Red, White & Racing: Inside Canuck Racing Club

Red, White & Racing: Inside Canuck Racing Club

– Matthew Lomon

A club is often associated with exclusivity – a space reserved to the select few with the right connections and social status to superficially stand out from the “average” person.

Canuck Racing Club is proof that a club can exist, and excel, without subscribing to those dated ideals, all while honouring tradition and being anything but average.

The brainchild of three childhood friends – managing partners Donato Lanni, Mark Halloran, and Rob van Blokland – Canuck Racing Club is an expression of each founding member’s unique skill set, passion for Thoroughbred racing, and shared pride in the country they call home.

“When forming the Canuck Racing Club, we felt like it was tied to the historical and cultural fabric of Canada from the start,” shared van Blokland, a do-it-all strategist, creator, and former recording artist with Top 40 hits on his résumé.

“Donato is so passionate about unforgettable Canadian-bred champions like Northern Dancer and Dance Smartly and the accomplishments of great Canadian racing families like Samuel, Begg, and Seagram. His motivation is to make Canuck Racing Club one of the preeminent racing families in Canada.”

The inspiration to pursue their horse flesh guru’s vision sprouted from modest beginnings, gaining traction during a time when the world was searching for fresh ideas and distractions.

Humble Origins, Fiercely Canadian

Between Lanni, one of the industry’s most revered bloodstock agents, Halloran, a successful entrepreneur, connector, and people-focused leader, and van Blokland, who also holds a BCom in Marketing and Contractual Law from Concordia University, Canuck had all the ingredients for a successful startup.

Finding the right recipe, however, took time.

Fortunately, they already had a Michelin star chef-type ready to execute the perfect dish.

“The genesis of the club really comes down to Donato Lanni,” said van Blokland. “He’s world-class – we all have friends who are good at what they do, but it’s rare to have one who’s at the absolute pinnacle. Beyond his success in Kentucky and internationally, he’s a proud Canadian and a local guy.

“He’d always wanted to do something in his own backyard. He and Mark had talked about this for a while.”

The wheels on the Canuck Racing Club model started turning in earnest during the pandemic, a time van Blokland described as “the right moment to do something new and exciting.”

“The pandemic was obviously rough on a lot of Canadians,” he said. “I think most people went through that year and a half wondering, ‘What’s new?’ And the answer would be, ‘Not much.’”

Proceeding with Canuck Racing Club from the conception to implementation phase moved quickly, but the masterminds behind the project laid the groundwork meticulously, starting with the club’s guiding principles, the 5Cs:

Canadian, Creating Legacies, Carpe Diem, Competitiveness, and Connection.

“In this sport of legacies and lineage, you don’t call your club Canuck Racing without a reason – we’re fiercely Canadian,” explained van Blokland.

“There are so many incredible icons, heroes, feats and stories in the history of Canada that weaving the name of our club and our horses into that rich tapestry just felt like a natural and fun way to honour the giants whose shoulders we stand upon.”

Once the club’s ideological roots were in the ground, next came identifying the best way to bring its aspirations to life.

“Finding the right horses is Donato’s domain, but one of my early questions was: are we actually going to run this like a club? Social events, community, the whole thing? And the answer was yes.

“The branding came together as naturally as Mark connects people. The Canuck angle embraced our Canadian identity, and it just worked.”

With the logistical and directional details now ironed out, Canuck Racing Club was officially founded in 2022.

Their first order of business as a bona fide operation? Purchase a racehorse.

Getting out of the Gate

With Lanni leading the charge, the Canuck trio was finally ready to open their chequebook and welcome the first equine member of the club at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Select Yearling Sale.

Although, buying their first horse – an Audible–Queen Martha bay they later named Bowman’s Run after the winningest coach in NHL history, Canadian Scotty Bowman – required an even greater leap of faith than normal.

“We actually bought our first horse before we had any money in the bank. A lot of people don’t know that,” laughed van Blokland. “We bought him, then figured out how to pay for him. And it snowballed from there.”

Having a racing stalwart like Lanni, and Canada’s 2024 Outstanding Trainer recipient, Kevin Attard, on their side, certainly eased the enrollment period for van Blokland and Halloran, who were able to lean into their abilities to further Canuck’s cause.

