Personal reflections of my return to the Gold Cup and Saucer 19 years after my last visit.

by Debbie Little

There’s something about a visit to Prince Edward Island (PEI) that stays with you forever.

The last time I was there for their signature race, the Gold Cup and Saucer, Wally Hennessey was in the winner’s circle with Driven To Win.

In the 19 years since, the Island has changed. Back then, there was no casino and I believe the cows may have outnumbered the people.

One thing that has not changed is the love that Maritimers have for all things harness racing.

My husband, Dave, and I first went to Canada’s smallest province in June of 1996 for a North American drivers’ challenge. The following year we saw our first Gold Cup, won by Comedy Hour and driver Gilles Barrieau. The year after that, I somehow convinced my family to celebrate my mom’s 70th birthday on the Island and the 11 of us had a great time.

Why did it take us so long to go back to a place that we love so much? I guess sometimes life gets in the way. But once you reach a certain age you realize how important it is to spend time with your friends, or, more appropriately put, your extended family.

The pageantry that is Old Home Week and the beauty of the Island is great, but PEI will forever be in our hearts because it’s where our extended family is from.

On that first trip nearly 30 years ago, we met Kevin “Boomer” Gallant and Lloyd MacDonald.

Gallant was the local weatherman on the CBC for nearly 31 years, and for 16 of those years, he was the voice of the Charlottetown Driving Park (CDP).

Dave and I have pretty high standards when it comes to judging race callers, since we know several of the best in the business. To us, Gallant is right there with the top bunch. He also does a mean impression of Elvis.

MacDonald is the eldest son of the PEI MacDonald harness racing dynasty that includes Anthony, Mark, Curtis and James.

When we met Lloyd, he was 10 years into his 15-year run as video production manager at CDP. He also co-hosted Stretch Drive, a local cable network show, with Greg Blanchard.

Our trip to PEI this year was more about seeing Gallant and Lloyd than the Gold Cup.

We booked a place called Silver Heron House in Cornwall through Vrbo (Vacation rentals by owner), less than 20 minutes from the track. We had never booked this way before and were so amazingly happy with how it turned out.

Since our flights were delayed — we had two connections in Ontario — we didn’t arrive on PEI until after midnight. We got lost trying to find the house the first time since it was at the end of a private road that we just missed in the dark. Dave was ready to throw in the towel and rent a hotel room for the night — if that was even possible during Old Home Week — but we gave it one last try and found it.

Just like Motel Six, the caretaker Cody MacDonald, no relation to Lloyd, left the light on for us.

I think the TV was tuned to Amazon Prime, so for the first two days all we watched was reruns of Hell’s Kitchen until Cody showed us how to work the other remote. I hope the next tenants know how to use the remotes, because we left it on Hell’s Kitchen.

We had lunch with Gallant at Pier 15 at Fisherman’s Wharf, home of the 60-ft. salad bar, all-you-can-eat mussels and seafood chowder.

We got there too early to take part in the salad bar — which wasn’t a bad thing, since people were lined up out the door by the time we left — but Dave did have a two-pound lobster. I’m allergic to seafood, but enjoyed one of the best burgers and potato salad I’ve ever had at a restaurant.

We also got to have breakfast with Gallant and his significant other, Karen Smith, at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company. Eating at 9:30 a.m. fit best into their schedule and we told them they should know how much we care about them since we normally don’t even get up before 11 a.m.

Rather than go to the Gold Cup Parade on Friday (Aug. 16), which is a holiday so all the children don’t have to skip school, we hung out with Lloyd and his daughter, Elizabeth, who we met for the first time when she was a year old. She’s now 28 and a registered nurse.

In 2015, Elizabeth was chosen to be a Gold Gup Ambassador. Each horse in the Gold Cup has an Ambassador that is responsible for promoting that horse and the race and increasing engagement/ interest.

“Some people have negative opinions on the role, but I think it’s such a great opportunity for people who have the passion for racing but maybe not the investment abilities of an owner or the skills of a trainer or driver, and the age demographic is usually university students, so their studies are often supported by the job,” Elizabeth said. “Personally, my professional life is outside of racing, so I felt it was so special to be able to be a part of and contribute to my family’s harness racing legacy and it was an honor to momentarily be a part of an industry I care so much about.” 

