Saturday, March 10, 2012

Remembering Two Major Breeders

The week of March 3 brought one of the major deaths in the sport of harness racing. R. Peter Heffering passed away last Saturday of an unknown cause. The co-owner of Tara Hills Stud and Canadian Hall of Fame inductee was 80 years old.

I know little of Peter, since I got involved in the sport two years ago. But from my dad’s remembrance blog of Peter, he said he was, “a man you could forget even if you only saw him once. He was a tall, looming fellow and he said nothing more than ever had to be said. He appeared stoic but was not; he internalized. Once it was his turn to present an opinion or take a side, he was anything but passive.” You can read his blog on Hoof Beats.

We remember Peter has a major horseman, via the campaigns of Precious Bunny, Riyadh, Pacific Rocket, Kadabra, Strong Yankee and Majestic Son. He won almost every race an owner can dream of winning. His resume included the Little Brown Jug, North America Cup, Meadowlands Pace, Canadian Trotting Classic, Breeders Crown and many divisions of the Ontario Sires Stakes.

We remember Precious Bunny through the rivalry he had with Artsplace and Die Laughing. The three pacers made people come to the races to see who the best was this time. Precious Bunny’s major wins included the North America Cup, Meadowlands Pace, Art Rooney Pace, the Adios and the Little Brown Jug. He was voted horse of the year in 1991. Peter bred Precious Bunny to foal another horse of the year, Bunny Lake. Precious Bunny was voted into the Canadian Hall of Fame in 2004.
We all remember the 1993 Little Brown Jug as in my opinion; it was one of the greatest Jugs ever run. Riyadh came into it, looking to be the eighth horse to win the Triple Crown. After winning his elimination, the second heat would be the challenge of his life as Life Sign won his elimination in fine style. Life Sign hung throughout the final heat and Presidential Ball sat in the pocket. Riyadh was pressured down the stretch and Life Sign took the lead at the wire and Jim Morrill Jr. settled for second aboard Riyadh. The eighth Triple Crown winner would be Western Dreamer in 1997.
                                          1993 Little Brown Jug

Peter’s fabled trotter Kadabra was another horse of the year for Heffering. In 2002, he was not eligible for the Hambletonian, which was won by Chip Chip Hooray. Through the other races, Kadabra was the one to beat. They voted him trotter of the year in 2002. He went on to race eight times at four, winning four of them and $249,600. He won the Titan Cup and Arthur J. Cutler Memorial. In the Cutler, he defeated Magician, who won the race in 2000 and 2001. Kadabra would race slightly the rest of the year and retire to Peter’s Tara Hill Stud.

We also remember the loss of Geoffrey Stein, who collapsed due to apparent heart failure after completing his daily morning jog. The co-owner of Preferred Equine died at 58 years old.

Geoff got involved in the horses when he went to Roosevelt Raceway to watch Une De Mai win the International Trot. After he graduated college, he started his career in harness racing as a chart caller for Sports Eye (Now Harness Eye) and then became the assistant editor. He left Sports Eye in 1981 to buy, sell and race standardbred horses. He started a limited partnership known as Select Standardbred Inc. He partnered with his friend David Reid in 1988 to purchase Preferred Equine and in short time, it became the sports leading sales agency. Geoff and David ran many of the year’s top sales corporations, including Tattersalls and Garden State Sales. 

Geoff was a part of Moni Market Breeders, who owned the great Moni Maker. He also got involved with Ice Wine Stable, a thoroughbred ownership group. He later managed the stallion career of 2008 trotting superstar Crazed.

"The one thing that I'm most proud of throughout my career is I don't think there's anybody in the business that could say that they were ever cheated or treated dishonestly,” Stein once said.

There are no words that can be said for these two magnificent breeders. All we can say is, rest in peace, you will be missed throughout the sport.

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