“It’s about blending strengths,” said van Blokland. “Donato calls the shots with the buying of horses, and when you’ve got Canada’s top trainer, Kevin Attard, also in your corner, you’re not just participating in races – you’re there to win. Those two handle race management and strategy.

“Mark is a master networker. You meet him, and within two minutes, he’ll tell you five people you have in common. I’m the branding guy – and I came from the music world, so I think in terms of hooks and storytelling. Together, we weave narratives into every horse, every event, every moment.”

The story of three friends combining to build something inherently Canadian resonated with key industry players, across what van Blokland refers to as the “iterations” of Canuck Racing.

In the first iteration, which included deep racing roots, as well as newcomers to the sport, “People jumped in, purely based on an idea,” he said.

Their second group of club members enlisted other established horse people such as the Romeos, the multi-generational racing family behind Terra Racing Stable.

The third, and current iteration attracted members from all corners of the industry, including Ontario Racing and sports betting juggernaut FanDuel.

With such rapid growth has come several storytelling opportunities, none more central to Canuck’s identity than the naming of its equine athletes.

Behind the Name

Each horse under the Canuck Racing brand reflects a story, figure, or historic moment pulled from the heart of Canadian lore.

Whether in its active roster of 21 or through those that have since retired or moved elsewhere, a Canuck horse carries a piece of Canadian heritage at every turn.

“We explore Canadiana, whether it’s a household name or an overlooked chapter in Canadian history, we aim for names that carry meaning and reflect who we are,” explained van Blokland.

“People might think our horses names are just catchy, but there’s depth there. We’ve had people say, “I’m Canadian, and I didn’t even know that story.” We love that. It’s a fun way to bring Canadian history front and centre.”

The collective effort that is naming a Canuck racehorse often boils down to three tenets – not just a deep dive on Encyclopedia Britannica.

“Some have a clear, current connection, others are more obscure but deserve to be brought into the light, and some are based on a personal connection.”

Timely examples include Sinclairity, a 4-year-old Souper Speedy–Here’s Mud Inyr Eye filly named after Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair, and Crosby, a 2-year-old Street Boss colt honouring another Canadian sporting icon, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

On the deep-cut side, van Blokland highlighted the club’s and sire Danish Dynaformer’s first-ever stakes winner, War Painter.

The two-time stakes winner (2023 Victorian Queen and 2024 Ashbridges Bay) pays tribute to Canada’s first battlefield artist, Mary Hamilton, a Canadian painter who sacrificed her promising career to travel alone to the battlefields of World War One and document the tragedies of war through her art for two and a half years.

Other horses with historical ties include stakes winner Brengungirl, a 3-year-old Point of Entry–Silent Sister filly titled after Veronica Foster, popularly known as “Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl,” who worked for the John Inglis Company producing light machine guns during World War Two, and Rose Fortune, a recent addition named for Canada’s first female police officer and the daughter of runaway slaves who escaped to Nova Scotia via the underground railroad.

A pair of Canuck racers with a profound personal connection are Twentytwo Soles and Skydigger.

The former was named after Canadian Football League All-Star (1996) and Grey Cup Champion (1996) Michael Soles.

Along with Lanni, Halloran, and van Blokland, “several Canuck members went to school with Soles and knew him personally. We watched number 22 dominate on the field in high school and at McGill University and later battle courageously against ALS. This one was definitely personal.”

The latter, a Maxfield–Fragrance filly, pays homage to the Juno Award-winning band, Skydiggers.

“Some of us are big fans and the band’s songs were the soundtrack for some great life memories. It seemed fitting to honour that while we’re making more.”

Josh Finlayson, who co-founded the Toronto-based rock group, caught wind of the tribute and expressed his gratitude directly.

“He said it was an honour… he loved her pedigree, too.”

At Canuck, success has always been the name of the game – and it’s showing up on the track.

Success Stories

In a little over two years of operation, signature moments have been anything but few and far between for Canuck.

Vandoo, named after the Royal 22^nd Canadian infantry regiment incorrectly pronounced by English speaking soldiers as VanDoos (instead of vingt-deux), tracked down the club’s first win in the summer of 2023 at Woodbine.

