Oaklawn Park: Chleborad gets 1,000th win as trainer

Lynn Chleborad got the 1,000th win of her training career Friday at Oaklawn Park when The Rock Rolls rallied to capture the 10th race by 2 3/4 lengths. Alex Birzer was aboard for longtime Chleborad client Poindexter Thoroughbreds. The Rock Rolls, racing in a $16,000 claiming sprint, paid $11.60.

Chleborad is a Nebraska native whose first training win came in the state at Lincoln on Oct. 9, 1987. She said reaching the milestone has a great deal of personal meaning.

“I never really realized what it was until I got to thinking about it,” she said. “When I left Nebraska, they said Lynn, ‘You’re never going to make it.’ And I said, ‘You know what? I can always go home.’

“I’ve had wonderful owners and wonderful people to support me, and my jocks are great – just all the people, and horses, and everything that stuck with me through the good and the bad. And that’s what I think, and I appreciate it, and it’s fun.”

Chleborad, who showed horses in her youth, seemed likely for an accounting career after being a candidate for a job with a major firm right out of college. But she decided against the 9-to-5 life.

“I always liked the horses,” she said in an interview last year with Daily Racing Form. “I wanted to do something that I liked. Life’s too short.”

Chleborad began galloping for noted Nebraska trainer Herb Riecken. Since going out on her own, she has had a number of stakes winners, including Beat the Stats and American Sugar. In 2009, she won the spring training title at Prairie Meadows.

Chleborad races primarily at Prairie Meadows, Oaklawn Park, and Remington Park.