were down to $608,000 USD. The 2008 season would be the last season that Knob Hill Stables won a major stake competition. Over the next four years the breeding program Stavro championed would slow and overall stable inventory dropped sharply. The horses still racing were mainly holdovers from the 2007/2008 season. 2012 would be the last year that the Stable entered horses into racing competitions. In its 40 year career Knob Hill Stable proved to be one of the premiere Canadian stables. Throughout its history it produced 85 stakes winners that raced throughout North America and Europe. Knob Hill Stables remains one of the few Canadian stables to win the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association award for the top owner horse breeder in North America. Toronto Maple Leafs – Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Steve Stavro's interest in hockey started many decades before he would eventually become the majority owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1962 his grocery store sponsored the Toronto Knob Hill Farms junior ice hockey team in the fledgling Metro Junior A League. While the league would only last two seasons it featured a number of future hockey stars, including a 14 year old Bobby Orr. Stavro's next foray into Toronto hockey management was in 1973 when he purchased a minority interest in the Toronto Toros hockey club of the World Hockey Association. Although the Toros team would move to Birmingham, Alabama after the 1976 season, Stavro's tenure with the team would provide valuable sports management experience for his future endeavors. A long-time friend of Toronto Maple Leafs’ majority owner, Harold Ballard, Stavro had served as a director of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. Together with the other two Maple Leaf Gardens’ directors, Don Giffin, and Don Crump, Stavro served as an executor of the Ballard estate following Ballard's death on April 11, 1990. In the period between Ballard's death and October 1991, Stavro, Giffin and Crump assumed all management responsibilities for the entire organization. At that time, Stavro became chairman of the board of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. and Governor of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey club. In the same year, Stavro repaid a $20 million loan that had been extended to Ballard in 1980 by Molson Brewery, which also owned the Leafs’ bitter rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. In return for repaying the loan, Stavro was granted an option to buy Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd.’s shares