Harness: Saying goodbye to the hard-working 14-year-olds

The music is just about over for the careers of 30 or so 14-year-old Standardbreds who are still competing on a daily basis in the United States. Despite their age, many are still performing quite well and some are even in career form as the sun begins to set on their on-track days.

You see, when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, as the world celebrates the eternal hope of a new year, all newly minted 15-year-olds will be forced into mandatory retirement.

A total of 84 horses at the age of 14 competed in the U.S. in 2019. There are most certainly great stories connected to all of their careers as well as nearly $30 million in combined earnings. We’ll focus on three from the group that caught our eye.

Big Red Machine

Most likely you’ve never heard of T Red. A son of Cams Eclipse from an Armbro Aussie mare named Al’s Honey, T Red was bred by Mark Matthews, who retained ownership until June 2008. Larry Jones would hold the papers until 2009 when trainer Henry Gulley took control of the horse and embarked on a decade-long journey.

First as just owner and then later in T Red’s sophomore year as trainer as well, Gulley skillfully managed the gelding to one profitable year after another while competing mostly on the Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario circuits during many pre-slot years when purses were much weaker. T Red reeled off 10 straight years of at least $32,000 in earnings and has amassed $479,673 in his career.

“I purchased him for $800,” recalled Gulley, who added that T Red still has the fire in his belly to compete. “He still acts the same. He’s fired up all the time. He hasn’t changed a bit, just got a little older.”

T Red has answered the call to the post 42 times so far in 2019 and an astonishing 476 times in his 12-year career. During that span he recorded 104 wins, good for a tie for 15th on the all-time list. He also chipped in with 66 seconds and 73 thirds for an on-the-board rate north of 50%.

“When he retires I’m going to retire,” said the 73-year-old Gulley. “It’s been wonderful, really wonderful. I hate to see it come to an end, but all things must come to an end.”

T Red made his final start in Michigan on December 14 at Northville Downs and finished third. He was then honored in the winner’s circle for his career achievements. Whether he races again in 2019 is still up in the air.

“Monticello called me because they have a race for 14-year-olds (Au Revoir) and he’s supposed to call me back. I’m considering it,” said Gulley. “He’s been racing pretty decent. He had a couple of rough trips the last couple of weeks, but he tries hard every time he goes out there.”

Whether he makes the long trek to New York for the Au Revoir or not, T Red will settle in with Gulley when it’s all over.

“He’s like one of the kids or something,” said Gulley. “He’ll still be around the farm.”

The top trotter

Elias Joy came to the U.S. from Germany in 2011 for owner Jesmeral Stable. He would spend three years in the stable of trainer Don Sider before moving to the Monique Cohen barn in 2015. In June 2017, the son of Floritas Hero L-Armbro Dia was claimed for $5,000 by owner/trainer Stephen DeVincent before Andrew Gannon became his third and final stateside owner in September 2018.

Elias Joy had some moderate success racing in Western New York to close out 2018 and into 2019 when Bob Lounsbury was given a call by Gannon in March of this year to see if he would train the 14-year-old to close out his career. Since that moment, Elias Joy has won a mind-boggling 17 races in 36 starts and finished on the board 30 times. His victory total in 2019 exceeds the number of wins he secured from 2012 to 2018 combined (17 to 16).

“I’ve had a lot of horses for the owner and we’ve had pretty good luck, so I said ‘we’ll take a shot’,” said Lounsbury. “He just came right around. I think we have him in the right spot and he’s just happy doing what he is doing.”

Perhaps the greatest proof of Elias Joy’s zeal to race came in his start on December 10 at Monticello. Despite making a break leaving from post one, the trotter recovered in the safety lane to resume position at the back of the pack and swept the field from last at the three-quarter pole to win going away.

“Elias Joy looks like a 7-year-old. Why do we need to retire a horse like this? He doesn’t need any vet work. He’s just really a nice horse and he’s very productive,” said Lounsbury about the pending retirement. “He’s grown attached to everyone in my barn. He’s a typical stud. He’s a little crabby. He wants to breed to every mare in the barn. He hollers and carries on. After a while you get used to it.”

