2025 Standardbred Inductee
On August 7, 2000, Yankee Paco made history as the first Canadian-bred horse to win the prestigious $1 million Hambletonian, the holy grail of harness racing. The 1:53.2 mile was a season’s record for a three-year-old colt and the mile was all the more impressive as he was parked out the entire race.
Trained by Doug McIntosh, driven by Trevor Ritchie, and co-owned by Harry and Tom Ivey, the chestnut son of Balanced Image/Yankee Playgirl garnered national attention and pride. His groundbreaking victory drew international media attention, marked a pivotal moment in harness racing, and led to O’Brien Awards as Canada’s Three-Year-Old Trotting Colt of the Year and Horse of the Year, and a Dan Patch Award for the Three-Year-Old Trotting Colt title in the United States.
Consigned by Yankeeland Farm as a yearling at the 1998 Kentucky Standardbred Sale at Fasig-Tipton, Yankee Paco was a modest $30,000 yearling purchase by McIntosh for the Ivey’s, his longtime clients.
His road to success didn’t start smoothly. He was somewhat erratic in his first two qualifying races as a two-year-old, making breaks at the start of the races. He found his composure in his third qualifier but then struggled in his next few starts before breaking his maiden on October 14 in a $100,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Final at Mohawk in a solid 1:58, a season’s mark. He followed that up with three more victories including an impressive win in his final start of the season, a handy two length victory in the Canadian Breeders Championship timed in 1:58.3. His solid freshman campaign included a 4-1-1 record from nine races, and $124,776 in purse earnings.
His three-year old season was sensational, as he won 10 of 16 races including a sweep of all four of his Ontario Sires Stakes events, and more than $1.3 million in purse money. He boasted a nine-race win streak from June through October, highlighted by his monumental victory in the Hambletonian. Wins in The Canadian Trotting Classic, the American-National, Simcoe Stakes and the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final kept Yankee Paco’s growing fan base captivated.
From 25 career starts, Yankee Paco recorded 14 wins, three second-place finishes and a third-place effort, and bankrolled $1,486,197 in purse earnings.
After retiring from racing at the end of his three-year-old season, Yankee Paco stood at stud in Ontario, siring winners of $7.7 million in earnings with his most successful offspring being Beer Budget, a winner of $527,156 with 23 top three finishes in 54 starts.
He was euthanized in 2012 at Empire Stallions in Australia due to declining health.
While Yankee Paco’s impact in the breeding shed was somewhat limited, his exceptional racing career – especially as a Canadian-bred dominating international competition – continues to inspire the harness racing community cementing his legacy in Canadian harness racing history.