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Imagine wanting to bet on your favourite horse, only to learn that no betting is allowed because the horse is, well, just too good. Such was the case for the Manitoba Futurity harness race at Assiniboia Downs on Friday, September 19, 1969.
The horse? Pilot Adios, bred by Gordon Fraser, Sr. of Pilot Mound in 1966.
Gordon Fraser owned, trained, and drove horses all his life. Sadly, he (1888–1967) passed away two years before Pilot Adios raced.1
“No Wagering” Owned jointly by W. Newans and trainer Earl Hanson of Regina, Pilot Adios certainly was the odds-on choice, winning easily by six lengths.
The win was no fluke. Pilot Adios left the field in his dust again that year:
Pilot Adios, the three-year-old son of Champ Adios—Highkeyta which won the Manitoba Futurity Sept. 19, left little doubt in the fifth race that he deserves to race in the Preferred No. 1 when he scored a length and a half victory over a good field of pacers.
Driven by Lorne Clark, the gelding came from off the pace in the stretch drive to register a new lifetime mark of 2:06 4/5.2
Obscured by snow (and a scruffy online archive photo), Lorne Clark and Pilot Adios marked the final day of the harness racing season at Assiniboia Downs with a win in the eighth race.3
In his end-of-season story, reporter Elman Guttormson praised the horse and his driver.
Pilot Adios, the best three-year-old at the Downs, came off the pace to overtake the less-than-even money favorite Tracy Blair in the strength drive to win by a length and a half.
It was the sixth win of the season for the Champ Adios gelding and boosted his earnings to $4,903. […]
Victory in the feature race gave trainer-driver Lorne Clark his 24th win at the meet and boosted his percentage in the universal driver standing to .443.
Lorne Clark, veteran trainer and driver
With the season’s tally of 74 races (with 24 wins, 8 place and 13 show finishes), Lorne Clark was the leading driver at the Downs in 1969, and earned a Gruen watch. Pilot Adios won four of eight starts that year, and was the leading money winning horse with $4,021.50.
In March of 1970 Pilot Adios was claimed from Lorne Clark and E. K. Hanson for $4,800 at Blue Bonnets Raceway, Montreal. His racing history beyond that is unknown, and the gelding certainly couldn’t retire as a sire.
Dot and Gordon Fraser would have been so proud of their colt Pilot Adios.
The Adios name appeared often at Assiniboine Downs, sometimes three times in a single race!
The best bet, Brisac Champ, was another son of Champ Adios, and, yes, he won the his race.4
Adios
“Pilot Adios” was a logical name for a horse bred by Gordon Fraser of Pilot Mound, but where did the “Adios” come from? From a famed bloodline, that’s where. Bred from sire Champ Adios (b. 1951) and dam Highkeyta (b. 1956), Pilot Adios was a grandson of the exalted Adios (b. 1940).
Adios, (1940–1965), considered by many to be one of the greatest studs in harness racing history.5
Adios is to standardbred horses as Northern Dancer is to thoroughbreds. A multiple world champion pacer during his four-year racing career, Adios had an impressive pedigree stretching back to the fabled Hambletonian, another legendary sire of many successful standardbreds.
Hambletonian (1849–1876), the “daddy of ’em all”6
The key horse in the pedigree—and, indeed, in the pedigree of every trotting and pacing horse today—is Hambletonian, foaled at Sugar Loaf, New York, near Goshen in 1849.
Hambletonian started his stud career at two and at age four covered 100 mares in one season. He sired 1331 foals in all; the last six years of his life he commanded a stud fee of $500. He was a trotter with a record of 2:48-1/2, taken hitched to the old high-wheeled carts of the period.7
Adios was a natural pacer, as were most of his offspring. This gait is generally faster than the trot, and about 80% of standardbred racehorses are pacers. In the pace, both legs on the right side move forward together, followed by both legs on the left side. Hopples (or hobbles) are often worn to prevent breaking stride, but some “free-leg” pacers don’t need them. Trotters have a diagonal gait, moving right front and left hind legs together.
