The 30 straight wins

Ask somebody to name a horse with 30 straight wins and they will probably be able to do so: pacing fans will probably answer Bret Hanover, French and European trotting fans will probably answer Tenor de Baune while Coldblood enthusiasts will undoubtedly bring up Järvsöfaks. Most likely only Canadian trotting fans bring up A Worthy Lad, whose exploits unfortunately have already started to be forgotten.

The legendary Canadian colt was bred by Joe Johnston, track veterinarian at Windsor Raceway and recipient of the 2002 Windsor Raceway’s Good Guy Award, together with his father Ross. A son of Worthy Bowl, a very good stallion in Canada who had some temper issues at the beginning of his career, he had inherited some of his sire’s early unruliness. As a yearling he was eventually broken by Mark Austin, but not before giving him several challenges, and then put in the training of William “Bud” Fritz. Though a challenge for Austin, when turned over to Fritz the colt was the consummate professional, never taking a wrong step though he got the gait wrong initially: “Lad was challenging at first but once he settled down he was good to work around. He paced for the first 2 weeks but once he hit the trot he never left it,” recalls Brad Fritz, the trainer’s son.

Perfect at 2

As a two-year-old, A Worthy Lad – or just “Lad” – made 17 starts in 1989 – resulting in 17 wins. He competed primarily in Ontario Sire Stakes races. Back then there were no Grassroots or Gold series of the OSS, so A Worthy Lad had to race against the best in the province immediately. Fritz would usually play out A Worthy Lad’s speed in the middle section, get to the lead and control the race from there, usually winning very comfortably. “Once he started trotting he was a natural. I think after about his fifth straight win my dad knew they had something special,” adds Fritz. Owner Joe Johnston later said “He’s really been blessed … right from the first race he ever did. He’s just that smart and that fast.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. From his Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame page: “The most vivid memory is the race where, by all rights, the streak should’ve ended. The undefeated career and undefeated season almost slipped away in the last start of A Worthy Lad’s two-year-old campaign, a $100,000 Ontario Sires Stakes event in London, ON. Johnston remembers early chaos, including the one-horse falling down in the post parade and then, not surprisingly, making a break just after the start. Starting from the trailing position, A Worthy Lad navigated around that horse, only to have the second-position horse run in front of him as well. Again, Fritz moved him over and clear of trouble. Almost comically, and immediately thereafter, two more horses he was following made breaks, causing him to again move farther to the right. All told, A Worthy Lad had trotted the first eighth-of-the-mile straight sideways.

“He spotted them an eighth-of-a-mile, if not more,” said Johnston, incredulously. “He should have been out of the race entirely, but by the three-eighths pole he was back in front. I have no idea how far he actually would have trotted between those two poles. That race was unbelievable beyond all of the other races that he won. It was almost like he wasn’t supposed to get beat. He was unbeatable that night.”

Naturally, A Worthy Lad named Canada’s top freshman trotter at the 1989 O’Brien Awards.

Making in 30 in 30

Some horses who go undefeated through their freshman season fail to follow up in their sophomore year, but A Worthy Lad was not in that category. As a three-year-old he made another 13 starts in Canada, winning all of them. His racing career was again focused on Ontario Sire Stake races around the province, racing at tracks such as Clinton, Dresden, Flamboro, and Hanover, and setting several track records in the process. There was simply no stopping the son of Worthy Bowl in his home province. On Sep 29, 1990, he won his 29th consecutive win in an OSS race at Kawartha Downs, defeating future Elitlopp winner Billyjojimbob and setting a lifetime and track record of 1:57.3 (1.13,0) in the process. The race also defeated Cam Fella’s previous record of 28 consecutive wins. (The record for consecutive wins is really a post-WWII record, though, since the pacer Carty Nagle put together 41 straight win in 1937-38.)

A Worthy Lad didn’t run at Woodbine or Grand Circuit races but that was according to Johnston’s wishes. It is not uncommon for a good Ontario trotter to struggle against he best in North America. So when horses like Cheyenne Spur (winner of the Colonial Trot), King of the Sea (fourth in the Hambletonian and second in the Yonkers Trot), Peddler Yorktowne (third in the Stanley Dancer) and MB Elite came to challenge for the Canadian Trotting Classic, A Worthy Lad would be up against better horses than ever before.