The Souper Speedy filly, with rider Kazushi Kimura donning Canuck’s signature red and white silks, dead-heated with Chasing Bourbon to break her and Canuck’s maiden in the first club race van Blokland attended.

Vandoo’s victory offered the Canuck team, and prospective partners, a glimpse of what was within reach, but it was War Painter, dubbed “our proof of concept” by van Blokland that validated Canuck’s identity and made its ambition of racing on Canada’s biggest stages feel possible.

“Donato typically buys two-turn horses because our goal is to get to Canada’s biggest races: the Woodbine Oaks, the King’s Plate, the Triple Crown-type races.

“In War Painter’s first race, she was near last heading into the turn. Then the light bulb went on – she blew past almost everybody to finish second. It was all anyone talked about.

“That horse wasn’t just a filly; she represented everything we were trying to build. The story behind her name – honouring Mary Hamilton – made it even more meaningful.”

Two starts later, the resilient racer nabbed the club’s first stakes title (Queen Victorian) in comeback fashion at 5-1.

War Painter’s stroke of brilliance on the stakes stage showed that Canuck was more far more than an ownership group who simply gives their horses cool names – they were contenders.

The club has effectively carried that momentum into the 2025 campaign, fielding a roster of 3- and 4-year-olds, as well as a strong contingent of 2-year-olds (10 total).

Canuck also recently surpassed a significant monetary milestone, as the horses the club bought, own or partnered on collectively grossed over $1 million.

“We’re closing in on the club earning $1 million in purses in its own right,” added van Blokland.

Through mid-June, van Blokland reported that Canuck’s lifetime win rate sat at 24 percent, while the club’s rosterees had landed in the money in 55 percent of their 85 starts (to date) since inception.

After Woodbine’s Canada Day weekend, the club’s win percentage in 2025 stood at 31 percent

Canuck will also celebrate its 100^th start during the 2025 campaign – which is on pace to occur in and around the 166^th running of Canada’s most prestigious race, the King’s Plate.

“We participated in the King’s Plate in our first year with Enjoythesilent, who we partnered on,” said van Blokland.

“Dewolf (Silent Name–Holy Cargo), named after one of the most accomplished warriors in Canadian naval history, Vice Admiral Harry DeWolf, is on track to bring us back to the Plate for our second time in three seasons.”

But as van Blokland iterated, not all defining moments take place on the track.

“A few weekends ago, it wasn’t so much about the racing itself. For me, it was more of an optical milestone. Seeing so many club members and their families out there having fun and taking a shot at this… It’s not a sales pitch, it’s remarkable.

“These are people who, when we see each other, there’s hugs, everyone’s genuinely happy to be together. It’s not just about the horses. It’s about friendships, relationships – it’s an extension of that. It’s very experiential.”

What Lies Ahead

The soil in which a foundation is laid shapes the story of what will one day grow from it.

For van Blokland, Lanni, Halloran, and the more than 30 (and growing) members of Canuck Racing Club, what brought them together was an unmistakable passion for Thoroughbred racing and a deep pride in the Great White North.

“Nothing in the world compares to campaigning a good racehorse, but it’s rare air and only a select few people on the planet ever experience it. We appreciate that everything we’re doing is only possible because of our members, so we help them enjoy bucket list moments produced by multiple racehorses and authored by the best in the business.

“Wrapping ourselves in the maple leaf and being able to shed light on some very cool Canadian history and people while we do it just adds to the fun and uniqueness of it all.”

Incorporating a slice of Canadiana into the horses that represent their brand has given Lanni, Halloran, and van Blokland hope that Canuck Racing Club will, too, become part of the same proud history that they honour.

“We’ve grounded this club this in Canadian history and we’d like to think we’re on our way to becoming a part of that history, not only as a Canadian Thoroughbred racing family but also hopefully something bigger that Canada can look upon with pride,” reflected van Blokland.

“What Donato did with Moira, the year before we founded Canuck, she helped put Canadian racing back on the map. That’s our goal too: to proudly represent our country, even in a small way.”

Currently welcoming new members, the club will attend the CTHS Premier Yearling Sale again this year after buying eight new Ontario-bred horses there across the previous two events.

“When Donato says, ‘I bought a horse, it’s a Canuck horse,’ we know we’re building something.”

Something, no doubt, that is uniquely Canadian at its core.