Barry Littlefield

Who was Barry Littlefield?

Barak Thomas "Barry" Littlefield June 16, 1871 – June 14, 1936 is an American-born Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.

From a Canadian mother, he was born in Preakness, New Jersey where his American father Charles Stuart Littlefield (1833–1915), was employed by Milton Holbrook Sanford's Preakness Stables. His father worked as a jockey in Toronto and is also an inductee of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame who won the first ever edition of the Queen's Plate in 1860 and again in 1862 and as a trainer, won the 1885 Preakness Stakes. His brother, Fred Littlefield, was a jockey who won the 1888 Preakness Stakes. Nicknamed Barry, his father named him after a close friend, Major Barak G. Thomas, a lawyer and American Civil War officer who established Dixiana Farm in Lexington, Kentucky in 1887 where he bred such horses as United States Racing Hall of Fame inductee Domino and owned the 1893 Leading sire in North America, Himyar.

Between 1902 and 1917, Barry Littlefield trained for the highly successful racing stable owned by the Waterloo, Ontario distilling magnate, Joseph E. Seagram. Littlefield was a multiple winner of every top Canadian flat race of his era including five editions of the country's most prestigious event, the King's Plate (Queen's Plate).