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To Hold Canadian Horse Of Year Dinner Tonight Canadian Champ Painting to Be Presented to Owner W. R. Beasley By DOUGLAS. COOPER TORONTO, Ont., June -4. The sixth annual Canadian Horse of the Year dinner sponsored by the Daily Racing Form will be held in the Royal York Hotel here on Thursday evening. In keeping with the importance of the occasion leading turf personalities in the Dominion, along with some of the sports leaders in the United States, will join with government, civic and business executives, leading owners, breeders and trainers at the gala affair. It is one of the social" highlights of racings most important week which is climaxed by the 98th running of the Queens Plate. As has been the custom since the dinners inception in 1952, the event of paramount interest to the representative gathering will be the presentation of an oil Continued on Pegs Forty-Eight ;- i, 1 " ii i "i s i rp,wwr.t " Canada Holds Horse of Year Dinner Canadian Champ Best in Dominion Painting of Champion to Be Presented His Owner By Daily Racing Form Continuei from Page One painting to the owner of Canadas Horse of the Year, William R. Beasley, whose Canadian Champ was unanimously acclaimed as the Dominions leading Canadian-tared in 1956. Beasley will be the recipient of the beautiful award presented by J. Samuel Perlman, editor and publisher, on behalf of Daily Racing Form. C. W. Kettlewell, whose canvas depicts Canadian Champ winning the first running of the Queens Plate at the new Woodbine course. Kettlewell was commissioned to do E. P. Taylors Bull Page in 1952, Mrs. Gordon McMackens King-Maple in 1954, E. P. Taylors Queens Own in 1955 and Laikin Maloneys Ace Marine last year for presentation to owners at previous Horse of the Year dinners. . Canadian Champ is the fourth horse since the inauguration of the poll conducted by the Toronto edition of the Daily Racing Form to receive the entire vote of the group participating in the selection. Bull Page, Canadiana and Queens Own were the others who received the award in which complete unanimity prevailed among the selectors. Poll Initiated in 1936 Other guests who will receive awards at Thursdays dinner will be trainer John Passero, who saddled Canadian Champ for his Queens Plate victory and a succession of other important stakes on home soil; jockey Dave Stevenson, who rode the Champ in the majority of his races, and E. P. Taylor, breeder of the champion. Taylor has bred six of the last eight winners of the Queens Plate and three of his home-breds. Canadiana, Queens Own and Canadian Champ have been accorded Horse of the Year honors. Color reproductions of Kettlewells painting will be presented to Taylor, Passero and Stevenson. Last years dinner was held on the evening of the opening day of the new Woodbines 3,000,000 course and many notable figures from the U.S. associated with thoroughbred racing; were in Toronto for the occasion, also were guests at the Horse of the Year dinner, lending an international atmosphere to the occasion. m The Horse of the Year poll was initiated by Daily Racing Form and The Morning Telegraph in 1936 when the Belair Studs Granville was acclaimed champion. Last year Rex Ellsworths Swaps was vested the honor and an oil painting of the crack California-bred colt will be presented by Perlman in behalf of the polls sponsors at an owner-breeder dinner in the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles next Tuesday night. The Canadian poll was inaugurated in 1951 when Bull Page proved the unanimous choice for the award. Canadiana won the honor in 1952, King Maple in 1953, Queens Own in 1954 and Ace Marine in 1955. The participants in the Canadian WILLIAM R. BEASLEY Owner of , Canadian Champ, Horse of Year 1956, in the Dominion. CANADIAN CHAMP C. W. Kettlewells oil painting of this prophetically-named son of Windfields-Bolesteo, Canadas Horse of the Year 1956, is to be presented to owner W. R. poll are members of the Daily Racing Forms Toronto staff, along with sports editors, writers and handicappers from the three metropolitan . daily newspapers. During the first three years of the poll, all horses who rtced in Canada were eligible for championship recognition. In 1954 Perlman announced new conditions restricting candidates to horses bred in Canada. The change was prompted by a desire to stimulate and encourage the breeding of better Canadian-breds. Under the amended rules Queens Own, Ace-Marine and now Canadian Champ have won the coveted honor. William R. Bill Beasley, owner of Canadian Champ, is a Toronto businessman associated with the amusement field. He is president of Beasley Novelty Co. He has been a keen follower of racing for some years and has met with considerable success since entering the owners ranks back in 1949. His stable of horses won 37 races in 1952 to top the list in number of races won that year and was second in money won with 1,430. In 1953 he was fourth leading owner in Canada and in 1955 finished second with 30 winners and 00,677. Last year his stable won 40 races and 38,412, second in the Canadian standing to E. P. Taylor. Beasley is considered a good judge of thoroughbreds and is ever in the market to purchase top grade race horses. He. has been a regular purchaser at the yearling sales and besides has bought many horses at various sales in the U. S. Canadian Champ, whom he purchased for ,500 at E. P. Taylors vendue, has proved his greatest bargain. The Champ is now Canadas second leading Canadian-bred in respect to money won with total earnings of 41,240 to date. Besides racing his horses on the Canadian circuit Beasley sends a small contingent to Florida each winter for racing and has met with reasonable success in his venture. On occasion hell send a horse or two for- stakes engagements during the summer season to eastern American tracks. Canadian Champ is not a big horse, but he is considered a perfect speciment by astute horsemen. He stands about 15 hands and weighs approximately 1,000 pounds. The solid bay with black points is near-perfect in his proportions and is almost impossible to fault. His conformation reveals just what he has proven a horse of extreme speed. In his very first start as a two-year-old Canadian Champ suggested that he had been prophetically named. He won that Beasley, by Da7y Racing Form, at a dinner in his honor tonight, at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto. Turf leaders from the United States and Canada will attend the affair. race by a dozen lengths. From that time on he won 12 straight races on home soil before accepting defeat and then only by a head margin. He was unbeaten in his juvenile stakes in his age group and compiling earnings of 1,480. The Champ commenced his three-year-old season in brilliant fashion, winning three races prior to the Queens Plate in hollow fashion. It was the same old story in the Plate, with the Beasley colt taking command at the start and leading throughout the nine furlongs for an easy victoiy in the Dominions most famous classic. From that time on he made a sweep of all the important sophomore stakes for homebreds and remained unbeaten by a Canadian-bred until November 10, when he finished fourth in the mile and a quarter Durham Cup. Canadian Champ won 10 races in 16 starts and was second once in his brilliant campaign, which won him Horse of the Year honors without a single dissenting vote. Jockey Dave Stevenson and Eugenio Rodriguez shared riding engagements on the Champ in the colts three-year-old campaign, with the former scoring seven victories and the latter three. Trainer John Passero has been connected with the Beasley Stable since 1949 and gained immediate success with his new patron. In 1952 Passero was the leading trainer in the Dominion with 50 winners. The following season he finished in third place with 41 successes. Last year he sent our 41 winners to finish in sixth place. He has trained some good stakes horses since joining the ranks of professional trainer and of Canadian Champ he said: "Hes the best homebred or otherwise Ive had in my care. Hes a real champion."
