Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame was founded in 1976 but remained without a home for 20 years. On 22 Aug 1997, the Ontario Jockey Club provided a permanent site at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

The Hall of Fame honours those who have contributed to horse racing in Canada. The five categories of inductees are as follows: male horses (Canadian-bred horses or foreign-bred horses that have raced for Canadian interests and have raced at least once in Canada, or those that have influenced Canadian horse breeding as sires); female horses (Canadian-bred horses or foreign-bred horses that have raced for Canadian interests and have raced at least once in Canada, or those that have influenced Canadian horse breeding as broodmares); jockeys, drivers, and trainers; builders; and veterans (horses, dead or alive, whose careers ended at least twenty years prior to their year of nomination).

On display at the Hall of Fame are trophies, antique racing programs, bronzed horseshoes and other memorabilia from across Canada. One exhibit, The Way We Were, provides an informal pictorial history of horse racing in Canada - from its 1797 beginnings on the peninsula connecting Toronto Island to the mainland, through to the 1956 opening of the current Woodbine Racetrack.