Lloyd is a grill master, so he prepared dinner for us on the Sunday after the Gold Cup. Unfortunately, there were only four of us and he had us buy enough food to feed the Island, so his mom and dad got leftovers and groceries.

His mom, Gail, is the long-time track photographer at CDP and his dad, Fred, writes for Atlantic Post Calls and is a columnist for The Guardian newspaper. Fred recently wrote A Tale of Two Fiddlers, a book about the early days of sports and life in Charlottetown. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in the history of sports on PEI and he was gracious enough to give us an autographed copy.

Even though the focus of our trip was more about seeing people than watching racing, I would be remiss in not at least mentioning something about the Gold Cup.

On our flight from Ottawa to Charlottetown, the gentleman in the seat in front of us heard us talking about the Gold Cup. We had not seen the Saturday night (Aug. 10) trials, so he filled us in on who made the final.

I mentioned that I was going to text Jordan Stratton to see if he was coming to drive Covered Bridge.

The response from the guy in front of us was “Is it an act, or is he really that nice?”

I said, “He’s really a nice guy. Everything that you saw on the track last year with him interacting with the crowd was totally genuine. It’s just who he is.”

I think Stratton and Covered Bridge are Islanders at heart and trainer Jeff Gillis agreed.

“I’ve kind of called [Stratton] a quasi-Canadian,” Gillis said. “He’s an Ohio boy and he’s humble and he’s kind and I just can’t say enough about him. Jordan is a great ambassador for the sport anywhere and I think PEI has grown to love him and he drove the horse to perfection.

“He’s, in my opinion, one of the most underrated drivers out there. He’s got a soft set of hands and he’s a complete gentleman and a complete professional and a perfect fit for that horse.”

As for the Mark Ford-owned Covered Bridge, Gillis said PEI brings out the best in his horse.

“He likes it out here for some reason,” Gillis said. “He seems to just enjoy the crowd and the whole experience. My wife [Sarah] commented last year, he won a race at Batavia a week later and he was completely ornery in the winner’s circle and just different. But there’s something about the crowd and the atmosphere [on PEI that he likes].

“Some of [the horses] stress with the long post parade. You’re out there for over 20 minutes from the time they parade until they go to the gate and it’s tough on a lot of horses, nervous types and that, but [Covered Bridge] just seems to soak it all in.”

Although mostly raised in Ontario, Gillis is a Maritimer from Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island.

Someone told me that Cape Breton must have been a ghost town on Saturday night, because they were all in the winner’s circle at the Gold Cup to celebrate with Gillis.

In the 14 years that Hall of Fame announcer Ken Warkentin has been doing commentary for the Gold Cup, he’s never seen anything like the synergy between Stratton, Covered Bridge and the fans. He referred to it as a “Jordan Stratton thing.”

“Last year was the moment of the year when he started doing that,” Warkentin said.

In 2022, when Anthony MacDonald won with Sintra, he did drive by the crowd a little bit according to Warkentin, but nothing like what Stratton does.

“Most of them just turn and come back,” Warkentin said. “You ask a few questions and go to the winner’s circle. But what Jordan Stratton did, no one ever did that.

“I think it’s a spontaneous thing that he started doing and he engages the people and he was taken aback by how much these people really appreciate racing and really appreciate him.”

I thought about going over to congratulate Stratton on the infield, but he still had such a crowd around him I just sent him a text.

After midnight, when everything died down, we did speak.

“I’ve always been a fan of the race, like I said, but it doesn’t do it any justice from being on TV versus being here,” Stratton said. “I remember being that fan in the stands and just wishing a driver would acknowledge me, to say hi or whatever. I would always ask my father, why doesn’t anybody say hi or throw me a whip? So, I kind of always remember that.”

I will now always remember being there in person to see Stratton interact with the fans on PEI. Props to whoever built the fence around the track just low enough that a driver can give high fives without necessarily getting out of the bike.

Despite the changes that have happened around it since our first visit so long ago, racing at the CDP has remained the same. The track was not just packed because it was Gold Cup night, it was packed every single card leading up to it. And a personal thanks to manager of racing and broadcast at Red Shores, Lee Drake, for taking such good care of us on our visit to the track.

As a native New Yorker, I was baffled by the people on PEI. They seemed “too nice,” so it couldn’t be real. The truth is just like what I told that guy on the plane about Stratton, the people on PEI are genuine, it’s who they are, or how I have always said it, “they’re disgustingly nice.”