LongRun's Vicki Pappas, Heart to Heart among inductees to Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

Builder Vicki Pappas, Heart to Heart, and Not Too Shy are the 2021 inductees on the Thoroughbred side for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Montreal native Pappas is a longtime owner-breeder, who retired from a career at Woodbine Racetrack in the 1990s to focus on the development of the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society. Since its formation in 1999, LongRun has re-homed over 600 racehorses donated by owners and trainers who support the charity’s mandate, policies, and vision of its founder. Seventeen years after being granted charitable status, LongRun opened its own facility in Hillsburgh, Ontario, where retired Thoroughbreds are prepared for adoption to their forever homes.

Male horse inductee Heart to Heart, a $25,000 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society yearling sale purchase in 2012, earned over $2 million during a seven-year racing career for owner Terry Hamilton. Trained predominantly by Brian Lynch, his 15 wins from 41 starts included 13 stakes scores from ages 3 through 7. Canada’s champion male 3-year-old in 2014, the speedy turf miler tallied twice in Grade 1 company in the United States in 2018, taking the Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland and the Gulfstream Park Turf.

Veteran category inductee Not Too Shy, a daughter of Nearctic, was owned and bred by the late Conn Smythe. In 55 races from 1968-1971, including 19 starts in her busy 3-year-old season, she accumulated a record of 23-8-10 while establishing herself as one of the top fillies and mares of that era. At 3, she won the Fury, Wonder Where, Maple Leaf, and Duchess stakes, and narrowly lost the Canadian Oaks to archrival Cool Mood.

At 4, Not Too Shy captured the Seaway, Canadian, Belle Mahone, Maple Leaf, and Tattling stakes, en route to being named Canada’s champion older female. Following another lucrative campaign at 5, she became a successful broodmare.

The Standardbred election committee inductee selections for 2021 are builder Jim Bullock, driver Randy Waples, and female horse Great Memories.

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame board of directors reduced the number of inductees for the Class of 2021 to three per breed. The intention is to allow for the 2020 and 2021 inductees to be properly recognized together at a gala event that will take place once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control. Additional inductees will be added in 2022 and 2023 to offset the smaller class of 2021.