Lurking beneath the soft tendrils of a warm sunny Saturday afternoon at Calgary’s Century Downs smoldered darkness.
It was the Western Regional Driving Championship where the top eight drivers in Western Canada were competing.
British Columbia’s Dave Hudon qualified and was supposed to take part but, sadly, cancer sidelined him.
“This one’s for Dave,” said Phil Giesbrecht, who won three of the last four races to take the title over Kelly Hoerdt.
“You couldn’t find a nicer or a better guy. He would give you the shirt off his back.
“And he’s as good of a horseman as he is a person,” said Giesbrecht, who is married to Jocelyn, who is Dave’s niece.
The Hudons are one of harness racing’s most famous families.
Jocelyn is the Marketing and Event Coordinator for The Alberta Standardbred Horse Association.
“I wish I was competing against him (Saturday). He would have been tough to beat.”
Dave twice won half of the cards at B.C.’s Fraser Downs.
“It was a fun afternoon but also very emotional,” said Giesbrecht, who even used Dave’s red sulky for his eight races.
“Dave needs a miracle.”
Giesbrecht and Hoerdt now advance to the National Driving Championship at Ontario’s Clinton Raceway on July 26.
The winner of that will advance to the World Driving Championship which Hoerdt won in 2018.
“Clinton is a really nice track,” said Giesbrecht. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’ll be driving horses I’ve never driven before.”
Held every two years, this was Giesbrecht’s second straight Western Regional victory.
He won it two years ago in similar fashion coming from far back.
“Two years ago I was dead last with three races to go but I knew I had some good horses left.”
Did he ever. Giesbrecht won with all three.
“Similar script this year,” said Giesbrecht, who trailed Hoerdt with four races to go but won three of those four.
In the fifth leg of the Driving Championship (race seven) he came second over with cover with Trust Me Alot to win by six lengths.
“He was my first overall pick,” said Giesbrecht as the drivers drafted horses. “She was my Connor McDavid. I’d driven her a lot and she had won two of her last three races and was second in the other.”
Trust Me Alot paid $3.70 to win.
In the seventh leg (race nine), Giesbrecht had selected Diva Amour. Boxed in, Giesbrecht swung down to the passing lane and won by a length and a quarter over Hoerdt and Stylebender.
Diva Amour paid $3.50 to win and Giesbrecht had the lead in the competition.
Finally, in the final leg (race 10), Giesbrecht won again piloting Redstone Arsenal to a five-and-a-half length triumph after moving three-wide down the backstretch.
Redstone Arsenal, who hadn’t been first or second in eight starts this year, paid $7.50.
“Three favourites. Those are the horses you’re supposed to win with,” said Giesbrecht, the leading driver at Nisku’s Century Mile the last two seasons.
“I just did my job.”
If Giesbrecht had a do-over it would have been with Kissinger in the fourth leg.
“I should have moved him earlier,” said Giesbrecht, who stayed put on the rail and then was impossibly boxed in.
“He would have won from here to Regina.
“It was a split second decision and I made the wrong decision,” said Giesbrecht, who also won the first race of the 10-race card which was not part or the competition.
Giesbrecht had his first million-dollar season in 2023 and has topped the million-dollar mark every year since.
Starting out in 2007, Giesbrecht, 37, has now won 1,542 races as a driver.
“It was great to do it for Dave,” he said.
Giesbrecht finished with 72.5 points; Hoerdt was second with 60.5 points.
Point totals were awarded on the driver’s finishing position in the eight races: 15 points for first, 10 for 2nd, 7 for 3rd, 5 for 4th, 4 for 5th, 3 for 6th, 2 for 7th, and 1 for 8th.
“It was a fun day and so fitting that Phil won after dedicating the Driver’s Championship to Dave,” said Hoerdt, who is always one of Alberta’s top drivers and trainers and who was twice the O’Brien Award winner as Canada’s top Horseman.
Hoerdt, who won the first race of the Western Regional card with 14-1 longshot No Free Tricks, who came from the also-eligible list after stablemate Snowdragon came up sick, then finished second in the second leg.
“Winning right off the bat was a great way to get the day started,” said Hoerdt, who has two wins and a second in the Western Regional Driver’s Championship and who has been driving and training for 41 years.
“It was nice to get a break from everyday racing. I had a lot of friends and family cheering me on,” said Hoerdt, who has won 2,641 races as a trainer and 3,182 wins as a driver.
“There wasn’t one guy not smiling at the end of the day.”
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Inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.