Filion Legacies

Harness Racing Royalty

The Filion family legacy is well-known in the harness racing world and have contributed greatly to the sport. Over the years, the Filion family have also trained and owned horses, with many successful entries.

“In 1975, New Year’s Day fell on a Wednesday, and the management at Connaught Park thought of a great and certainly unique way of kicking off the New Year! Why not set up a special race and invite the eight driving brothers from the Edmond and Alida Filion family to participate? And so they did, and the race was appropriately named The Filion Pace. This race would mark the first time that the eight brothers in Canada’s best known harness racing family would all appear in the same race.”

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Henri Filion, one of the eight driving brothers. He was a winner of over 3,300 races in his long career which ended almost 20 years ago when he was fatally injured in a racing accident. On this day he drove Flying Freddie.

Herve Filion, who passed away in 2017, won over 15,000 races and was the first driver to surpass $100 million in career earnings. He was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1976 and two-time winner of the coveted Little Brown Jug.

Yves Filion has driven in over 18,000 races and has 4,387 victories and earnings of over $26.7 million to his credit. He’s also trained 291 winners and horses to earnings of over $3.8 million, and bred many successful horses at his Bayama Farms.

Gilles Filion, was seriously injured in a truck accident in 1959 which resulted in him having his left leg amputated below the knee. After this accident he turned to training and driving and competed at the highest level for many years, operating a large stable in Montreal as well as at Saratoga. He passed away in 2011 at the age of 78.

Today, the Filion family continues to be involved in harness racing and their legacy lives on through their impressive records and achievements. They have truly earned their place as harness racing royalty.