from Standardbred Canada

Mississauga, ON — Trot Insider has learned that Canadian Hall of Famer Run The Table, a world champion racehorse and one of Ontario’s most influential sires, died Saturday night (Sept. 15) at the age of 28.

Campaigned by Del Insko and Jim Campbell, Run The Table was a world champion who completed his racing career with 20 wins, 13 seconds, and five thirds from 58 starts and purses earnings totalling $1,171,053. Among his most memorable accomplishments were becoming the earliest 1:55 2-year-old winner in the history of the sport in a New Jersey Sire Stakes event at Meadowlands Racetrack, and as a 3-year-old defeating the then-unbeaten Jate Lobell in the NJSS championship in a 1:51 world record mile. He also set the all-age world record for two heats when he posted identical 1:51.1 clockings in the Oliver Wendall Holmes.

The son of Landslide out of Hustlers Best was purchased at the end of his 4-year-old year by the McNivens of Killean Acres of Ingersoll, Ont. and quickly proved to be a formidable stallion that would have a major impact on Canadian harness racing in the following years.

His first crop hit the track in 1992 and his starters made C$629,853 in Ontario Sires Stakes events. A year later he topped the Ontario Sires Stakes earnings charts with starters earning more than C$1.3 million. He led all Canadian sires from 1992 through 1996 in 2- and 3-year-old earnings.

Run The Table has sired 1,451 foals and winners of more than $87.9 million, including 16 winners of $500,000 or more and 274 winners of $100,000 of more.

Some of the standout performers sired by Run The Table include Jays Table ($840,511), Rabbi Of Racing ($838,848), Run To The Bank ($836,801), O’Brien Award winner Elegant Killean ($780,154), Ryancoke ($697,972), Heatherjeankillean ($740,759), and Cathedra ($733,789), who has also gone on to be a top broodmare as the dam of O’Brien Award winners Cathedra Dot Com ($1,520,487) and Cabrini Hanover ($1,303,790).

Run The Table retired from stud duties in 2004 and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2006.

He remained at Killean Acres where he was lovingly cared for by brothers Don and Jack McNiven until his death.

“I lost the best buddy I ever had,” a tearful Jack McNiven told Trot Insider on Sunday evening. “That horse and I were so close. Nobody ever had a horse quite like him. I’ve had a lot of horses go through my life, but he was special. He was special. He knew what I said to him. He and I lived together and whenever I left the farm I’d look into the paddock when I drove by and went right to his stall when I got home. He was my everything.”