A 2-year-old Standardbred experiences many firsts when getting to the races including their first time in the harness, first trip to the track, first win, and more. It’s not uncommon to check off these first milestones in that freshman year, however it’s not every day that a first for the rookie performer is shared with the connections as well. Louprint, a 2-year-old son of Sweet Lou and the Rockin Image mare Rockin Racer, followed that blueprint exactly. Trained by Ron Burke, the colt won the $700,000 Breeders Crown Final on Oct. 25 at The Meadowlands Racetrack and in that pursuit, he not only achieved his largest race victory to date, but he also joined driver Ronnie Wrenn Jr. and caretaker Margaret Gillon in securing their first Breeders Crown trophies. Louprint was bred by owners Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, and Phillip Collura. He made his first on-track appearance in a qualifying session at The Big M, winning that mile by two lengths in 1:55 3/5. He followed that with a duplicate 1:55 3/5 mile two weeks later over the same Meadowlands surface. July 13 marked his first lifetime start Throughout Louprint’s 10-race career, Ronnie Wrenn Jr. has been the pilot in the bike. Together they have won seven races, finished second twice, and finished third once to set a perfect on-the-board tally. Louprint took his mark of 1:48 4/5 in the $400,000 Kentucky Sires Stakes Final at The Red Mile. He has accumulated $737,939 in his lifetime-to-date bankroll. On that Friday of the Crown weekend, Wrenn lined Louprint up in post nine in the field of 10. He rocketed from the outside post on a diagonal beeline to the front, achieving the early lead to the quarter in 27 1/5. Fallout (Tim Tetrick) took over to the half in 55 2/5 and three-quarters in 1:22 3/5 while Louprint accepted the pocket ride to the wire. Down the stretch, Louprint scooted to the center of the track with Fallout and stablemate Sippinonsearoc (Scott Zeron) to his inside. The trio of horses crossed the wire in unison with matching 1:49 1/5 finish times, but the photo finish proved Louprint the winner by a head over Sippinonsearoc. Wrenn started in harness racing when he was in college. He worked for his uncle’s stable, guided by Pete and Melanie Wrenn. “A lot of people think I’ve been in it since I was a kid, but that really wasn’t the case,” Wrenn said. “I started working for them during my early college years. Just like everyone, I got the bug and I wanted to be a driver.” In 2008, Wrenn made his first track appearance as a driver. Sixteen years later he has achieved over 8,300 career wins in the bike and has driven horses to $67.5 million in lifetime earnings. He lives near Northfield Park and races two nights a week there while also driving full-time at The Meadows. In the summers, he travels to various tracks to drive for Burke. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Wrenn said his highest purse-race entry to date has been the $1,000,000 Little Brown Jug in 2023 with a fourth-place finish in the elimination with Ervin Hanover, but his triumph with Louprint in the Breeders Crown is the biggest race he has won. “Just to be in the race with a legit shot of winning, I would say [with] Louprint in both the Kentucky Sires Stakes Finals and the Breeders Crown,” said Wrenn about the biggest race opportunities of his career. “It was a hard feeling to explain until you do something like that. I feel like I really accomplished something,” Wrenn added on his first Breeders Crown win. “I’m happy for the owners, they bred that horse and it means a lot to them to breed a horse and have it as a weanling all the way up to it starts racing. I’m sure it hits home a little bit more for Mark [Weaver] and Ronnie [Burke] and everyone else involved. “For me, it was a lot of things. It meant obviously a lot that my father-in-law and son were there. It was the first time I was in the Breeders Crown with a legit shot of winning. It was only my third Breeders Crown. That one was definitely the one I had a chance to win, but I knew it was going to be pretty difficult out of the nine-hole, but luckily I was able to get a good trip and it worked out. [I was] also relieved just to be able to get the job done; thinking I can and doing it are two different things. I think Ronnie and those guys have the trust in me, which is important.” Wrenn describes Louprint as a versatile horse that has been able to respond to anything on the track while driving. “He’s actually really easy to drive, which is great. It makes driving a great horse a lot easier. When they are a little bit one way or unmanageable, they need to be on the front, it isn’t always the easiest, especially in those races. It’s like a chess game, everyone is trying to get in perfect position,” Wrenn explained. “I can just drive him any way. Pretty much most of the year I didn’t leave aggressively with him, up until the Breeders Crown Final. I tripped him out, came off the pace, a couple of times I moved to the front. To have the ability to be versatile and race him any way is huge. He was the same way when I qualified him his first start. He responded well. Everything I asked him to do, he did.” Going forward, Wrenn looks ahead to what’s in store for Louprint as well as his own driving bucket list. “I got a lot of races on the bucket list now because of [Louprint]. Obviously, living in Ohio, the Jug is important to me. Races like the Milstein, and the Adios because the Meadows I consider my home track as of now. I’ve been in that race quite a bit for Ronnie, so to win a race like that would be great; the Meadowlands Pace, North America Cup, another Breeders Crown. Winning one of those is great but in another way it just makes you want to win more and more of them. That feeling never gets old. “I don’t want to jump the gun but there’s races I’m looking forward to next year with him. I think he’s going to be a horse to do it. Hopefully he comes back well and everything like that; he’s healthy. I think he’s going to have a shot in all those races,” Wrenn added. All in all, Wrenn emphasized his appreciation to be able to sit behind horses like Louprint and to be able to drive for the Burke Racing Stable. “The last five to six years or however long I’ve been driving for Ronnie, it’s an awesome opportunity. It’s been great to be able to drive for Burke and Weaver Bruscemi. We have developed a great relationship and they really have given me a lot of drives, not only in Ohio and PA but the Grand Circuit. Knowing that I have their trust to drive in big races not only means a lot to me