from Standardbred Canada

Mississauga, ON — The day after the fields for the 2016 Gold Cup & Saucer trials were announced, shockwaves ripped through the Maritimes as one of the locally-connected horses looking to compete and contend passed away on Tuesday morning (Aug. 9).

Big Boy Dreams, a 5-year-old son of If I Can Dream, was being led back to his stall on Tuesday when he collapsed. His co-owner, Don MacRae of Vernon Bridge, PEI, told The Guardian he assumes the horse had a heart attack.

Purchased by trainer and co-owner Rene Allard for $265,000 at the Tattersalls January Select Mixed Sale at The Meadowlands, Big Boy Dreams was also owned by Exeter, Ont.’s Bob Hamather. He won 14 of 49 lifetime starts, earning $575,252 while taking a mark of 1:49.4f at Pocono last year. Among his major stakes wins were the Windy City Pace and the Matron as a 3-year-old.

MacRae told The Guardian that Big Boy Dreams had a slight temperature after a less-than-stellar performance on Saturday night — finishing eighth in a race at Yonkers. He was reportedly treated for a virus and his temperature had returned to normal in advance to planned transport to PEI from Allard’s stable in New York.

“He was a nice horse to watch race,’’ said MacRae, who currently owns about 15 race horses. “This is the best horse that I have ever owned.’’

Allard has offered MacRae 10 percent of another Gold Cup & Saucer contender, Go Daddy Go, to help soften the loss of MacRae’s pacer.