LAUREL, Md.--Keri Brion had four winners in one week, including two in one day at Laurel Park.
Fun Lovin Criminal (Photo by James McCue)
Graham Motion had five winners, including a first and a third in an allowance race at Delaware Park, and Liz Merryman, Michael Matz and Bernie Houghton also had winners.
At Laurel on June 28, Brion had two winners, including Fun Lovin Criminal in a $29,290, 1 mile Starter Optional Claiming race and Summer Anthem in a $28,580 1 mile Claiming race on the turf.
Rising Sun Racing Stables' Fun Loviin Criminal won by a nose after going three wide on the turn and fighting with determination to the wire.
The 4-year-old gelding obviously did have fun being criminal because Brion got him when other trainers couldn't get him to train.
Fun Lovin Criminal came to me because he wouldn't train," said Brion."We got him going."
"Jonathan Sheppard used to get horses that wouldn't train," said Brion, who had been Jonathan Sheppard's assistant trainer. "We made it fun for them. So we took Fun Lovin Criminal out back at Fair Hill. We rode him up and down the hills and turned him out every day. It was a long time before we tried him on the track again. He's still a little funny, but he's a fighter in a race."
"He was claimed from us, and we claimed him back," said Brion. "He's won twice since then. We'll try him in an allowance at Laurel next."
THE FIRST year Brion went out as a trainer, she was leading steeplechase trainer, but since then has sent out more flat runners than jumpers.
"I've grown my flat stable," said Brion. "That's the way you can make a living. I found out that imported horses from England and Ireland don't stay sound for long over here on the hard going. So now I'm focusing on taking nice flat horses and making them into jumpers. I have three entered at Colonial on opening steeplechase day."
"It's been working out well with the flat horses," she said. "With jump racing, it's hard to make a living."
On Saturday, June 29, Brion saddled Rugby Road, bred by Sheppard, to win a $22,000, 1 mile and 70 yards turf Maiden Claiming race by a length at Delaware Park.
"I got Rugby Road last year," said Brion. "Paul Willis realized the sentiment in my having a Sheppard bred horse, so he bought him for me out of a dispersal sale. He's a typical Sheppard homebred, he won't be good until he's 6. He did nothing a a 3-year-old. I rode his dam Brilliant Match when I was at Sheppard's. We'll run him on the flat for experience and then start him over fences."
Brion also saddled Three Diamonds Farm's Launch Control to win a $75,00, 6 furlong Maiden Special Weight for 3-year olds and up by 4 1/2 lengths at Belmont and claimed Momma's Lino at Laurel.
MOTION had five winners in late June, including three in maiden races.
On June 27 at Delaware Park, Motion saddled Newstead Stables' For Flying to win a $42,000,1 1/16 mile Allowance Optional Claiming race on the turf and also saddled Mrs.Fitriani Hay's Priyanka to finish third.
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Warming won a $90,000, 6 furlong Maiden Special Weight for 2-year-old fillies on the turf by 2 1/4 lengths.
Boardshorts' Sharedashenanigans won a $47,000, 5 furlong Maiden Special Weight for 2-year-0ld fillies by 1 1/4 lengths on June 22, and The Estate of Albert Frassetto's Cinder Black won a $47,900 Maiden Special Weight for 3-, 4-, and 5 year olds by 5 3/4 lengths on June 29, both at Laurel.
Motion also saddled James Bakke and Gerald Isbister's Smooching to win a $16,150 Maiden Claiming race by 2 1//2 lengths at Presque Isle on June 25.
MERRYMAN had three winners, beginning with Hasting Farm's Jean Valjean in a $38,400, 5 furlong Allowance Optional Claiming turf race by 5 lengths at Penn National on June 19.
Merryman also saddled her own Mission Man to win a $48,000, 1 1/16 mile Allowance turf race by 1 1/4 lengths at Laurel on June 23 and Greyledge Thoroughbreds' Princess Javoncia in a $29,900, 1 mile Starter Optional Claiming turf race by 1 3/4 lengths at Laurel on June 28.
MATZ saddled DDMatz' Arch Street to win a $40,250, 6 furlong Maiden Special Weight for 3-year-old fillies by 1 1/4 lengths on June 27.
HOUGHTON had a winner with his mother's Sylmar Farm's Chapa, who won a $37,200, 6 furlong Allowance race by 9 lengths at Penn National on June 19.
