Sylvan Filion: “I am walking away. I have no interest in returning to racing”

Hall of Fame driver withdraws request for appeal in Funtime Bayama case.

by Melissa Keith

On Oct. 12, 2024, Sylvain Filion announced that he had decided to dial back his driving career. “I’ll take a bit of time off, ‘til probably next summer; I’ll see from there,” he said on his way to the Woodbine Mohawk Park winner’s circle. “You know, I’m really not sure what I’m gonna do.”

A year earlier, on Oct. 23, 2023, Filion had become the first Canadian-based driver to reach 10,000 wins. He was inducted to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in August of 2024.

On Oct. 31 of that year, Filion and trainer Richard Moreau were both fined $40,000 and fully suspended for 10 years for what the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), determined to be mutually responsibility for pacer Funtime Bayama coming up positive in out-of-competition testing for DPO (darbepoetin-alfa) on June 10, two days after he won Pepsi North America Cup elimination.

Moreau’s appeal recently concluded with a decision which reduced his fine and suspension, allowing him to resume training horses in March 2027.

Filion had appeared under summons in Moreau’s Ontario Horse Racing Appeal Panel (HRAP) hearing, and Moreau told HRU ahead of Filion’s Oct. 21, 2026 appeal hearing date that he expected to testify in that upcoming hearing.

Just over a week later, everything changed. The dates set for Filion’s hearing were cancelled. Filion filed a notice to withdraw his appeal on Oct. 30, 2026 which the HRAP accepted. The Panel announced its decision on Tuesday (Nov).

Filion will continue serving his full suspension until Oct. 31, 2034 and is subject to the $40,000 fine and other conditions originally imposed on Oct. 31, 2024. His earlier request for a stay was dismissed on March 19, 2025. He has not driven in a race since Oct. 12, 2024. 

Over the course of Moreau’s appeal hearing, multiple witnesses described how owner/breeder Yves Filion and sons Justin and Sylvain Filion had effectively managed Funtime Bayama, a homebred gelding the family had raised in Saint-André-d’Argenteuil, QC, leaving Moreau on the sidelines. The horse was sold after a show finish in the 2024 Pepsi North America Cup final, from which he was subsequently disqualified and placed last. Under AGCO Rule 24.05, purse money is held by the association (licensed racetrack operator) during the course of an appeal.

On Aug. 31, Counsel for the Registrar Brendan van Niejenhuis noted that “witnesses have said that you [Sylvain] were there [at Moreau’s farm] more often than would usually be the case for just for a driver of one of the horses trained by the Moreau stable.” Filion responded, via translator, that “it was because of the request of my father Yves,” who was in the early stages of dementia. He agreed with van Niejenhuis’ description of Funtime Bayama as “a special horse for [his] father and the whole family.”

Filion had disagreed with several witnesses’ characterization of himself as the one “calling the shots” in the actual training of Funtime Bayama.

In its Nov. 3 decision, the HRAP revealed that “[T]he Judges have determined that both the trainer of record [Moreau] and [Sylvain] Filion are actually in charge, custody of and/or in care of Funtime Bayam; In accordance with Rule 26.05 of the Rules, Filion is hereby held to be responsible for the presence of DPO in Funtime Bayama, in addition to the trainer of record.”

Lawyer Jennifer Friedman, who represented Sylvain Filion, provided a written statement from her client on Thursday (Oct. 5).

“Today, I am withdrawing my appeal of the 10-year suspension and $40,000 fine imposed on me by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO),” said Filion’s statement. “I am not withdrawing because I did anything wrong. I am withdrawing because after two years I have come to accept that I cannot get a fair hearing before the Horse Racing Appeal Panel, the tribunal that hears appeals from the AGCO’s decisions, and I can no longer afford to keep trying.”

The four-time O’Brien Driver of the Year and 1999 World Driving Champion defended his record as a “hard-working, honest and principled” horseman who had raced for four decades across North America and “would never do anything to jeopardize the integrity of the sport or the welfare of a horse.” Filion noted the “insufficient integrity” in the chain of custody for blood plasma samples collected from Funtime Bayama.

Filion also insisted that he was not performing the duties of a trainer in relation to Funtime Bayama: “The truth is simple. Funtime Bayama was trained by Mr. Moreau, not by me. I am a driver, not a trainer. My father was the horse’s owner, and like countless families in this industry, when a relative owns a horse, the family pitches in. For me, that meant warming up and schooling the horse for Mr. Moreau, the same thing I’ve done for dozens of trainers over the decades. That isn’t training. It happens every day in barns across this province. No other family has ever been called out by the AGCO for it. I was.”

The Canadian Hall of Fame driver argued that the outcome of the Moreau appeal represents an unfortunate precedent: “To come after me, the AGCO used a rule that, as far as I’m aware, had never been used this way before. It lets the regulator hold someone other than the horse’s official trainer responsible for what’s in its system. An AGCO staff member then put together a spreadsheet, his own informal, unscientific way of measuring my ‘involvement’ with the horse, and that became the basis for a 10-year suspension. He prepared it on September 25, 2024, seven weeks after my only interview. I never saw it, and no one ever asked me about it, before I was suspended. There was no evidence, none, that I ever gave that horse anything. I was their guinea pig for a brand-new theory, tested on the shakiest possible ground, and it cost me my career.”

Filion added that, “obvious questions about who else had access to the horse were never seriously pursued,” including that fact that the security code to the gate at Moreau’s training centre was widely known and infrequently changed. He stated that he felt singled out over the course of the proceedings: “From where I sit, this looked less like an investigation and more like a runaway train. I believe political pressure around a race that big had more to do with how the AGCO pursued this than the evidence did.”

Filion said he believed that Moreau received preferential treatment in the investigation and during his appeal, including a reduced penalty.

“In October 2026, they described my family’s involvement with the horse as an ‘exceptional situation’ and decided that someone other than the official trainer could be held responsible, which is the very question at the heart of my case,” he stated. “It is hard to see how they could come to my case with an open mind. That goes against one of the most basic rules of fairness in our legal system: you should not be judged by people who have already decided the very issues in your case.”

He further noted that he had raised the issue repeatedly between Oct. 2025 and Oct. 2026.

As legal costs mounted, Filion argued that his prospects for a fair hearing were diminishing.

“On Oct. 9, 2026, my lawyer wrote to the Appeal Panel asking that the two members recuse themselves, pointing out that four other members with no connection to either case were available,” he said. “They did not step aside. Instead, I was told I would have to file formal legal papers and argue it at a separate hearing. That became the pattern. Every step was made harder and more expensive than it needed to be.”

In the end, Filion concluded that he had no choice but to leave the sport he loves behind.

“So, I am walking away,” he said in the written statement. “I have no interest in returning to racing. I want to be heard, to tell the truth about what happened, and to protect my family, especially my 13-year-old daughter, who should not have to carry this. Withdrawing this appeal is not an admission of anything. It is a recognition that I could not get a fair hearing, and that continuing would cost my family even more than it already has. I believe the way the AGCO and the Appeal Panel have handled this deserves independent scrutiny, and I am exploring the avenues available to make sure it gets that.”