Mila and Tony Kalloo

Publishers

... In January of 2007, Tony Kalloo tried to redeem a lottery ticket at a local variety store. That's when he discovered, to his enormous delight, that he had won $16 Million in the Super-7 draw. Because the Kalloos were close friends with Peter Gross, they entertained his request for initial funding of a horse racing newspaper. That is how Down The Stretch was born.

Peter Gross

Editor

... has spent most of the past 45 years immersed in the mainstream media of Toronto. He is recognized for his many years as a sports reporter and humourist with CITY-TV and his voice is familiar to radio listeners because of the 23 years during which he was the sportscaster on 680News, Canadas most listened-to AM radio station. Gross is also notorious for his passion for the ponies and his love of betting. In various capacities, Gross has been reporting on and writing about horse racing from his earliest inception in local broadcasting. In his history with the horseraces, Gross has driven the winner of a media harness race, had a thoroughbred race named in his honour, announced a few races (badly), scarfed down dozens of Queens Plate Barbeques, ridden quarterhorses, watched in the stands at Churchill Downs as Awesome Again won the Breeders Cup Classic and he has been honoured with two Sovereign Awards from the  Jockey Club of Canada for best feature story. In February of 2020, Gross began producing and hosting the weekly Down The Stretch podcast which is easily found on Toronto Mike, Stitcher, Apple and IheartRadio.

Eleanor LeBlanc

Associate Editor

...is a long-time horse racing fan whose experiences run the gamut from witnessing astounding victories like Secretariat's Triple Crown triumphs to the heartbreak of Ruffian's life-ending injury during her match race with Foolish Pleasure. It was a serendipitous turn of fate when she made the acquaintance of Peter Gross in 2005 when his car broke down in front of her house and he came to her door, asking for the phone number of a tow truck. Their friendship has flourished because of their mutual interest in horse racing and has culminated in the decision to produce Down The Stretch. When she's not applying her skills to the paper, Eleanor can be found at the barn, or in the vertebrate palaeontology lab at the Royal Ontario Museum where she is a part-time preparator, working on dinosaurs. Eleanor has two adult children, daughter Kate and son Pete, and a grandson, Jack.  Eleanor lives in the country, just a few furlongs up the highway from Woodbine Racetrack.

Gord Steventon

Art Director

...in his 50 years in marketing, discovered early that to be able to successfully deploy his acumen of disdain and indifference for fellow workers, he had to attain a senior position.  He did and, in less than 10 years in packaged goods marketing with international companies, became a VP.  Now he was free to forget names, positions, and call everyone Bob, because it was one of the few names he could spell.  Somehow he sustained a salary for 40 years until he was sent to jail by a judge (he can’t remember her name) and fined over one million dollars Canadian (so about $8.57 US).  Through a mutual friend (can’t remember his name) he met Peter Gross, and now Gord does stuff for DTS.  When not doing stuff for DTS he drinks, a lot…

Rob Gabriele

Webmaster

...is a fibre optic splicer, filmmaker, graphic artist & drummer/songwriter in a Grammy Nominated band.  He's married and has five cats.