Including his overseas work, Elias Joy has 61 wins for earnings of $254,898. As to where he’ll go when the racing chapter of his life is complete, amazingly, Lounsbury suggested stallion duty could be an option.

“I’ve had several people inquire about breeding to him,” said Lounsbury. “A guy in North Carolina asked about breeding five broodmares to him and another guy from Maine asked about registering him as a stud up there.”

Elias Joy has picked up a big fan base at the windows and also on the backstretch. “I’ve gone over him because I do Bob’s vet work and that horse is miraculously sound. He doesn’t have a pimple on him,” said Dr. John Kokinos.

Millionaire Pacer Retiring

Kokinos is also one of the people behind another retiring 14-year-old that is ending his career with a bang. Lucky Man, a career earner of $1,278,110, has won two of his last three starts and eight of 43 trips to the track in 2019 for co-owner, driver and trainer Jennifer Lappe, wife of Kokinos.

Lappe has owned Lucky Man along with Patrick Laiso since February 2015 when the pair claimed the veteran performer for $12,500 at Yonkers Raceway. They would lose the horse in April for a $20,000 price but claimed the horse back the following week and never lost him again.

“Jennifer was a fan of Lucky Man for quite a while,” said Kokinos, who has been the listed trainer on the gelding for a few dozen starts over the last four years. “If you look at Jennifer’s stable, she’s a fan of most of her horses way before she got them, because most of them are former great horses. That is really what we specialize in.

“I think that Jennifer has the oldest stable racing on the planet. She races multiple 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, a 14-year-old, and she really prides herself in this, but we’ve never had one make it to the very end. These last group of starts are really important. They are important to Jenn and they are important to me. It is the pride of actually doing it. We are proud that we manage horses well and they last a long time.”

Lucky Man was indeed a top-notch horse at the start of his career, earning over $200,000 in each of his 3, 4 and 5-year-old seasons for trainer Casie Coleman. Even when his best days were done, he still competed in upper level conditioned races through his middle-aged racing years before switching to mostly claimers more recently. Through it all, he has consistently won races.

“Believe it or not, Lucky Man is probably sounder now than he was five years ago when we got him,” said Kokinos. “This whole retirement thing is really kind of goofy. There’s really nothing wrong with ‘Lucky’ or that trotter Elias Joy. I don’t know what the rationale is for the 15-year-old thing, but no one is really going to get a 16-year-old out of the field to race them if they change the rule. Very few horses make it to 10, 11, 12 or 13, even. Along the way something happens, they have an injury or they become uncompetitive. But there are a few that are just really good and should be allowed to keep racing.”

Only recently has Lappe dropped Lucky Man into cheaper claiming races, to as Kokinos put it, “let him go out with a winning streak.” That streak ended on December 19 when he was third from the eight-hole at Monticello and going out a winner could be difficult as well since he is expected to face a solid field including Flem N Em N, a winner of over $940,000 himself, Lightning Raider N, a career earner of nearly $660,000, and others in the Au Revoir race for 14-year-olds scheduled for December 27 at Monticello.

When his racing days are over, Lucky Man will settle in with an old friend with his current trainer. “We kept his brother, Thisguysarockstar. They aren’t full brothers, but they are both out of Under Her Spell. Believe it or not, they happen to really like each other. They were turnout partners for quite a while. We kept him around because we figured someday these two would retire together. If somebody comes along that wants them both, we’ll let them go, but otherwise they’ll stay with us,” said Kokinos.

Lucky Man was not the richest 14-year-old to retire in 2019. That distinction goes to Mccedes, who started last in July with $1,337,082 earned. The fastest and winnigest-in-2019 is Anderlecht, who has 18 wins this year and a career mark of 1:48.

It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to these equine warriors who put it all on the line for us each week. We’ve watched them win, we’ve screamed at the top of our lungs to encourage them, and most certainly we’ve been disappointed by them a time or two. But in the end our hats go off to these horses for going the distance and helping to make Harness Racing a great sport.