Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Randy Waples Returns at Winner

January 30, 2007

Driver Randy Waples returned to racing after a long, bone-healing hiatus on Monday, January 29 at Western Fair Raceway in Canada. Randy timed his return from six months of healing and rehabilitation from a Mohawk racing accident last July 30 to support Western Fair’s life saving heart defibrillator acquisition and the Chase McEachern Tribute Fund of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

“After I got hurt so badly last year there was a time when I was convinced I wouldn’t come back,” Waples said in a live trackside interview before the first race. “There was a turning point last December 16 though. My mom made me go to the barn and told me once I did, I’d get the passion back to return to racing. She was right.”

Waples was overtly overjoyed to quickly regain the feeling of winning a race. He made a jubilant fist pump with his whip raised in the air after scoring wire-to-wire with 3-year-old pacer Always Ready.

He is also renowned for his philanthropic ways. Waples made a special glass enclosed flames design driving suit, and in a poignant trackside moment, John McEachern (Chase's father) remarked that Waples' special gift will forever be stored in Chase’s bedroom in the McEachern home. Waples then donated a second custom flames design driving suit which will add to Chase’s Tribute Fund in an online auction, with details to be announced in upcoming days.