

Another presentation during the night was the Cam Fella Award to Anthony MacDonald, founder of thestable.ca. The Cam Fella Award, which is given to recognize extreme effort and dedication to Canadian harness racing by an individual or group who through their efforts have displayed some of those same qualities that made Cam Fella one of the greatest names in harness racing, was handed out for only the 12th time since its creation in 1997.

Also winning O'Brien Awards were:

Alicorn (2-year-old pacing filly)
Dip Me Hanover (2-year-old trotting filly)
Century Farroh (3-year-old pacing colt)
Dave Kelly (Rising Star Award)
Gilles Barrieau (O'Brien Award of Horsemanship)
Rachel Dupuis (Outstanding Groom Award)
Rachel Oenema (Outstanding Written Work)
Woodbine Entertainment (Outstanding Broadcast)
Kyle Burton (Outstanding Photography)