Ed Haley always loved horses. He especially loved race horses. He loved breeding them, caring for them, training them, driving them and seeing horses he trained do well on the racing circuit. Ed was most happy being in the horse stables whether they were his own or at a race track around the Maritimes. Ed loved his family and politics, but his first love was the pacers and trotters he would work with during his life.
Ed Haley’s passion for horse racing started when he was very young, when he would race horses on the ice in Cape Breton, Guysborough County and Gaspereau Lake, Antigonish County. In 1933, at the age of nineteen, he won his first official race at the North Sydney Racetrack with the horse Bonny T Reamore. This early victory sparked a career which would carry Ed to racetracks across Canada and the United States, and earn him acclaim as a driver, trainer, breeder and owner.
In the early 1950s Ed raced in Toronto at the Dufferin Racetrack and at Blue Bonnets in Montreal. That was a time when he went head to head with the best drivers in the industry, drivers such as Joe O’Brien and Bill O’Donnell. These were drivers who would become world champions and win millions in prize money.
By 1959, Ed decided to come back home and establish himself as a stock farm owner. He registered his farm with the U.S. Trotting Association, the first farm so registered from Nova Scotia. West River Stock Farms got going in 1964 and would establish itself as a leading farm for thoroughbred horses in the Maritimes. His horses always carried the farm name. In that year he drove West River Alex to win the Maritime Stakes for two-year-olds at Sackville Downs in Halifax.
The years ahead would see West River Stock Farms produce some of the finest race horses in the country. It started first with Mart Hackaway and went on with his most famous stallion, Primo, son of Sampson Hanover. Male and female offspring of Primo won consistently on Maritime tracks. Ed’s Stock Farm followed Primo with other noteworthy stallions, including Downtown, Dellmor and Bancraft Hanover.
In the years after 1964, Ed and his wife Rose (MacGillivray) were at the centre of harness racing in the Maritimes. They also raised four children: Mary, Jane, Neldy and Clare.
Ed and his Wife Rose
Ed’s stature in the industry was recognized by the numerous awards he received, including in 1983 the “Mr. Horseman” Award by the Cape Breton Horseman Association and in 1985 the Glen Kennedy Memorial Award for his contribution to the Maritime Standardbred breeding industry, as well as recognition from the Horse Owners Association of Halifax.
From 1956 to 1969 Ed served as Supervisor of Highways for Antigonish County and much of the work on the farm was done by his wife and children. They all learned the ropes of breeding, training and caring for the horses. In 1969 the family suffered a major loss when his son Neldy, who was at that time an aspiring driver, lost his life in a motor vehicle accident. In later years Clare and her husband Kenny MacDonald would take the reins of the operation and establish themselves in the industry.
In 1990, Hall of Fame sports columnist Dr. Cecil MacLean wrote about his friend Ed Haley in The Antigonish Casket newspaper. He wrote:
“Observers agreed that much of his success as a craftsman came from his light touch as a driver, a touch which reassured any horse he was driving. Added to this were an unerring judge of pace and a type of daring that prompted him on occasions to take advantage of a narrow opening that would not have tempted a more conservative opponent.
In the early years, his horses were mediocre and his equipment less than reliable. Yet such was his skill that, once entered in competition, he was able to outfox drivers with more glamorous equipment. He was recognized for his skill not only in the Maritimes but in Ontario, Quebec and the Eastern U.S.”
On March 4, 1990, the day after Ed Haley’s death, the Truro Raceway honoured his memory. Just before the first race of the day all the horses were stabled and the sulkies were all parked. The crowd in the grandstand went quiet as out of the stables all the drivers, trainers and grooms walked in front of the grandstand and formed up at the finish line. They stood in tearful silence at attention as track announcer Joe Kelly took the microphone and delivered a eulogy to his friend and fellow Antigonisher. He concluded by saying:
“Ed Haley was a true and loyal Antigonisher, but his loss will be mourned far beyond the borders of his hometown, across the Maritimes and south of the border.”