Two-time grade 1 winner and Canadian champion Heart to Heart is among a group of six horses and people—Thoroughbred and Standardbred—named April 13 as 2021 inductees for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
As previously announced, the Hall's board of directors agreed to reduce the number of inductees for the class of 2021 to three per breed. This will allow for the 2020 and 2021 inductees to be properly recognized together, once a gala event may be hosted. The Hall determined additional inductees will be added in 2022 and 2023 to offset the smaller class of 2021.
The Thoroughbred Election Committee voted to induct builder Vicki Pappas, male horse Heart to Heart, and in the Thoroughbred veteran category, Not Too Shy.
Being recognized as a Thoroughbred Builder Inductee in 2021 is Montreal-born and Streetsville, Ont., resident Victoria (Vicki) Pappas, making her the third woman to be inducted to the CHRHF in as many years. Throughout a career spanning more than 40 years, Pappas has been engaged in various elements of the Canadian Thoroughbred industry. Starting first as a groom, she has also been a trainer, owner, and breeder.
In 2006 Edenwold, bred by Pappas along with her husband Bill Diamant and long-time friend Gail Wood, won the Queen's Plate.
As the face of the Woodbine Sales Company, Pappas was involved in all aspects of the sale. As one of the first on-camera hosts for Woodbine's expanded simulcast show, she handicapped races on air. And as Woodbine's stakes coordinator, Pappas worked tirelessly to encourage some of the world's top horse people and horses to make the trip to Woodbine for major races.
Pappas may however be best known as the passionately dedicated and hands-on chairperson of LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society. Under her leadership, what began as a few people looking for ways to ensure Thoroughbred racehorses have a dignified and happy retirement, has grown into a registered charity, recognized as one of the continent's most respected horse retirement and adoption organizations. It is also the first industry-funded adoption program in Canada. To date, LongRun has successfully retired and adopted more than 1,000 racehorses, and continues to care for 50 horses on its farm in Hillsburgh, Ont. Many of the farm's resident equines are 'lifers' who will comfortably live out their days under the care of LongRun.
Bred by Darrell Bauder's Alberta-based Red Hawk Ranch and foaled in Ontario, the 2021 Thoroughbred Male Horse inductee Heart to Heart was a $25,348 purchase by Alberta's Terry Hamilton at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario Division) yearling sale in 2012. That investment proved lucrative with the horse earning more than $2 million in a high-profile, seven-year racing career that included 15 wins and nearly $50,000 earned per start in 41 starts.
As a 2-year-old, the son of English Channel—Ask the Question, by Silver Deputy, made starts in both Canada and the United States. His Canadian starts included a second-place finish in the Vandal Stakes as well as finishing fourth in both the Simcoe Stakes and Coronation Futurity. Following a sophomore year that included finishing third in the Toronto Cup Stakes as well as starts in the Queen's Plate and Marine Stakes, Heart to Heart was named the Sovereign Award champion 3-year-old male in 2014 on the merits of winning four of eight races, including two grade 3 scores at Churchill Downs.
Trained for the majority of his career by Brian Lynch, Heart to Heart won two consecutive grade 1 races on turf in 2018 with victories in the Gulfstream Park Turf Stakes (G1T) in February followed by a decisive win in the Maker's 46 Mile Stakes (G1T) in April at Keeneland.
In total, Heart to Heart was victorious in 11 graded stakes at U.S. tracks, including Belmont Park, Monmouth Park, Saratoga Race Course, Churchill, Gulfstream Park, and Keeneland. He also had at least one graded stakes win each year from age 3 through age 7.
Bred and owned by Conn Smythe (CHRHF class of 1977), and trained by D. P. (Donnie) Walker, 2021 Thoroughbred Veteran Inductee Not Too Shy won just two races in her initial year of racing (1968) but, in the next three years she would establish herself as one of the top stakes-winning fillies of her era. A 1966 daughter of Nearctic out of Twice Shy, she withstood a hard campaign in her sophomore year, going to post 19 times.
Included in her accomplishments were victories in the Fury, Wonder Where, Maple Leaf, and Duchess stakes, the latter a race in which she defeated 1969 Kentucky Oaks winner Hail to Patsy. Not Too Shy would lose the 1969 Canadian Oaks by a head to Kinghaven Farm's Cool Mood (inducted in 2014) after a long stretch duel.
However, these two fillies would battle three more times with Not Too Shy prevailing in each of those meetings to avenge her Oaks' setback. Later that year, she took on the boys in the Breeders' Stakes, finishing third.
Often racing against older males, and equally adept on both dirt and turf, Not Too Shy's 4-year-old season included 15 starts with stakes wins in the Seaway, Canadian, Belle Mahone, Maple Leaf (again), and Tattling Handicap. Not Too Shy was named Canada's champion older female of 1970 for her efforts at age 4.
At age 5, she continued to race at a high level, earning 6 wins in 14 starts with victories in the Whimsical, repeating in the Seaway Stakes, and a fourth-place finish against top fillies and mares in the Susquehanna Handicap at Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Not Too Shy retired with 11 stakes victories among her 23 wins. As a mare she produced multiple stakes winner and 1978 Queen's Plate contender Lucky Colonel S.
The Standardbred Election Committee inductee selections for 2021 include Builder Jim Bullock, Driver Randy Waples, and Female Horse Great Memories.
For more information about the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, please visit www.canadianhorseracinghalloffame.com.
