American breeders bullish on Ontario
At 0h02, on October 9, 2025 • By Dave Briggs, Ontario Racing
U.S. Standardbred breeding titan Joe Thomson said there is a simple reason he’s bullish on producing horses in Ontario.
“Ontario has one of the best programs in North America,” said Thomson, the owner of Winbak Farm that has breeding operations in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and, yes, Ontario where Winbak is currently leading the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) breeders’ list with more than $1.2 million in earnings – more than double the next closest breeder.
In the last nine years, Winbak – which stands nine stallions at the location of the former Armstrong Bros. Farm in Brampton, ON – has been the leading breeder in the OSS program eight times, has surpassed $10 million in total progeny earnings in the program and has exceeded $1 million annually eight times.
Heading into next week’s London Classic Yearling Sale (Oct. 14-15 at the J-AAR Expo Centre at Western Fair District), it’s important to note the OSS program is on solid financial footing for 2026. In 2019, the provincial government signed an agreement that guarantees $10 million annually in funding directly to the province’s Horse Improvement Program (HIP) that supports the OSS, a program that will feature nearly $14 million worth of purses in 2025. Outside of the program, the horse racing industry’s Long Term Funding Agreement (LTFA) with the province, that runs through 2038, injected some $43.5 million, total, into standardbred purses in Ontario in the most recent fiscal year.
Even factoring in the difference in currency between the U.S. and Canadian dollars, Thomson said the OSS program is excellent and worth the investment in Ontario-sired horses.
“If you didn’t have the currency problem, then you’d be killer, but I still think [the OSS] is the best,” he said. “And you know, if you stay in Canada and use Canadian people and use Canadian resources and so forth, then it all works its way out. So, if you win races and you leave the money up there to operate, it’s good for Canada, it’s good for the guy that’s doing it, and he’s operating in one of the best programs.”
There are other reasons Thomson has enjoyed doing business in Ontario for nearly a quarter century.
“We’ve always had good relationships with Canadians,” Thomson said. “They love to have horses.”