Bred at the Two Gaits Farm in Carmel, Indiana, Adios sold as a yearling for the high price of $2,000 to T. Thomas of Cleveland. Adios was initially trained by Rupe Parker, and then Frank Ervin.
Adios was one of the two finest pacers in his day. In 1944, four-year-old Adios beat rival King’s Counsel in two heats of 1:58-1/4 each.8 Breaking a two-minute mile was an important benchmark back then, and marked an elite horse.
In Adios’ era the specifics of time were judged mostly by the number of 2:00 performers sired by a particular stallion. In this area, Adios stood all alone, not only in the number of 2:00 performers sired by him but in money earned by his progeny.
Adios led the money earnings list by stallions for eight consecutive years.
In his era, the richest race for 3-year-old pacers was the Messenger. Adios dominated it like no other sire ever. His progeny captured five of the seven Messengers to which they were eligible and finished 1-2-3 in two of them. In the same era, the most prestigious race for 3-year-old pacers, one might say all pacers, was the Little Brown Jug. Adios sons won eight of the 11 Jugs to which they were eligible.
By the time Adios was five, Frank Ervin had difficulty getting races for his champion. Money was scarce in the wartime lull, and the horse was just too good to attract competition.
Harry Warner of Warner Brothers studio, and L. K. Shapiro bought Adios after his fifth season, and the horse won two of three races during their ownership. Though trained, he was not raced at seven and eight. The partners’ racing enterprise ended in 1948, and Adios was auctioned off to Delvin Miller for $21,000.
Delvin Miller had every reason to smile. They were partners for 17 years, and Adios made Miller a millionaire.9
Another auction attendee was Lawrence B. Sheppard of Hanover Shoe Farms. Seven years later he and Max Hempt bought Adios from Miller for $500,000, the highest price for a standardbred at the time. (Miller purchased a one-third interest from Hanover Shoe Farms later.)
Winning races means worthy reputations and big purses for owners, but a racehorse’s career on the track is short. Often, the more lucrative sums are earned later, in the stud barns.
Delvin Miller built a breeding empire with Adios at his Meadow Lands farm near Washington, Pennsylvania. The champion’s initial stud fee of $300 grew to $12,500 as Adios offspring (aka “get”) proved their worth.
Delvin Miller on Adios, both listed as “Immortals” in the Harness Racing Museum Hall of Fame10
In 1962 Kenneth Rudeen explained why Adios is considered one of the best studs of all time:11
Led the sire list in earnings by his sons and daughters for seven consecutive years
Accumulated 10-year earnings of $10,099,726 by his get—a figure more than twice that of his leading contenders
Sired the absolute speed record holder for harness racing’s standard one-mile distance, Adios Butler, whose mark is 1:54 3/5 and who has just entered the stud at a fancy $3,000 service fee. [Adios Butler broke the 1:55 mile world record set by Dan Patch in 1906, a record that held for 54 years.]
Sired the world record holder at ages 2 and 3, Bullet Hanover, whose closings are 1:56 and 1:55 3/5, respectively
Sired 52 performers who have been timed in two minutes or less.
Sired the highest-priced standardbred yearling, Dancer Hanover ($105,000 in 1958).
Earned a million dollars, before taxes, for driver-trainer Delvin Glenn Miller.
By age 25 Adios clearly had problems with his feet. A worsening case of laminitis (or “founder”) meant he could not stand without pain. He was humanely put down on June 22, 1965 and was laid to rest next to his favorite apple tree in his paddock at Meadow Lands Farm. A memorial stone marks his grave.
The Adios Pace, a one-mile harness race for three-year-old standardbreds, was inaugurated in 1967 at Meadows Racetrack in Pennsylvania. A bronze life-size statue of Adios was unveiled there, as well. A tribute to both horse and trainer, the race is formally called the Delvin Miller Adios Pace for the Orchids, and is the state’s largest harness race.
