Runco becomes 12th trainer to win 4,000 races

Jeff Runco has long dominated the trainer standings at Charles Town and wrapped up his 12th consecutive title months ago. On Saturday, he sent out the 4,000th winner of his career when Vua Saigon won the fifth race at Laurel Park.

Vua Saigon, who was ridden by seven-pound apprentice Luis Rodriguez, paid $13.20 in the $16,000 claiming race

"This is one of the highlights of my career," Runco said. "It's nice to get it here at the big track, Laurel, but I am very grateful to my home track of Charles Town."

Runco is the 12th winningest Thoroughbred trainer in North American history. His horses have earned more than $48 million.

"My wife Susan is a big part of what we do," Runco said. "I've also had a number of great assistants."

Runco, 58, was raised in Omaha, Neb. He was a jockey for six years before he grew too heavy and turned to training in 1984. He sent out his first winner the following season at Charles Town.

Remarkably consistent throughout his career, Runco has won between 104 and 172 races every year since 1991, with the exception of 2005 when he won 87 times. He has 158 victories in 2017 and a career win average of 21 percent. He won his 3,000th race in 2011.

Runco has won 3,369 races at Charles Town, but he also has been successful at other Mid-Atlantic tracks, including Penn National , where he has 419 victories. Vua Saigon was his 72nd winner at Laurel Park.

Runco has 60 stakes wins, 55 of which have come at Charles Town. His lone graded victory came in the 2008 Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct with the best horse he has trained, Researcher.

From 2006-10, Researcher won 13 races and more than $1.3 million. In addition to the Queens County, he won the first two runnings of the Charles Town Classic in 2009 and 2010.

Runco keeps between 45 and 55 horses in training at Charles Town.

“That number works out good,” he said. “If an outfit has any more than that they really need to have a division at another track. If at some point we end up trimming things back here and start a second string, maybe in Florida, maybe in Maryland, we would increase the numbers. We have some really good owners.”

The Runcos own Coleswood Farm in nearby Ranson, W.Va. The horses they’ve bred on the 30-acre farm include In the Fairway, a 15-time winner of $570,000; Slip the Cable, who won 8 of 14 starts and $379,000; Sea Rescue, an earner of $414,000; Navy Chapel, the West Virginia-bred champion filly of 2011; and Dahlgren Hall, the champion statebred 2-year-old male of 2006.

“It’s really an all-purpose farm,” Runco said. “We keep five to six mares there, plus weanlings and yearlings. We send some horses there in between starts who don’t like to be at the track.

“Susan is really good at the breeding. She handles all of that.”

In the Fairway, who is 8, finished second in the Autumn Handicap at Charles Town on Thanksgiving night.

“He could run again next year, we’ll have to see, but he will have a great new career when he is finished racing,” Runco said. “Susan works with show horses, and he’ll get to try that. We have plans for him.”

Other top runners Runco has campaigned in recent years include Spa Creek and Bullets Fever.

Spa Creek, an 8-year-old mare, has won 10 of 36 starts and $368,000. She last raced in November and is scheduled to sell at the Keeneland January sale.

Bullets Fever went a perfect 8 for 8 in 2015-16 and earned $270,000 while winning five Charles Town stakes.

Runco has trained four West Virginia Breeders’ Classic winners – Slip the Cable in 2016; Sea Rescue in 2010; Coolmars in 2000; and E.B.F. Express in 1994.

Runco's latest emerging runner is the Maryland-bred Lewisfield, who is three for four in his career. On Saturday, he made his stakes debutat Laurel, finishing second in the $75,000 Howard Bender Memorial Stakes.