Because he grew up playing hockey with and against Johnny Gaudreau in their teenage years, Vincent Conanan talks about the late NHL star plenty.
He gets chills when old text messages from Gaudreau show up when he’s searching his phone.
Conanan buys thoroughbred yearlings annually for his Next Level Stables, and after his young son kept asking about the player known as “Johnny Hockey,” he pledged to name a racehorse after Gaudreau.
After going to school in the Columbus, Ohio, area, where Gaudreau played his final two seasons with the Blue Jackets, Devon Bradley of Bradley Thoroughbreds had the same idea.
On Saturday, the horses — Johnny Hockey and Gaudreau — will run in the same race at Belmont Park in New York.
“Is that not bananas?” Bradley said.
The winner out of the field of six in the Grade 1 Champagne qualifies for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for two-year-olds, the championship race that sometimes provides a sneak peek at the Kentucky Derby contenders the following spring.
“Hopefully we can run 1-2 this weekend, either way,” Conanan said. “I know Johnny’s looking down and he sees it.”
These two colts were born roughly a month apart in the winter of 2024.
Gaudreau, a former Calgary Flame, and his brother, Matthew, died the night of Aug. 29, 2024, when they were struck riding their bicycles near their hometown in New Jersey on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding in a tragedy that transcended sports.
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Bradley was struck by all the great things that people said about Johnny and registered the names Johnny Hockey and Gaudreau with the Jockey Club.
Watching U.S. players at the Olympics bring Gaudreau’s children onto the ice and skate around with his No. 13 jersey after winning gold in Milan was even more inspiration to use one of them.
When she forgot to pay to re-up after a year and went to name the son of Nyquist — also a hockey connection for Swedish player Gustav Nyquist — and Free Cover, she saw that Johnny Hockey was already taken.
So, she went with Gaudreau for the strapping horse Bradley Thoroughbreds owns along with Tanglewood Thoroughbreds, Thirty Year Racing, Rodeo Creek Racing, Laura Leigh Stable and Swift Thoroughbreds.
“We needed a strong name. We needed a name that has some meaning, something to kind of give your horse just an extra oomph,” Bradley said. “We just felt like it fit, and I guess the rest is history.”
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Conanan asked the trainer at his farm in Ocala, Fla., which horse he liked best. The answer made it an easy call.
“He goes, ‘Vin, this horse always tries hard and has a big heart,'” Conanan recalled. “I was like, ‘You know what, I’ll name this one after Johnny.’ Because Johnny as a kid, he wasn’t the biggest player, but he had the biggest heart. So, I was like, ‘This horse, I think he’s going to be the one.'”
Gaudreau won his debut Aug. 8 at Saratoga Race Course. The very next day at Monmouth Park on the Jersey shore, Johnny Hockey picked up his first victory in his fifth try.
“My hopes are very high on the horse,” Conanan said. “[Trainer] Antonio Arriaga tells me, he goes: ‘The horse trains unbelievable. He just wants to keep going. He doesn’t stop. He wants to keep going around the track.'”
Gaudreau has Chad Brown, a five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer, overseeing his career, with acclaimed jockey Flavien Prat riding.
Based on pedigree and performance, the expectations are lofty after just one race.
“I’m thankful that this horse looks like he’s the real deal,” Bradley said. “Hopefully, it’ll bring light to, and kind of continue on, Johnny Gaudreau’s and Matthew Gaudreau’s legacies.”
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Gaudreau opened as the second choice on the morning line for the Champagne at odds of 8-5, behind 3-5 favorite U.S.S. Valor. Johnny Hockey is a 30-1 long shot.
Conanan wants to invite Johnny and Matthew’s parents, Guy and Jane Gaudreau, to the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., later this fall if his horse pulls off the upset.
“This horse is something special,” Conanan said. “I know he’ll go out there and do his best, the same way Johnny would.”
