Lloyd Chisholm and Arawana Farms stands as a monument to the establishment of Woodbine Mohawk Park in Milton and the Ontario Sires Stakes program that celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year.

by Melissa Keith

Anyone driving to Woodbine Mohawk Park has seen it alongside the Campbellville Road in Milton. The old-fashioned red barn emblazoned with the name “Arawana Farms” is partially concealed by trees, just as its history is somewhat obscured by time. But the lasting achievements of its late owner Lloyd Chisholm (1911-92) are indelible.

Chisholm was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1991 for his contributions as a builder in the standardbred industry. He served as the first chairman of the Ontario Standardbred Improvement Association, which lobbied the provincial government for greater recognition and support for harness racehorse breeders in the late 1960s. This organization later became the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association (SBOA), which named its Lloyd Chisholm Achievement Award in his honor.

“For countless thousands of horse racing fans in North America, Milton is perhaps best known as the home of the Mohawk Raceway. But why is this track here rather than elsewhere? And who were the people responsible for keeping this area in the forefront of racing over the years?” asked a Sept. 1, 1989 issue of The Journal, a publication of the Milton Historical Society.

The questions were rhetorical, because the next paragraph named Chisholm as the main speaker at an upcoming meeting of the historical society. He was the only standardbred breeder in Ontario’s Nassagaweya Township (now part of Milton) in the early 1960s. When a group wanted to build a racetrack there, Chisholm was asked about it by the township council. He reached out to John Mooney, president of the Ontario Jockey Club, and plans for Mohawk were soon approved. On April 26, 1963, the new five-eighths-mile track conducted its inaugural live races.

His Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame biography also noted that Chisholm helped the new racetrack obtain its liquor license, not an insignificant revenue stream in the early years of Mohawk Raceway.

In a Jan. 1, 1993 interview with The Journal, Mary Chisholm described her late husband’s dedication to improving harness racing in Ontario.

“He contributed a lot,” Mary said. “He always made time to help out. Lloyd is largely responsible for bringing Mohawk Raceway to this area. He wanted to have a first-class racing operation and he was concerned that people here might be willing to settle for less. He approached the Ontario Jockey Club and showed them what this area had to offer. It took the racing authorities only a few weeks to decide to build the track on the Guelph Line site.”

Lloyd was an accomplished breeder and judge of Guernsey cattle, serving as president of the national breed association. He was also director of the Canadian Live Stock Records Corporation in the 1960s, but became increasingly involved in raising standardbreds after part of his family’s farm was expropriated for highway construction and other development. As The Journal reported on Jan. 1, 1993, “The government paid $200 an acre. Lloyd considered that ridiculously low.”

A 2023 study by McGill University graduate student Mary Wyn-Gunn found that losing two-thirds of his original 150 acres of farmland convinced Lloyd to get out of the dairy business. “The Department of highways and then the local conservation authority claimed a hundred acres for the Kelso dam project. This had forced Chisholm to sell-off most of his herd of ‘prized Guernsey milkers’ and turn to raising horses.”

And raise horses he did. The U.S. Trotting Association lists nearly 100 standardbreds originating from Arawana Farms.

Lloyd’s profile for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame noted that he bought his first harness horse in 1954 and dispersed his Guernsey cattle herd in 1966. The Dutchess (Volomite—Laurel Hanover) became a founding broodmare at Arawana Farms, producing 11 foals, nine sporting the farm name. Her most successful racing offspring were sons Arawana Oro Spike (p, 6, 2:04.2h; $17,877); Arawana Danny (p, 8, 2:08.3h; $22,375); and Arawana Adios (p, 4, 2:06f; $17,322). Her daughter Arawana Dutchess produced eight offspring bearing the Arawana’ prefix. Her best was trotter Arawana Vic (7, 2:06f; $3,664).

If the purses seem small, remember that they are from the era before Lloyd helped establish the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) program.

In the Jan. 1, 1993 interview with The Journal, Mary told the Milton Historical Society that her husband had developed the idea for the OSS and helped make the concept into a reality. Standardbred Canada historian Robert Smith documented how Lloyd and fellow standardbred breeders Ed Boland, also of Nassagaweya Township, and “Wib” White of St. Marys, ON, devoted five years to creating a program based on the template of the New York Sires Stakes. When the OSS was introduced in 1973, Smith noted that provincial yearling prices instantly “more than doubled.”

This year, the OSS program celebrates its 50th anniversary year with a stakes season that begins with the Grassroots 3-year-old male trotters on Sunday (May 19) at Flamboro Downs. The first Gold events of the season will be at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Saturday (May 25), when the 3-year-old male trotters, 3-year-old male pacers, and 3-year-old pacing fillies debut.

Arawana Farms produced standardbreds from the 1950s through the early 1990s. Lloyd stood stallion Laryngitis (3, 2:05.1f; $2,133), a Nevele Pride son out of Whispering, half-sister to U.S. Hall of Fame trotter Super Bowl’s dam, Pillow Talk. As noted by the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, General D Brook (4, 1:58.2f; $265,438), a top offspring of Laryngitis, represented Canada in the 1974 Roosevelt International Trot.

Arawana Snap Shot (p, 4, 2:04.2f; $22,800) was reputedly Lloyd’s favorite horse. The Hoot Frost—Arawana Neon mare was a half-sister to five other Arawana Farms winners, and won 10 of 87 lifetime starts. Arawana Snap Shot later became a 100 per cent producer, her four sons all winning in 2:00.4f or faster and collectively earning $402,933.

Looking back at his career in a 1991 interview, Lloyd was quoted as saying, “I’ve always been a little out-going. I liked to see progress. I didn’t do it to reap the glory; I did it because it was best for the industry.”

So, when driving to Woodbine Mohawk Park, consider the historic red barn on the way to the track. The Arawana name may no longer appear in the racing program, but 60 years after it became a standardbred nursery, the influence of Lloyd’s family farm is immeasurable.