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\u201cOut of the five of us, I was the only one that didn\u2019t get drafted,\u201d said Conanan, a touch ruefully.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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He did play junior hockey until he was 21, first as a forward and then as a defenseman, with the U.S. Premier Hockey League\u2019s New Jersey Hitmen and the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League\u2019s Metropolitan Moose in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
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Columbus Blue Jackets’ Johnny\u00a0Gaudreau plays during an NHL hockey game, Jan. 4, 2024, in Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matt Slocum\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
When he was done playing hockey, Conanan went into the construction business, through which he met thoroughbred owner\/breeder Robert Bruno.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got me into horse racing,\u201d said Conanan. \u201cThat was five years ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Now Conanan owns about 40 horses, including six broodmares that he foals at Stonegate Stables in Fort Edward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last October, he bought a chestnut yearling colt for $72,000, and to honor Gaudreau, Conanan named the colt Johnny Hockey, the nickname Gaudreau picked up while playing for Boston College\u2019s team. The two had stayed in touch until Gaudreau went to college, occasionally seeing each other during summer training camps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still a big hockey guy,\u201d he said, noting that he was vacationing on the Jersey Shore with his family and the families of some of his former teammates, an annual tradition. \u201cI wanted to name a horse after my childhood friend who made an impact in the hockey world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnny Hockey runs in the first race at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday. He\u2019s the longest shot in the field at 30-1, and he\u2019s up against a potential monster in 8-5 morning-line favorite Powerline, a son of Flightline that sold at last summer\u2019s Saratoga yearling sale for $1.8 million. Conanan has also entered Jack\u2019s Golden Goal in the race, named for Jack Hughes\u2019 overtime winner against Canada in this year\u2019s Olympic gold medal game in Milan.<\/p>\n
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After Hughes\u2019 winning goal, the members of the U.S. men\u2019s hockey team brought Gaudreau\u2019s No. 13 jersey onto the ice, then brought his two oldest children onto the ice to join in the team photo.<\/p>\n
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The United States’ Dylan\u00a0Larkin (21) holds Johnny, the son of the late playe Johnny Gaudreau while posing with teammates after a men’s ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo\/Petr David Josek)<\/p>\n
Petr David Josek\/AP<\/p>\n
Jack\u2019s Golden Goal is 6-1, and both horses are trained by Antonio Arriaga.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnny Hockey has raced three times in the last month, most recently on July 11 at Saratoga, when he was a well-beaten fourth-place. His best result so far is a distant third at Aqueduct on June 25. On Saturday he returns to the turf, stretching out to six furlongs, after running his last two races on the dirt.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI do think he\u2019ll improve when he stretches out,\u201d said Conanan. \u201cI think he wants a mile on the turf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conanan\u2019s 7-year-old son plays hockey, too, and he said that he frequently reminds him that win or lose, the game should always be about fun. And while Conanan applies that maxim to horse racing, too, a game with which he\u2019s fallen in love and invested heavily, a Johnny Hockey win, on Saturday or in the future, would be especially meaningful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJohnny was one of the humblest people you\u2019ll ever meet,\u201d he went on. \u201cHe was the smallest guy on the ice, and nothing ever stopped him. People told him that he\u2019d never make it in the NHL, but he just grinded it out his whole life. Johnny Hockey is on the small side, and we hope that he\u2019ll make it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trainer Antonio Arriaga with trainee Johnny Hockey at the Saratoga Race Course on July 17, 2026 in Saratoga…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,63290,67862,52,2602,68262,43,3255],"class_list":["post-625508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-hockey","tag-horse-racing","tag-latestnews","tag-local","tag-olympics","tag-sarco","tag-sports","tag-team-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116940673268623620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}