APRIL 2021 THE RIDER /23
Q.R.O.O.I.: 50 Alexander Crossing’s, Ajax, ON L0S 1T6 Telephone: (905) 426-7050 • Fax: (905) 426-7093 Email:
qrooiheadoffice@gmail.com
www.qrooi.com
Rick Crispi wins his first High Point Owner Award
by Jennifer Morrison It was the final day of racing for the 2020
Quarter Horse season at Ajax Downs and owner Rick Crispi of Guelph, Ontario was in second place for the season’s High Point Owner Award. His horses had raced well all season under the guidance of trainer Tom Dunlap but it was going to take a victory by Crispi’s homebred Jess Car- olinas Award in the final stakes race of the season, the Ontario Sired Stakes Derby, to get the title. Jess Carolinas Award obliged, putting his
head in front at the finish of the $54,000 Derby, lifting Crispi to his first ever Quarter Racing Own- ers of Ontario Award for top owner. “I was watching the race on the computer with my wife Donna and we hugged and danced around the room,” said Crispi. “Great fun.” Crispi had previously raced horses with
friend Don Salzsauler as Ivy Lane Racing before going out on his own six years ago. In 2020, his 15 starters won 14 races from 80 starts and col- lected 159 QROOI points edging out last year’s top owner James Bogar. Jess Carolinas Award, produced from
Crispi’s mare Jess Carolina, was the year’s High Point 3-year-old colt or gelding. “To be successful in racing you need really
good horses and just as importantly, a great trainer,” said Crispi, “Tom Dunlap is not only gifted with talent and experience, he is a very pos- itive throwback to a time when people could be counted on to support and help one another. Tom did a truly wonderful job in 2020 as he has every year.”
Dunlap, runner-up to Jason Pascoe for High
Point Trainer, was assisted on race day by Ontario horseman Greg Watson as Dunlap, who trains the horses in Michigan, was unable to come to Canada due to COVID-19 restrictions. “Hats off to James Bogar and all the other
committed and talented owners, trainers and jock- eys at Ajax Downs,” said Crispi. “It was my time in 2020 and I recognize clearly, that with the talent at the track the last few years, while I will be com- peting hard with Tom, any one of many others could also win High Point Owner in 2021. That’s what makes it all so exciting.” The board of directors of the QROOI an-
nounced the champions of 2020 on March 5 and is presenting trophies to winners and runners-up on a personal basis as the annual awards cere- mony and dinner could not take place this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Points are awarded to horses owned by QROOI members based on top four placings in all categories of races.
On Feb. 26 Fiesty Icon, owned and trained
by Rick Kennedy, was named the 2020 Horse of the Year. The Ontario sired and bred gelding, who turned nine-years-old in 2021 was also the High Point Aged Male with 39 QROOI points. Ed Walton won his first High Point Jockey
title in 2020, collecting 356 points with 35 victo- ries in just 20 Ajax racing dates. Walton has been among the top riders in Quarter Horse racing for over 30 years, although he was away from riding
PRESIDENT Bob Broadstock 18101 Cedardale Road, Nestleton, Ontario L0B 1L0 (905) 986-0044 email:
bob_broadstock@hotmail.com
VICE-PRESIDENT Chantelle Bourgeois 416-985-7046
Chantelle.Bourgeois@
t4g.com
James Bogar
JBogar@cameronsteel.com Scott Reid
sr_training@hotmail.com Amanda McCormack
amccormack.valmor@
gmail.com Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario Announces Champions of 2020
for 14 years prior to 2009. In 2020, Walton partnered up with stakes
stars such as champion Country Boy 123, Ecs Greys Anatomy, Twixt of Fate, Fiesty Icon and Hanover Hill Chalsee. He also entered the AQHA the record books as the rider of Carneros, who set a world record for 110 yards on June 16 of 6.770. The horse with the most QROOI points of
the 2020 season was the Ontario-bred 3-year-old filly One Kool Dynasty. Owned by Belinda Tag- gart and bred by William Taggart, One Kool Dy- nasty had a superb season with four wins from 10 races including the Princess Derby and 44 QROOI points.
won his second consecutive High Point Trainer title with 279 points from a meet-leading 23 wins. Pascoe’s runners earned $380,932 and also in- cluded the 2020 High Point 2-year-old filly Streakinlilwagon, whom he also owns and bred with partner Byranne Langford, Sprint Series champion Carneros and Distance Series winner Spy for the Senate. The 2020 racing season was a big one for
Norm Picov’s Picov Cattle Company, the High Point Leading Breeder (143 points) which bred Horse of the Year Fiesty Icon and bred and raced stakes winners Hanover Hill Chalsee and Hanover Hill Theresa. The 58 Picov-bred starters earned $212,948 and finished in the top three 31 times. Chantelle Bourgeois won High Point
Owner/Trainer with 64 points and her homebred Shake It Twice from the Ontario Sires Stakes Ma- turity.
Carol and Jaime Robertson’s Ontario-bred
Had to Be Relentless was the year’s High Point 2- year-old colt or gelding with 27 points and owner/trainer Craig Spada’s Jess a Sweet Surprize led all aged mares with 20 points. The 2021 racing season at Ajax Downs is
set to begin Mother’s Day, May 9, the first of 25 scheduled dates.