When Bud Fritz was asked for the highlight with A Worthy Lad, he always responded that every race was a highlight. But looking at it objectively, there can be no question that the highlight was his win in the Canadian Trotting Derby when he took on some of the better in the crop. Going to the lead and controlling things, the Canadian colt pulled away in the final stretch and although Cheyenne Spur had a finished strongly he still won easily by a couple of lengths. And like always, he left the impression that he could have gone a lot faster. Brad Fritz also holds the win as one of the absolute highlights of Lad’s career. “The best memory of him was when he won 30 races before he turned four years old. Another great memory was his last win as a two-year-old at London in the final of the Ontario Sire stake, where he got interfered with leaving and he still win. And there there was the Canadian Trotting Classic he won as a three-year-old.”

“It was too much money”

By now the colt’s undefeated streak had gotten the attention of potential buyers willing to pay very good money. In July 1990 there was serious interest from Sweden for the three-year-old and a price of $1.5 million, subject to a satisfactory medical, was agreed. In the meantime the Worthy Bowl son kept working on his win streak. The sale of A Worthy Lad was finally concluded at the end of September and he made his last start under the Johnston ownership on Sep 19, 1990 at Dresden, winning by five lengths in 2:00.4 (1.15,0) – a new track record. When explaining the sale to Swedish horseman Bengt Pettersson, Johnston said that “It just got to the point that it was too much money to not have that security.” It is impossible to disagree with the logic, and the sale price of C$1,5 million was at the time the highest ever for a Canadian-bred harness horse.

Racing one final time in Canada at Mohawk on Oct 12 in an Ontario Sire Stakes race, he picked up his 30th win – in his 30th start, and he was then sent to Europe. Now in the training of Håkan Hellerstedt, A Worthy Lad started the prestiguous Orsi Mangelli in Milan on November 1, 1990 where he suffered his first loss in his elimination, finishing fourth behind Incredible DJ, Place Kicker and the Italian born Mint di Jesolo. The final was even more disappointing as A Worthy Lad was unable to keep up with the front, finishing 6th of the 8 finalists, Antwerp Hanover winning (ahead of Place Kicker and Mint di Jesolo) and picking up the 155,000 euros After disappointing in yet another start, a thorough medical revealed a heart condition that forced him to be retired from racing. Despite the disappointing end to the season, A Worthy Lad was award another O’Brien Award, for 3-year-old trotting colts, in 1990.

At stud

There were high expectations to A Worthy Lad at stud: he had an excellent CV when ignoring the Orsi Mangelli, he had good conformation and had a good pedigree yet provided some outcross. A Worthy Lad’s pedigree is also a textbook example of outcrossing on inbred individuals. His sire Worthy Bowl is inbred to Rodney and Worthy Boy, the latter in turn inbred on Peter the Great. His dam Fragrance, a sister to Hambletonian winner Green Speed, was inbred on Hickory Pride, himself inbred on Mr McElwyn.

His first few crops contained some good trotters, but even though A Worthy Lad sired dollar millionaire Hanko Angus, winner of the 1998 Maple Leaf Trotting Classic, the stars were generally few and far between. In Sweden he was awarded an “AB” rating, indicating he had been an average sire at best. In the end, A Worthy Lad’s racing failure in Europe and overall average accomplishments at stud pushed him quickly out of the limelight.

His fairytale 30 starts in Canada was recognized when he was voted second overall in a poll conducted by the Canadian Sportsman to determine the 25 greatest horses in Ontario Sires Stakes history. In 2010 he was then inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, and four years later A Worthy Lad defeated Wheeling N Dealin and Conway Hall to win the vote for the two-year-old colt in the O’Brien Dream Team.

In the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, A Worthy Lad shares a spot which his trainer Bud Fritz who was inducted back in 2001, as well as his pacing stablemate Apache’s Fame, a truly exceptional contemporary of A Worthy Lad. Bud Fritz passed away in 2022, six years after Joe Johnston and eight years after Mark Austin left us.

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