but gives me a lot of confidence. It means a lot and I’m just looking forward to next season,” Wrenn concluded. Joining Wrenn in celebration for a first Breeders Crown triumph on the shoulders of Louprint is caretaker Margaret Gillon. Gillon has become a prominent name in harness racing as a caretaker after she not only won the Fair Island Farm Caretaker of the Year award in 2023, but she has taken care of some of the top horses in the business, including Atlanta [78: 37-21-6; $3,532,863; 1:49M], Celebrity Bambino [30: 10-4-5; $866,902; 1:50 4/5M], T C I [25: 17-3-1; $1,831,072; 1:50 4/5M], and Foiled Again [331: 109-70-46; $7,634,944; 1:48F] on his farewell tour. Gillon started in the harness racing business at the age of 19. “I was a waitress and long story short, there was a gentleman who came in with his two kids and he was one of my customers. He owned his own business but raced and owned horses part time. We just got talking and I told him how I went to OTB sometimes to pick names. I wasn’t involved in harness racing; I was just one of the people that would just go to the track sometimes. He said if I was in New Jersey, I could come see his horse race at The Meadowlands. At the end, he gave me his number and I didn’t call him or anything at first. A month later, I called him and met him at The Meadowlands. I’ve been in horse racing since then,” Gillon said. “I started going every weekend with him to watch his horse race. I started going to the farm with him on weekends just to clean stalls and brush horses. I started to jog and started to progress and then I’ve been in it ever since. I’m 42 now.” In January 2012, Gillon started working for Burke. Based out of Gaitway Farm in New Jersey, she currently takes care of seven horses and helps out around the barn with other tasks. “A lot of the grooms look up to me if they want something,” Gillon said. “I do the barn shopping for all the caretakers, besides doing my own horses and my own work. I try to help ‘Murph’ out as much as I can with the little things. If a groom needs a new buxton or a new pair of tendon boots, I’ll try to call our tack guy and order it for them. I make sure the grooms have clean and nice stuff. You want to have pride when you step in the paddock.” While majority of her horses race in stakes and Grand Circuit contests, Gillon also takes care of This Is The Plan [169: 30-37-20; $3,189,411; 1:47 3/5], who is now an overnight horse. “I don’t have any overnight horses but one,” Gillon said. “I’ve been with This Is The Plan through it all. We call him Jaws. He’s an overnight horse now, I’ve had him since he was 3. He has a world record of 1:47 on a half; probably in our lifetime we won’t ever see that be broke. The second I saw him in Lexington I knew this was my heart horse, I loved him. I ride him around the ring or the farm. The first time I put the saddle on him, it’s like he’s been riding his whole life.  “I’ve had plenty of horses that I liked and loved, but he is the horse that put me on the map. He made me want to work harder. I never got to the barn at 4:30 a.m. to turn out horses. He did that to me. He made me want to work harder. Every time he came off that track, it was like he was telling me tomorrow I’m going to work harder. He’s the one that put me on the stage at the Dan Patch and I thanked him for that.” Gillon accepted her Caretaker of the Year award at the Dan Patch in 2023. “The fact [Fair Island Farm] does that award every year for the caretakers is amazing. To let us participate on such a wonderful night,” Gillon said. “There’s no words. I couldn’t believe it. I had people that I worked with or that I knew that nominated me for it, I never asked anyone to write me a letter. I was just really touched. I felt so honored. “We run to the winner’s circle. We’re proud, we want the photo with our horse and sometimes the photo is the only thing we get,” Gillon added on the importance of caretakers. “I think they should mention the names of the caretakers with a little more ink [in the program] or a little announcement. [Caretakers] are very important.” As far as Louprint goes, Gillon sums him up as a sweet horse to work around, while still having his male tendencies. “He’s a sweetheart, but don’t get me wrong, he is a boy and has his moments,” Gillon explained. “When he’s on crossties, he can’t stand still. He’ll look at you and stand still for a moment and then do it all over again. He’s just a boy and he’s young. He’s a high-strung horse. He loves being out in the field, but you can’t leave him out for too long because he doesn’t know how to relax. He walks up and down the fence. He loves to eat. He loves to drink molasses in his water. He’s not much of a treat horse. You have to break it up into fine, fine little pieces for him to eat it. He won’t take a big molasses cookie or a carrot.” Outside of the winner’s circle after their milestone win, Gillon was met by Wrenn with a hug in celebration of their victory. “I don’t know Ronnie Wrenn personally. I know him from hearing of him and watching him race, but I don’t know him. The eliminations were the first time I talked to him and that was it,” Gillon said. “That hug meant so much to me. I didn’t have Louprint all year long, but for the short time I did have him, I really tried so hard to keep him sound, healthy, and happy. The Breeders Crown was something I was going after. “When he gave me that hug, I didn’t want to let go because I wanted to savor the moment. Not the hug, but the moment of us both winning the Crown together. That’s what made it so special. This driver was taking a second to say thank you and give me a hug, like I’m being recognized by the driver. It was amazing – I finally got a Crown and I got the driver thanking me for it. It was a great moment.” Along with photos and memories, Gillon was able to take home some Breeders Crown memorabilia to remember the win. “I kept everything from the Breeders Crown – the ribbon, the blanket, everything,” Gillon said. Going forward, Gillon has some bucket list race wins of her own to chase, including the Hambletonian. “I’d like to win the Hambletonian. I love trotters, but I never really went after that race. Since the last two years, getting beat with two favorites, I just really want to win the Hambo. And the other one is the Meadowlands Pace. I’ve been in that a few times,” Gillon said. Louprint, at the ripe age of 2 years old, has not only made his mark as a racehorse, but has made an imprint on the lives of Ronnie Wrenn Jr. and Margaret Gillon, giving each of them a Crown memory that will last a lifetime.