Maple Leaf Trot: Logan Park continues to make his mark

MILTON, August 29, 2024 – Rob Fellows had circled Hip #54 in his notebook well before the tall, sleek horse set foot into the sales ring.

It was a moment he had anticipated and prepared for, the one when the trotter who would become known as Logan Park entered the building at the London Select Yearling Sale in October of 2019.

The horseman with a wealth of experience and success had not come to the sale on a whim.

It was, of all things, familiarity with a Standardbred family tree that prompted Fellows to be there that day.

“That year, as a 2-year-old, I had a little horse called All Wrapped Up. He was out of the first crop of Archangel. I only paid $11,000 for him and he went on to make $600,000. He wasn’t mentally all there, but I liked the way he trotted, so I was looking for another Archangel at the sale.”

And there he was.

The only dilemma for Fellows and his partners was the price tag.

There were two Archangel offspring on the auction block, so the group had a decision to make.

At least that is what Fellows had originally thought.

“We could only afford one. So, Logan Park was our pick. He came out first and we spent the money to buy him.”

“He looked racier, tall, thin – a bigger version of All Wrapped Up. His disposition was fantastic, he looked good, and he was very well-prepped as a yearling.”

Standing in line to make the purchase official, Fellows felt a tap on his shoulder.

“The irony was that I was waiting to pay for him and my partners went and bought the other Archangel. They handed me a ticket and said, ‘We bought the other one.’ We paid $60,000 for that one, Mooseonyourcaboose, and they trained down as a team together to about 2:15.”

Their respective racing careers would yield vastly different results.

Mooseonyourcaboose has posted a lone victory and $28,565 in purse earnings over a 21-race career that ended a little over two years ago.

Logan Park, on the other hand, is still very much at the top of his game after 74 starts, 31 wins, and close to $1.3 million in career earnings.

“He was always our favourite,” said Fellows. “He was sensible.”

And talented.

As a rookie, Logan Park won two races, one of them an Ontario Sire Stakes race.

“We did geld him because he was more aggressive in the barn than we wanted him to be. We are not aggressive trainers. They show it to us when they start racing. We keep them fit, try to keep them healthy – but I thought he was a pretty damn good horse.”

As a sophomore, Logan Park showed signs of what was to come.

That year, he won five races, four in ONSS events, before he headed to the U.S. to contest the Breeders Crown at The Meadowlands. After a second in his elimination, he was saddled with post 10 in the final. He broke stride shortly after the start.

At four, with Fellows’ son, Kyle, now doing the training, Logan Park climbed the trotting ladder ranks at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and competed in the Maple Leaf Trot, Charlie Hill Memorial and Caesars Trotting Classic. He finished fifth in the Breeders Crown, which was held at his home base in Milton, Ontario.

In 2023, he hit his best stride and became front-page racing news.

Logan Park won 12 out of his 20 starts. He came out on top in seven of his first 10 races of the year against top-rank competition at Woodbine Mohawk Park. On July 4, he took the Free For All there by 5 ½ lengths in 1:50.3, which set a new track and Canadian record for an older male trotter.

He then netted a natural hat trick in the fall, tying his lifetime best of 1:50.3 two times in succession in October.

Logan Park then travelled to Hoosier Park where he took top prize in his Breeders Crown elimination in 1:52.1, and finished fourth in the $600,000 final, less than three lengths behind the winner.

His efforts did not go unnoticed come trophy season.

At the O’Brien Awards, Logan Park was named Older Trotter of the Year in 2023.

If there were questions as to whether he would be able to replicate that brilliant campaign, he has provided an emphatic answer in the form of an outstanding 2024 season. ​

In 10 starts this year, Logan Park has won seven times, finished second twice, along with one third.

His biggest payday came in the Earl Rowe Memorial Trot in August at Georgian Downs when he took the $100,000 race by 1 ¼ lengths in 1:54.2.

On August 23, he won his Maple Leaf Trot elimination in 1:51.0, coming home in :27.4 with Doug McNair in the race bike.

In two days, Logan Park, now six, will be back on track to take on nine talented rivals in a race he has contested twice before. He was fifth in both 2022 and 2023.

McNair will be in the sulky for the $600,000 final.

“I went through seven or eight drivers, including Louis-Philippe Roy, Jody Jamieson, James MacDonald, but it has all worked out well,” offered Fellows. “He’s been good for everyone who has driven him. He’s a nice horse.”

One who has come a long way from a not-so-smooth beginning.

“I love his gait,” praised Fellows. “He would make a break as a young horse at a point in the first turn. He would lead with his left front into the turn and when he was going at that high speed, he just couldn’t handle it.

“So, we put trotting hobbles on him and every year, I have toyed with the idea of taking them off, but I don’t have that luxury of time at times. Being a non-driving trainer, you have to have them perfect so that they can perform at a high level for whoever gets in the race bike.”

As for the blueprint to a successful voyage in Saturday’s big race, Fellows has the luxury of sending out a trotter who can get the job done any number of ways.

“He has speed. He can leave like a pacer, but once he sits in a hole, he can sit and follow all day too. He’s not a hot horse who will race over top of one in front of him. He’s an easy, happy horse to drive.”

Fellows would know.

“My grandson, who is three, when he is around, he wants to sit on my lap when I jog Logan Park. We have some trails through the woods here and he’ll do anything you want.”

Win or lose come Saturday, Logan Park will continue to take his connections on a treasured thrill ride.

Every now and again, Fellows will take a moment to recall that life-changing day at the London yearling sale.

While it would be understandable if he were slightly boastful of his good fortune, it is not in the nature of the man with 1,570 career training wins.

Being grateful, however, certainly is.

“When you start out, these are the horses you dream of having. All the people in the sport that you have the utmost respect for, you look at their success and ask yourself, ‘Could that happen to me one day?’

“With Logan Park, we have truly been blessed.” ​

Chris Lomon, Woodbine Communications