Milton, ON – Norm Dunstan is 84, his health isn’t the best and his memory isn’t what it used to be, but ask him about breeding Lexus Kody and his voice dances over the phone.
Last September, Lexus Kody – a horse Dunstan foaled himself out of the final mare he has owned – became the first Ontario-sired horse to win the MGM Yonkers International Trot in its 45-year history and only the second Ontario-bred winner after Armbro Flight’s victory in 1966 (the race was on hiatus from 1996 to 2015).
“It was the highlight of my life,” the small Ontario breeder said of watching Lexus Kody win the International. “That meant a lot to me.”
In 2025, Lexus Kody led all North American horses in earnings with $1.31 million. The International triumph, against top older horses from Europe and the United States, was the second of five major stakes victories in six events in the 11 weeks from Aug. 30 to Nov. 15.
Lexus Kody and driver Yannick Gingras started the streak by posting the fastest trotting mile on Canadian soil while winning the Grade 1 Maple Leaf Trot on Aug. 30 at Woodbine Mohawk Park in 1:49.1. The pair then traveled to Yonkers Raceway near New York City and won the $1 million Grade 1 International on Sept. 13. They followed that up with wins in the Grade 2 Caesars Trotting Classic on Sept. 19 at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, the Grade 2 Dayton Trotting Derby at Dayton Raceway on Sept. 27, finished third in the Grade 1 Breeders Crown final back at Woodbine Mohawk Park on Oct. 25, and then ended the run with a win in the Grade 1 FanDuel Open Trot on Nov. 15 at The Meadowlands.
In those six stakes events in five jurisdictions, Lexus Kody earned $1.18 million and won three Grade 1 events and two Grade 2 races to post one of the most prolific runs in recent harness racing history.
It has already earned the now 8-year-old gelded son of Archangel out of Dunstan’s mare Lexus Helios the U.S. Dan Patch Award as the older male trotter of the year. The overall Trotter of the Year Award is still to be announced on Feb. 22.
Asked what it would mean to have Lexus Kody be voted the Dan Patch Trotter of the Year, Dunstan said, “Oh, the world. It would be the world.”
His wife, Helen, said, “It would be a good way to end” that chapter of their lives.
At the end of November, shortly after Lexus Kody won the FanDuel Open Trot which concluded his season, Norm and Helen sold the beautiful farm in Caledon, Ontario, they had owned since 1998; the farm where Norm tended to virtually everything himself.
Shannon Henry, who trained Lexus Kody for Norm at ages 2, 3 and most of the trotter’s 4-year-old season, said the sale of the farm where Lexus Kody was raised has been hard on Norm. So, too, was losing Lexus Helios in 2022 a few weeks after she foaled the final of her five foals that collectively have earned over $3.1 million.
For Norm’s sake, Henry said she is thankful Lexus Kody had a year for the ages in 2025.
“The big picture is we are still very close with Norm,” Henry said. “We are just so happy… he got one where he’s getting (some attention). His health is declining. He’s out of the business now… but he always talked about this horse, even before he became what he is now. It’s almost like he knew he had something special, and he was just quietly going to ride the wave until it happened. And now it’s happened.”
GRANDSON OF NORM’S OAKS AND CROWN COMPETITOR
Lexus Kody is the second foal out of Lexus Helios, who earned nearly $230,000 on the track.
“She was a very good mare,” Norm said.
He raced Lexus Helios’ dam, Lexus Hall, in the Breeders Crown in 2002 and 2003 and the Hambletonian Oaks in ’03, finishing fifth in a race won by Pizza Dolce.
“It was the first time (at The Meadowlands) for me, a farm guy,” Norm said. “I had about 30 horses at the time but was small in the horse business.”
Returning to The Meadowlands for the Breeders Crown that November, Lexus Hall and driver Mike Lachance looked to be winners as they turned for home.
“Coming home, she was leading, and then she got caught, and she finished third, and I was as happy as could be,” said Norm, who trained the winners of more than C$1.4 million in his career.
Fifteen years after Lexus Hall’s sophomore season, along came her grandson, Lexus Kody, who was turned over to Shannon and Trevor Henry to condition and race.
Lexus Kody didn’t race at 2 after tearing the skin off his legs, “like a banana,” Shannon said.
“We were lucky enough that he didn’t get the tendon. We rushed him to the vet and we had to get him all sewn up. It was quite a thing.
“Trevor knew he was fast, but it was either start him back up or leave him. We opted to leave him until his 3-year-old season.
Besides, Lexus Kody wasn’t the easiest to train.
“He has that leg that he always throws,” Shannon said. “He’s still tough. (His caretaker) says he hasn’t changed at all. Sometimes, the more they mature, the more they settle. But (Lexus Kody is) the same.”
As a sophomore in 2021, Lexus Kody didn’t miss the board in Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) action but had to battle tough competitors in both Fashion Frenzie and Logan Park, who finished first and second, respectively, in that year’s Super Final, with Lexus Kody third.
“(Lexus Kody) was a good horse then, but a little off his rocker,” Shannon said. “He would get so worked up in the paddock that he’d wash himself out. (It was tough to) keep him calm enough to not wash himself out. His trouble was that he just wouldn’t settle.”
The following August, Lexus Kody was sold privately to his current connections – Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and Phil Collura – and transferred to the Ron Burke Stable in the U.S. that orchestrated his outstanding 2025 season.
“We usually don’t keep aged horses,” Shannon said. “We’re in it for the babies, and we usually sell them all… and (the Burke Brigade) came with good money.
“We’re so happy for (the current owners). It’s the nicest bunch of people… everybody’s been so good with Norm.”
In October, when Lexus Kody returned to Ontario to contest the Breeders Crown at Woodbine Mohawk Park, Lexus Kody’s caretaker, Joseph “Jo Jo” Tosies, invited Shannon to bring Norm and Helen to visit Lexus Kody at the Classy Lane Stables in Puslinch, Ontario.
“I asked Norm if he wanted to go and it took him one second to say yes,” Shannon said. “I picked him up and he spent the day with Lexus Kody.
“It was one of the biggest highlights. It was so, so good.”
Norm, who said he simply “got lucky” with Lexus Kody, still talks about that day with considerable fondness.
“He is a gem of a man,” Norm said of Tosies, who was recently named the 2025 Fair Island Farm Caretaker of the Year. “He was so gentle with the horses, not just our horse, but three other horses there that he was caring for.”
Shannon said that, these days, Lexus Kody is one of the few bright lights that shines through Norm’s memory.
“This is the one thing that he does remember,” she said.
After all, Lexus Kody was definitely memorable.
“He was the best horse I ever had,” Norm said.