O’Connell saddles 2,500th winner

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Kathleen O’Connell reached another milestone in her terrific, sometimes underrated career when Thirty Thou Kelvin won Wednesday’s third race at Saratoga, giving her 2,500 victories.

“It’s huge, even I have no comprehension of it,” O’Connell, in a rare visit to Saratoga, said in the winner’s circle. “I came up from Detroit, ponied, I galloped – Billy Mott was galloping horses back then in Detroit, that’s how long [ago] it was. My dad was a Detroit policeman for 25 years . . . to come from nobody that had anything to do with horses is amazing.”

O’Connell, 72, became the sport’s all-time winningest female trainer on March 12, 2023, surpassing Kim Hammond’s total of 2,385 winners. O’Connell, who races mainly in Florida and New Jersey, will likely soon be surpassed by Linda Rice, who has a larger stable and who entered Wednesday’s card at Saratoga with 2,486 career wins.

“She has a whole lot more horses than me, I’m in no contest,” O’Connell said. “I think the greatest thing about my years in racing is that we were very consistent, what I’d call blue collar. There were years when we didn’t even have a stake horse, and I usually never carry more than 50 to 60 horses, even when I’m at two places.”

:: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports straight from the morning workouts at the track. Available every race day.

O’Connell hadn’t won a race in Saratoga since 2015 when Lady Shipman won the Smart N Fancy Stakes. Thirty Thou Kelvin represented just O’Connell’s eighth starter at Saratoga over the last nine meets.

“We don’t like to go to a gunfight with a knife,” O’Connell said. “We try and come prepared, and she had had a steady diet of nothing but stakes.”

Despite dropping out of stakes company into an allowance race, Thirty Thou Kelvin was sent off at odds of 25-1 and returned $53.50 to win. O’Connell said she was surprised when she saw the price.

“I thought I was an okay handicapper,” O’Connell said. “Maybe I’ll have to revisit this.”

No, that won’t be necessary.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.