Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inducts Channel Maker

Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement farm in Georgetown, Ky. is pleased to announce that Channel Maker, one of the farm’s newest retirees, has been inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame class of 2024.

The induction was announced by the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Thoroughbred and Standardbred election committees in a news release on Wednesday.

The induction of Channel Maker into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame is a bright spot on the farm this week following the disappointment in learning that Game on Dude was not selected by the Thoroughbred Racing Museum and Hall of Fame after being nominated for the third year in a row.

Channel Maker is by English Channel out of the Horse Chestnut mare In Return, by Horse Chestnut. He was bred by Tall Oaks Farm and foaled in Ontario, Canada, on Feb. 11, 2014.

Originally trained by Daniel Vella, who was also inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame this year, Channel Maker began his racing career as a 2-year old in 2016. He broke his maiden in his second start with a win in the Vandal Stakes at Woodbine.

Channel Maker, who was later trained in his career by Bill Mott, raced eight years from 2016 to 2023. His biggest wins included the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Stakes (G1) in 2018 and 2020, the Man o’ War Stakes (G1) in 2019, the Sword Dancer Stakes (G1) in 2020, the Elkhorn Stakes (G2) and the Grand Couturier Stakes in 2022 and the Bowling Green Stakes (G2) in 2023 as a 9-year old.

Following an 11th-place finish in the Sycamore Stakes (G3) at Keeneland on Oct. 13, the chestnut was retired. He closed out his career with a record of 56: 10-6-5 and $3,915,985 in earnings. According to the Canadian Hall of Fame news release, his earnings makes Channel Maker the third-richest Canadian-bred racehorse of all time.

Channel Maker also won the 2017 Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion 3-year-old colt and the 2020 Eclipse Award as champion turf male.

In addition, Channel Maker set a record for the most Breeders’ Cup starts by any single horse with six starts. His best finish was a third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2020.

Following his racing career, Adam Wachtel of Wachtel Stable initiated the idea of retiring Channel Maker to Old Friends, and the horse’s ownership group, which also consists of Gary Barber, R. A. Hill Stable, and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, agreed. Channel Maker arrived on the farm for his retirement on Nov. 14.