Todd, Husbands, Vella among new inductees to Canadian Hall of Fame

ETOBICOKE, Ontario—Glen Todd, Patrick Husbands, and Danny Vella were among the 2024 inductees into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame during a Wednesday evening ceremony at the Mississauga Convention Centre.

The late Glen Todd was honored in the Thoroughbred builder category. He began training at Hastings in the early 1970s, doing so until 1985. In 2011, he won the Sovereign Award in a tie for Canada’s outstanding owner. Todd, who died in 2022 at 75, worked tirelessly to promote and improve the British Columbia racing industry. In 2009, he was part of the B.C. Horse Racing Industry Management Committee, which was formed to revitalize the sport and put it on firmer financial ground. He also extended an interest-free $1 million loan to fund purse money and keep racing at Hastings going during 2021.

Husbands, 51, has been among the most successful jockeys at Woodbine over the past 25 years. Before immigrating to Canada in 1994 from his native Barbados, he had already enjoyed considerable success as a champion rider and was the youngest jockey to win the prestigious Barbados Gold Cup. He would go on to capture eight Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding jockey. He guided Wando to victory in each leg of the 2003 Canadian Triple Crown and has won 3,656 races in Canada and the U.S., while amassing earnings of $180 million.

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Vella, 68, was twice the Sovereign Award-winning trainer. He won the coveted Queen’s Plate twice, in 1994 with Basqueian and in 2012 with Strait of Dover. Vella’s career statistics featured 869 wins, including 142 stakes, and earnings of $39 million. He retired from training at the end of 2022.

Starship Jubilee was voted in through the female horse category. She was the 2019 Canadian Horse of the Year under the guidance of trainer Kevin Attard, who claimed her at Gulfstream for a bargain $16,000 in 2017 before she went on to bank over $2 million. Her most notable victories came in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile in 2020 and the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor in 2019.

Channel Maker prevailed in the male horse category. The durable gelding was the champion male 3-year-old in Canada in 2017 when trained by Vella, and was voted the 2020 Eclipse Award for champion male turf runner when trained by Bill Mott. Bred by Ivan Dalos, the multiple Grade 1 winner retired last year at age 9 to Old Friends in Kentucky as the third-richest Canadian-bred of all time, with earnings of over $3.9 million.

Richard Grubb was inducted into the Thoroughbred veteran category. Born in 1950, he began his riding career in 1966 and notched the first race in which he rode as a professional before winning 1,606 other events. He was Canada’s leading rider with 230 victories in 1967, during which he once won seven straight races on an eight-race card. He won over 100 stakes and rode 1968 Canadian Horse of the Year Viceregal. Following his retirement in 1989, he served as a steward with the Ontario Racing Commission for 24 years.

The class of 2024 Standardbred inductees are Dr. Moira Gunn (builder), Sylvain Filion (driver), Bee A Magician (female horse), Dr. Ian Moore (trainer), Ed Tracey (driver), and Ross “Cowboy” Curran (veteran).

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