From the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame May 20 announced its 2008 inductees. Four horses and four people will be honored at a Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Mississauga Convention Center Aug. 28.

The class of 2008 features two of Sam-Son Farms' brilliant Thoroughbred performers of the 1990s, Smart Strike and Wilderness Song, along with Standardbred horses Peaceful Way, who has been nicknamed the “queen of trotting,” and pacing superstar and stallion Real Desire.

The human inductees include multiple Sovereign Award-winning trainer Robert P. Tiller; Louis E. Cauz, managing director of the Hall of Fame and Woodbine Entertainment's archivist and historian; Quebec-based breeder Pierre Levesque; and the late Cliff Chapman, former publisher of The Canadian Sportsman.

The newest inductees were elected by the respective 20-person Thoroughbred and Standardbred election committees.

Smart Strike gained international recognition in 2007 when he set a single-season record for progeny earnings of more than $14 million. Now 16 and standing at William S. Farish’s Lane's End near Versailles, Ky., Smart Strike dominated the sire lists last year when Curlin won the Breeders' Cup Classic – Powered by Dodge (gr. I) and was named United States Horse of the Year.

For three consecutive years, Wilderness Song was a graded stakes winner in the U.S. for trainer James Day. When she retired in 1993, her earnings of nearly $1.5 million placed her second among females in Canada behind her champion stable mate, Dance Smartly. The now 20-year-old daughter of Wild Again who was named Canada's champion older mare in 1992 is the dam of stakes-placed Go To The Sun (by Gone West).

Guest speaker at the Hall of Fame ceremony will be noted actor Nicholas Campbell, who played the lead role for CBC-TV's long-running series “Da Vinci's Inquest.”