by Melissa Keith

Last week, Luc Blais wasn’t sure about what music would accompany Emoticon Hanover’s Dan Patch Award presentation on Feb. 23. After all, it was the mare’s first American award, despite a stellar career on both sides of the border. He laughed and said his girlfriend, Liisa, was searching for the right song to honor the 2024 Dan Patch Trotting Broodmare of the Year.

“I think she’s going to find one, that’s for sure,” Blais said.

The Campbellville, ON trainer said Emoticon Hanover’s first Dan Patch Award came as something of a surprise, “because the States has got a lot of good broodmares there.”

Emoticon Hanover (4, 1:50.2f; $1,778,033) has two foals of racing age, Drawn Impression (3, 1:51.1m; $518,497) and Emoticon Legacy (2, 1:52.3m; $162,656).

The 12-year-old daughter of Kadabra—Emmylou Who excelled throughout her four-year racing career and was named Canada’s Older Trotting Mare of the Year in 2019. Blais was her only trainer, working for owner Determination (Serge Godin) of Montreal, QC.

“I think that she was consistent,” Blais said. “She was ready every race. She never raced a bad race. She was very professional. She presented herself every race and gave everything.”

Emoticon Hanover first qualified on June 12, 2015 at Mohawk, finishing fourth but winning her next baby race on June 26. She broke her maiden in her pari-mutuel debut, a July 12, 2015 Ontario Sires Stakes Gold leg at Georgian Downs. Although scratched sick from her next OSS leg, the filly rebounded to win Gold leg 3 on Aug. 4 at Mohawk.

At age 3, Emoticon Hanover recorded seven victories, beginning June 3 in a Mohawk conditioned race, followed by a going-away win in OSS Gold there. She picked up wins in the OSS Gold at Georgian Downs, Casual Breeze and Simcoe Stakes at Mohawk, and the OSS Gold Super Final, her fastest (1:53.1s) race of the year. She finished second to Broadway Donna in their Breeders Crown elimination and final at The Meadowlands.

Blais said that Emoticon Hanover showed steady progress when she returned to the races as a 4-year-old.

“Mares are like that, I think,” he told HRU. “Mares that are tough, they can race every year, tougher and tougher. I think she learned this job more with age, [and became] better and better.”

In her first 2017 start, Emoticon Hanover finished third to eventual O’Brien Trotting Horse of the Year Odds On Amethyst in the May 8 Mohawk preferred trot. She would go on to win seven major races at five different tracks: the July 15 Miss Versatility leg at The Meadowlands, Joie De Vie at Tioga Downs, the Sept. 21 Miss Versatility final at the Delaware County Fairgrounds, the Allerage Mare Trot at The Red Mile, and the Breeders Crown Open Mare Trot final at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. She set a 1:50.2 world record in the Joie De Vie, which was then the fastest mile by a 4-year-old trotting mare on any size track, and would remain her lifetime mark.

In her 5-year-old campaign, Emoticon Hanover won the May 21, 2018 Miss Versatility leg at Mohawk, followed by her June 8 Armbro Flight elimination, before finishing second to 2016-17 Dan Patch and O’Brien champion Hannelore Hanover in the Armbro Flight final. In line to Dan Dube, Emoticon Hanover finished out the year with a three-race win streak over surfaces rated sloppy to good: the 2018 Breeders Crown Open Mare Trot elim and final at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, followed by the TVG Mare Trot at The Meadowlands, in which she outdueled Hannelore Hanover by a neck.

“On the sloppy tracks, I think she was very good,” Blais said. “She sometimes had a little bit of a problem with her feet, but soft tracks, she liked that.”

In 2019, Emoticon Hanover opened the year at Mohawk, first romping in a May 6 conditioned race, then repeating in leg 1 of the Miss Versatility Series. Taking on ascendant 4-year-olds Atlanta and Manchego as well as males, Emoticon Hanover held her own. She was runner-up to Manchego in the 2019 Breeders Crown Open Mare Trot elim and final at Mohawk, and finished the season with wins in the TVG Open Mare Trot at The Meadowlands (by a head over Atlanta) and the Dec. 2 Mohawk preferred trot.

The mare retired sound and healthy in late 2019.

“He decided, Mr. Godin,” Blais said. “She gave us lots of thrills, and he decided that year to retire her and make a broodmare out of her.”

After 27 wins from 74 career starts, she had nothing more to prove on the racetrack.

“You got it,” Blais said. “Two Breeders Crowns and the Super Final in the OSS. She beat lots of good mares.”

Emoticon Hanover’s first foal was born in 2021, on her own April 14 birthday. Muscle Hill filly Drawn Impression won her Aug. 11, 2023 career debut at Mohawk, then swept her Peaceful Way elim and final before scratching sick from the Champlain. The filly won her 2023 Breeders Crown elimination over a sloppy Hoosier Park surface, finishing a close fourth in the final.

Drawn Impression came back at 3 with four seasonal victories, sweeping the 2024 Casual Breeze, Simcoe and her Elegantimage elim at Mohawk for Blais and driver Louis-Philippe Roy. She was edged out — by a head — by French Champagne in the Elegantimage final. The Determination homebred won her 2024 Breeders Crown elim at The Meadowlands, but ended up fourth behind Allegiant in the final. Even so, Drawn Impression’s dominance at Canada’s top track made her a top-two finalist for the 3-year-old trotting filly division at the 2024 O’Brien Awards, coming up Saturday (Feb. 8) night. She was runner-up to Willys Home Run in O’Brien 2-Year-Old Filly Trotter Award voting last year, and they face each other again for 2024 divisional honors.

Emoticon Hanover produced a Walner colt on May 1, 2022. Emoticon Legacy followed in his dam’s footsteps, winning his first career start, a July 18, 2024 Millard Farms Stake elimination at Mohawk. Scratched sick from the final, Emoticon Legacy returned with another win for trainer Blais, owner/breeder Determination, and driver James MacDonald in his William Wellwood Memorial elim. He was a going-away winning favorite in the Sept. 13 Champlain at Mohawk, then captured his 2024 Breeders Crown elim at The Meadowlands. He finished sixth behind Maryland in the final.

It’s not just good genetics that make Emoticon Hanover an award-worthy mother. Blais said she had settled perfectly into broodmare life in Georgetown, KY.

“It’s night and day,” he said. “When she was racing, she was very hyper. Now, as a broodmare, she looks like a million bucks. She’s just smooth and good with the babies. Very good.”

The 2024 Dan Patch Trotting Broodmare of the Year has a 2-year-old Walner colt in training with Blais (Emoticonnwalner) and a yearling Muscle Hill colt named Data Breach. As with Emoticon Hanover’s previous offspring, both have been retained by Determination, a finalist for Canada’s 2024 Armstrong Breeder of the Year Award.

The 2021 O’Brien Award of Horsemanship winner trained two divisional finalists for owner/breeder Determination last year, Drawn Impression and 2-year-old trotting filly finalist Lasting Dream (2, 1:54.1s; $290,181).

Blais said Emoticon Hanover’s foals share her attitude.

“Yes, they are very ‘awake’ like her,” he said. “She was a very ‘awake’ filly; you know, she was always on the job, and they are all like that. They like to work, they’re workers, and I like that. She gave a lot of herself to the babies… We start with the babies and we break them. We’ve got a nice place at Cane Run Farm for the mare, and she did a very good job. Now we’ve got a homebred to break and that’s exciting.”

Racing the next generation of Emoticons puts a smile on Blais’ face.

“I think she’s just a warrior mare; it was a very special moment to be around her,” he said, in reference to her racing career. “Now, she looks after herself. She’s a beautiful broodmare.”