Beau is (almost) back
Horse of the Year Beau Jangles has returned to Canada and is expected to make his first 2026 start soon.
by Melissa Keith
On Friday (May 1), a multi-vehicle accident and oil spill on Highway 401 westbound led to a one-day postponement of the Woodbine Mohawk Park qualifiers.
While all of the qualifiers were for 3-year-olds, some of them exclusively so, the most anticipated 3-year-old arrival was just settling into his stall at Shamrock Training Centre in Cambridge, ON around noon on Friday. Beau Jangles (p, 2, 1:48.3s; $1,227,326) had already qualified — twice — at his winter home, Southern Oaks Training Center in Sorrento, FL.
As of Friday, the U.S. and Canadian Horse of the Year’s immediate plans were still up in the air, according to his multiple-O’Brien Award-winning trainer Dr. Ian Moore.
Beau Jangles concluded his perfect 2025 season with a career-best 1:48.3 victory in the Oct. 24 Breeders Crown 2-Year-Old Colt Pace final at Mohawk. Wintering in Florida with Moore and caretaker Riley Noble, the star pacer enjoyed turnout before resuming training in early 2026.
On March 28, Beau Jangles trained in 1:55m at Southern Oaks, alongside 4-year-old stablemate Prince Hal Hanover. On April 10, the 3-year-old won his comeback qualifier by a neck in 1:51.3 over Odds On Bullfrog, with Prince Hall Hanover third. Co-owner Jonathan Roberts drove Beau Jangles to the win, with the colt’s regular driver, Bob McClure, in the sulky behind 2025 Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots final winner Odds On Bullfrog instead. On April 17, Beau Jangles and McClure won their first 2026 qualifier together in 1:50.4, equaling the fastest mile by a North American sophomore pacer so far this season.
Beau Jangles is sustained to the WEG SBOA Stake, with eliminations for 3-year-old males slated for Saturday (May 9), as well as the Grade 3 Somebeachsomewhere Stake, with divisions on Saturday (May 30). Ontario Sires Stakes Gold leg 1 for 3-year-old male pacers is scheduled for Saturday (May 23) at Mohawk, making it another possibility for Beau Jangles’ undetermined pari-mutuel return.
The colt himself seemed eager to resume racing, observed Moore.
“All of the good horses are smart,” he said on April 3. “They do things different than other horses. Like Beau Jangles, today, just stops and looks at everybody. He looks around as if to say, ‘Here I come, boys!’”
Owned by Graham Grace Stables LLC of Clifton, VA; Kiwi Stables LLC of La Plata, MD; and Bolton Stables of Clermont, FL, the son of Cattlewash—Mrs Major Hill added one new owner this year: Anne Hooper, the girlfriend of Jonathan Roberts.
Moore said that he first connected with the owners via a trotting mare, Call Me Goo (4, 1:50.4m; $1,152,792).
“I had her for a while, because she wasn’t right,” Moore said. “I got her right, but we didn’t race her a whole lot… She ended up being a [2024] Breeders Crown winner for Ake [Svanstedt]. She was a classy, classy mare, which is why they sent her to me. That’s how I got hooked up with Adam Ainspan [of Graham Grace Stables] and Jonathan Roberts [of Kiwi Stables], Beau Jangles’ connections.”
Under Moore’s brief tutelage, Call Me Goo won the 2023 Casual Breeze (Grade 3) at Mohawk, finished third in her Elegantimage (Grade 1) elim, and broke stride late in the final.
Beau Jangles made his debut in a June 13, 2025 baby race at Mohawk, with Moore in the sulky. Although he finished third that day, the colt closed in :26 flat, the quickest last quarter of the day’s 13 qualifiers. It was the first and only non-winning charted mile of his career.
“This is how Beau Jangles went: I qualified him; Louis [Philippe Roy] qualified him [June 21, 2025]; and Louis was going to drive him [July 5, 2025], [but] then he’s away that weekend for the start,” Moore said.
It turned out that Bob McClure was available to drive the colt in the OSS Gold leg 1 at Mohawk.
“That’s how he got the ride.”
McClure subsequently drove Beau Jangles to every one of his 2025 victories.
After the most successful year yet for 2025 O’Brien Trainer of the Year and O’Brien Award of Horsemanship recipient Moore (UTRS .346), he said he was not looking to change anything in his approach this season. Moore trainees earned $2,758,532 last year, winning 47 of 223 starts.
“The goal would be that every year is the same; I just like to have a decent stable of horses,” Moore said. “I like to have good help around me, to help me with those horses because I can’t do it all myself. I like for everything to go well for everybody, as best we can, and keep everybody happy… and at the end of the year, if we make some money and do well, that’s a bonus for me, that’s for sure. This year, that goal would also include the hope and the optimism that we can keep Beau Jangles going at the level that he visited last year and that we hope he will visit again this year.”
As for Woodbine Mohawk Park visitors awaiting Beau Jangles’ triumphant return to his home track, the wait is (almost) over.