List of QROOI Award Winners 2020
Horse of the Year - Fiesty Icon Bruce Lawrence -Hi Point Trainer - Jason Pascoe Runner-Up Trainer - Tom Dunlap High Point Owner/Trainer - Chantelle Bour- geois
Runner-Up Owner/Trainer - Ruth Barbour High-Point Jockey - Ed Walton Runner-up Jockey - Cory Spataro
High Point 2 Yr Old - Had to Be Relentless Carol and Jaime Robertson
High Point 2 Yr Old Colt/Gelding - Had to Be Relentless
Carol and Jaime Robertson
Runner-up 2 yr old Gelding/Colt - Twixt of Fate Richard Wincikaby
High Point 2 yr Old Filly - Streakinlilwagon GFR Equine Services Runner-Up 2 yr old Filly - Jess Raven
Trainers Seminar
been scheduled by the Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario Inc
A Trainers Seminar has
for Saturday May 8th, 2021. To register please contact Monique at the QROOI Head Office at
905-426-7050 or by email at
qrooiheadoffice@gmail.com
Raven Racing Syndicate
Runner-Up 2 yr old Filly - Ah Candyland Richard Wincikaby
High Point 3 Yr Old - One Kool Dynasty Belinda Taggart
High Point 3 Yr Old Gelding/Stallion - Jess Car- olinas Award Rick Crispi
Runner-up 3 yr old Gelding/Stallion - Eazy Street
One Kool Dynasty’s trainer Jason Pascoe Carol and Jaime Robertson
High Point 3 Yr Old Mare - One Kool Dynasty Belinda Taggart
Runner-Up 3 yr old Mare - Hanover Hill Chalsee Picov Cattle Co
High Point Aged Horse - Fiesty Icon Richard Kennedy
Hi Point Aged Gelding/Stallion - Fiesty Icon Richard Kennedy
Runner-up Aged Gelding/Stallion - Spy for the Senate
Milena Kwiecien
High Point Aged Mare - Jess A Sweet Suprize Craig Spada
Runner Up Aged Mare-One of My Favorites Rick Crispi
High Point Point Owner - Rick Crispi Runner Up Owner - James Bogar High Point Ontario Breeder - Picov Cattle Com- pany
Runner Up Breeder - Christine Tavares Fiesty Icon: 2020 Horse of the Year
Ajax Downs, February 26, 2021 - Rick Kennedy’s exceptional gelding FIESTY ICON was voted the 2020 Horse of the Year at Ajax Downs by the Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario it was an- nounced Friday. Feisty Icon was 8-years-old last year but had arguably the best season of his re- markable career that included a Horse of the Year title in 2015 when he was a 3-year-old. QROOI president Bob Broadstock presented
Rick and Karen Kennedy with Fiesty Icon’s Horse of the Year trophy on Feb. 26 at Ajax Downs. The annual QROOI Awards ceremony and dinner was cancelled this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. All of the 2020 Ajax Downs racing award winners will be formally announced next week, March 5. “We were surprised,” said Kennedy about the
Horse of the Year announcement. “You know, he just loves racing and I think that is why he’s just so good every year. When I get the truck and hook up the trailer he gets excited, hoping that he is going to the track.” It was Fiesty Icon’s stirring victory in the
$54,000 Alex Picov Memorial Championship over three-time Horse of the Year Country Boy 123 that secured the title for the Ontario sired and bred son of Sugarman Perry - Fiesty Spirit by Special Effort. It was Fiesty Icon’s fourth attempt at winning the Championship having been just behind Country Boy 123 in the 2017 and 2018 editions and missing by a nose in 2016. Tony Phillips guided Fiesty Icon to the Championship victory, his third win of nine races in 2020. Fiesty Icon, also known as ‘Ike’, won two
other races last season with his regular rider Ed Walton and was second in the Ontario Bred Matu- rity and Ontario Sired Maturity. The lanky gelding earned 39 QROOI points and he collected $59,889 during the season. He was also the 2020 High Point Aged Male Horse. Bred by Picov Cattle Company, Fiesty Icon
was bought privately by Kennedy as a yearling in 2013. His career totals stand at 20 wins from 50 races and earnings of over $355,000.
“We have been blessed, and lucky, that Ike is
sound, happy and always playing,” said Kennedy whose farm in his Mount Albert, ON. “We also have had good riders who encourage him and let him know he is special.” Will Ontario Quarter horse racing fans get to see Fiesty Icon at the age of nine in 2021? “Like all of us, Ike is chomping on the bit
ready to do something,” said Kennedy. “He’s had a great winter and now he is getting bored.” The 2021 Ajax Downs season is set to begin
May 9. For more information on Quarter Horse rac-
ing and how to become involved as an owner or shareholder, contact the QROOI at
www.qrooi.com or call (905) 426-7050. Follow Ajax Downs on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram @AjaxDowns or at
www.ajaxdowns.com
Sean Slater
cusl8r@live.com
Ralph Pearson - 905-243-4501
ralphpearson@bellnet.ca
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