Shirer on fire at Fair Grounds

La Femme Royale won the featured eighth race Thursday at Fair Grounds as a 5-1 shot, but her victory shouldn’t have been surprising.

Matt Shirer trains La Femme Royale, and Shirer, 15 starts into this Fair Grounds season, has won more times than he’s lost. La Femme Royal’s tally ran his record this meet to 8-3-1. Shirer’s return on $2 win investments so far at Fair Grounds is $10.92.

Shirer, a 34-year-old Cleveland-area native, went into racing after earning an animal science degree at Ohio Wesleyan University. He worked for Jevon Crumley in Ohio before becoming a foreman for trainer Ken McPeek and eventually going out on his own in 2015. Shirer had only 34 runners during all of 2018 but boosted his 2019 starters all the way to 121, winning 30 races. He had 10 horses last winter at Fair Grounds and now trains a string of 20. His operation got a boost last year when he began claiming for Ten Strike Racing.

“It’s starting to snowball a little bit, finally,” Shirer said. “I’ve been getting more and more phone calls.”

If he keeps winning with more than half his starters, Shirer will need to procure a second telephone.