A chuckwagon driver from Sundre has been honoured as the 2024 Rookie of the Year by the World Professional Chuckwagon Association.
Dale Young was able to attend this season’s WPCA Awards Banquet at the Carriage House Inn in Calgary on Saturday, October 19th with his wife and daughter. He points out that it was pretty cool to get recognized with them there. Young says “it was special because there is a lot of hard work that goes into the racing. I’m the one that gets the fun of racing, but yet my family is huge and instrumental in allowing me to be involved in it.”
The 46-year-old Young notes that 2024 was a busy season, but a memorable one for him. He competed with the pony wagons on the Alberta Professional Chuckwagon & Chariot Association plus he jumped up for five shows with the thoroughbred wagons on the World Professional Chuckwagon Association. He says “so my cousins Wade and Evan Salmond both run on the WPCA tour and they were very instrumental in lining up horses for us and getting us through the few shows we got to go to. With their advice and knowledge that they’ve gained on the tour, it helped us a lot.”
Young says next year he will be focused on the World Professional Chuckwagon Association tour. He kind of knows what to expect now after making a handful of WPCA appearances in 2024. Young will spend the winter and spring getting some thoroughbred horses ready and he looks forward to taking a run at it in 2025.
Young says everybody from the APCCA has been pretty encouraging and they are excited for him to have the opportunity to move up to the WPCA on a full-time basis in 2025. He has had years of racing the pony wagons and all of that knowledge and his friends have got him to the spot where he is today, so he says it is kind of neat that way.