Adios – 1967 – 1st Heat [4:48]
ustrotting, 2017
Famed horseman Devlin Miller passed away at age 83 in 1996. “He will forever be remembered as one of the greatest and most respected personalities the sport of harness racing has ever known.”12
Listen to an interview with Delvin Miller and watch footage of Adios himself:
1960 ADIOS Delvin Miller Meadow Lands Farm Pa [3:29]
Harness Racing History – The Lost Videos, 2021
Champ Adios
As sportswriter James C. Harrison’s wrote of Adios: “I know of no male of any species who has dominated his field the way Adios was in harness racing. He gets champions out of any mares, by any stallions from any bloodlines.”13 Champ Adios was one of those offspring.
In 1965, Quebec businessman Pierre Lévesque purchased the entire stable of well-known Manitoba breeder Leon Sauteur. This purchase included Champ Adios, a son of Adios. Sauteur’s horses became the foundation for Lévesque’s operation, Ferme Angus. With five stallions and almost 100 mares at one point, Ferme Angus became one of the largest breeding farms in Quebec.14
“When Leon Sauteur [above], prominent standard bred breeder of Sidney sold his great sire Champ Adios and 10 well-bred brood mares to Eastern interests in 1966, the standard bred industry in the west received a rude jolt, as this fine stud and 10 top mares represented the cream of mares and sires in Manitoba.” Sauteur later brought four young mares sired by Champ Adios back to his Sidney farm. Champ Adios was considered “high-class racing stock.”15
CHRHF - 2008 Inductee - Pierre Levesque [1:16]
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, 2023
The pedigree of Champ Adios, a 1951 son of Adios and Marjorie Armstrong.16
A “free-for-aller” pacer in the 1960s, Champ Adios competed against the best available horses in eastern and central Canada. Between 1953 and 1974 62 unique mares were bred to Champ Adios, resulting in at least 80 recorded offspring.17 He sired notable racers like Pilot Adios, Dream Adios, Duchess Paradise, and Brisac Champ.
In September of 1975, at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Prima Irish, another son of Champ Adios, set a track record of 2:00 September 26. The four-year-old gelding became the first horse to pace a mile in two minutes in Manitoba. His impressive year earned a sale price of $36,000 when sold to a stable in Ontario.
The bay gelding, which has been trained by Ray Dryden of Virden since April, 1974, had seven wins, three seconds and a fifth in 11 starts this year and earnings of $14,749. He won all five starts at the Downs including the $9,215 Canadian Pace Oct. 12 with Keith Linton holding the reins.18
That track record was set over 5o years ago. The two-minute mile is not the benchmark it once was. Watch standardbred Bulldog Hanover, another Canadian descendant of Adios, set the current world record in less time than it takes to watch this 1:57 video clip:
Cambridge Standardbred horse sets a new world record for fastest mile ever
CHCH News, 2023
What’s in a name? Plenty!
__________________________
Sources (retrieved May 13, 2026)
Elman Guttormson, “Pilot Adios Was All By Himself,” Winnipeg Free Press, September 20, 1969, p. 62 [excerpted]
Elman Guttormson, “Two Pacers Win With Their Best,” Winnipeg Free Press, October 27, 1969, p. 26
Elman Guttormson, “Pacers Finish in the White,” Winnipeg Free Press, November 12, 1969, p. 65
Harold Loster, Tribune Graded Selections, Winnipeg Tribune, September 30, 1967, p. 28
Marie Hill, Adios: The Big Daddy of Harness Racing. New York: Arco, 1971, p. 76
The current record for a pacing mile is 1:45.4, set by Bulldog Hanover on July 16, 2022 at the Meadowlands track in New Jersey. The Canadian standardbred Bulldog is a great-great-grandson of Adios. He earned over $2.78 million before retiring as a stud. His stud fee is $15,000 USD, and his bookings are filled.
Oddly, only 6 of Champ Adios’ 80 offspring were males, and Pilot Adios does not appear as one of them in the admittedly incomplete Pedigree Online: All Breed Pedigree database. However, Pilot Adios’ lineage is noted in newspaper accounts of his races.
Elman Guttormson, “Classy Prima Irish sold for $36,000,” Winnipeg Free Press, November 17, 1975, p. 55
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