by Ashley Mayotte and Chris Lomon, WEG Communications

Toronto, ON — Trainer/driver Pat Hudon has made one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make, choosing to focus solely on training his Standardbred stable.

Hudon, 40, admits he’s been thinking about retiring from driving for a while.

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Pat Hudon’s last trip to the winner’s circle as a driver came on Sept. 26, 2011, at Mohawk with Hidden Identity.

It wasn’t until after an on-track incident on Nov. 10 at Woodbine, when he was unseated along with his father Joe and his brother Phil, that he came to the conclusion he would hand over the reins for good.

“It kind of scared me,” said the horseman, who was taken to hospital with a dislocated shoulder and an injury to his calf.

“It took a couple months for me to decide it was time to stop driving, but it’s the time to do it,” he added. “I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Before his most recent misfortune at Woodbine, Hudon recalled a handful of other incidents, including an accident in a qualifying race in April 2002, which rendered him unconscious.

“You get a head injury as bad as I did and when you come out of it, you get another chance,” he explained. “You only get so many chances.”

And Hudon won’t chance it for his family’s sake.

“You are doing something you love and to decide to stop, it was tough, but it would be selfish of me to keep driving,” said Hudon, who has two children, Dylan, 8, and Julia, 5, with his wife, Rochelle. “I have a young family. I don’t want to take the chance that I might get into an accident again. I want to remember my kids and I want my kids to grow up with me. Family is first.”

With 21 years of driving under his belt, Hudon says he has fond memories of being in the race bike.

“I don’t regret driving one bit,” said Hudon, who rates his win with Armbro Nautilus in 1:50.3 in the Free For All at Mohawk in 1998 as one of his greatest racing moments. “I love it and I will definitely miss it.”

Throughout his driving career, Hudon persevered through hard work and determination to record 1,560 wins and more than $10.7 million in purse earnings.

Hudon finished second to veteran reinsman Paul MacKenzie in 2000 and 2001 at Flamboro Downs in both wins and earnings, notching a career-best 315 wins and more than $2.4 million in earnings in 2001.

The Rockwood resident’s last trip to the winner’s circle, on Sept. 26, 2011, at Mohawk, was a memorable moment. Not only did he score with one of his pupils, Hidden Identity, he also celebrated his 40th birthday.

Driver Jody Jamieson, one of Canada’s top drivers, regularly competed against Hudon in the early 2000s on the Woodbine Entertainment Group circuit and at Flamboro.

“He used to torture us all,” he recalled with a laugh. “Pat’s strategy was to be first-up, parked first-up every race. We all thought it was crazy, so we would try to get on his back and follow him. He just got those horses to live.

“He would just float off the gate and we would all be leaving or taking back or trying to get position and Pat would just get his usual spot, parked first-over and he’d turn them loose down the backside,” Jamieson added. “He won a ton of races.”

Jamieson also appreciates Hudon’s decision to focus on training his stable of seven, while enlisting the services of his brother, Phil, or catch-drivers to steer his trainees.

“Pat has been in a few wrecks,” he said. “I think for him and his family it is probably the best decision. Pat is a hell of a horseman. He is going to be heard from in this business for a long time.”

One thing Hudon has learned throughout his driving career, both on and off the racetrack, is that it’s important to know when to make the right decision.

Even when they happen to be tough ones.

Can Ruff Me Up bring that old grey magic to WEGZ series?

If it was Joe Cirasuola who looked into a crystal ball last year, he would have balked at the very idea of believing a grey horse would bring him good fortune.

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Ruff Me Up is riding a six-race winning streak.

For most of his career, the trainer admittedly wasn’t a fan of grey horses. But the words of a psychic and Ruff Me Up, a pacer on a six-race win streak, who’ll contest the C$30,000 second leg of the WEGZ series on Saturday evening (Feb, 11) at Woodbine, has definitely changed his mind.

Cirasuola still marvels at the way the mother of one of his workers can walk down his shedrow, analyze a horse’s current physical state, and be bang-on in her assessment.

So, when the woman told Cirasuola a grey horse would one day win a lot of races and money for him, he didn’t pass up the opportunity, just 48 hours later, when he had the chance to purchase Ruff Me Up, a pacing son of Real Artist, in 2011.

It wasn’t necessarily love at first sight.

“I never really liked grey horses and when we got this guy, the first three months, he couldn’t get out of his own way,” recalled Cirasuola. “He had issues his entire life, all kinds of things, and he just couldn’t seem to put it all together.”

Cirasuola then considered selling Ruff Me Up.

“I was going to sell him for $4,000 last fall at Sarnia after he didn’t fare well,” he remembered, of the horse that was originally a $61,000 purchase at the 2005 Lexington Selected yearling sale. “But it didn’t happen, so we just moved on from there.”

Not long after, Ruff Me Up showed signs he was getting things on track, punctuated by a strong second-place showing at Flamboro Downs on Nov. 6, in a time of 1:54.2, after leading the field through a half-mile in a scorching :52.4.

An eight length romp in his next start, at Windsor, was followed by a fourth at the same oval. After another win there on Dec. 11, he finished second at the border track, a head loss, one week later.

Then, Ruff Me Up hit his best stride, literally.

A nearly 14 length score at Sports Creek Raceway in Michigan led to five more trips to the winner’s circle, one coming at Windsor, one at Western Fair, and the past three at Woodbine.

He’s been the favorite in just two of those six victories, including a 9-1 triumph at Woodbine on Jan. 28.

“Shame on the public,” quipped Cirasuola. “His last effort (a two length score in the first leg of the WEGZ series), that’s the best he’s ever come out of a race. Ever since that second at Flamboro, he’s just been better and better each week.”

Ruff Me Up is also enjoying the fruits, so to speak, of his winning ways.

“He’s a really cool horse,” praised Cirasuola, of the lifetime winner of 20 races from 71 starts who has earned $207,345 for owner Shirley Halas of Northville, Mich. “He’s got a great personality. Everyone comes over to see him and bring him carrots. He knows he’s doing well.”

And Cirasuola knows luck has smiled on him.

“I like grey horses,” he said. “I really do.”

Joe Cirasuola didn’t need a psychic to tell him that.

Ruff Me Up, with Keith Oliver in the bike, will leave from post four on Saturday evening, in race nine on the program.