Legend – Builder

For 50 years, from 1888 to 1938, Jimmy Power collected, edited and wrote a yearling summary of harness racing in the Maritime Provinces. His works were widely copied by many newspapers in the area and also appeared in “The Trotter and Pacer,” a U.S. based publication. He was a regular contributor to The Canadian Sportsman and Livestock Journal.

From the age of 17, he was a journalist with The Acadian Record, a Halifax daily, serving as its sports editor when the newspapers ceased to publish around 1930. He then worked for the Halifax Herald until his retirement in 1939. His main love was writing about Standardbred racehorses in the Maritimes, as well as following the Grand Circuit. He was a key promoter and organizer for early stakes races featuring Maritime-breds and was often invited to call major races.

In a tribute to Power upon his retirement, Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame member, the late Col. Dan MacKinnon of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, said “He was accurate to the last detail and furnished facts and figures regarding the doings on the turf that were of great value for historic purposes and statistics. He could recall all the great battles on the turf for the last half century.” Noted Maritime Standardbred historian Prof. James Hawley of Truro, Nova Scotia, says “it would be difficult to any present day student of harness racing history to do any useful research without reference to the yearly summaries prepared by Jimmy Power.”