When John Stefanos heard that friend Ken Duffy named a horse after him, he was touched by the gesture. The fact the two-year-old male pacer, Coach Stefanos, has seen his career get off to a fast start with three wins in four races, makes it all the better, if not perhaps a little hokey for those involved.

“We talk about it all the time that, for lack of better words, it’s like a bad movie script,” Stefanos said with a laugh. “Who would buy it? What are the odds the horse would be this good? But it’s real. It’s a great story. It’s just been phenomenal.”

Stefanos, who lives in a suburb of Chicago, coached travel baseball for a number of years, which is how he met Duffy more than a decade ago.

“Our boys were six or seven years old, and I coached them for about eight years,” Stefanos said. “We basically had the same 10 or 11 boys on the team for most of that time and had a great experience, a great run of success, and got to be very close.

“It was extremely touching [Duffy named the horse] and obviously made me feel very good about how they felt their experience was and wanted to do something like that. Before the horse started racing, Ken asked if I wanted to get involved. I said I’d love to.”

Stefanos, a longtime horse racing fan who never before owned a horse, joined Duffy’s ownership group on Coach Stefanos. On Wednesday, they will watch Coach Stefanos go for his first Grand Circuit score in the $55,670 Fox Stakes at the Indiana State Fair. Trace Tetrick will be in the sulky for trainer Erv Miller.

“The horse is doing extremely well,” Stefanos said. “It’s been a great ride so far and we’re truly enjoying it. We feel like we have a great team — a great trainer and great driver, with Erv and Trace — and we’re just really happy with everything.

“Obviously, we’re all competitors, being involved in athletics our whole lives. And [the horse] is a fierce competitor. In those early races, you just love to see how he puts it in another gear more often than not. It’s impressive. It seems like he knows how to win.”

Duffy purchased Coach Stefanos, then named Watch This Tell, for $42,000 at last October’s Hoosier Classic Yearling Sale. He is a son of Tellitlikeitis-Watch N Be Watched, and his family includes 2009 U.S. Pacer of the Year and O'Brien Award divisional winner Well Said.

“I liked the breeding,” Duffy said. “If you look at him, he’s pretty well inbred from Well Said. He’s got Must See, Well Said’s dam on both sides, top and bottom. But Erv gave me a list of the colts he liked and he was in the top five. I had read a story in Harness Racing Update by Alan Leavitt where he said to have a great horse you have to close breed it. I figured I would take a shot; Erv liked the way he looked and I liked the breeding. He turned out to be a pretty good one.”

Coach Stefanos opened his career with back-to-back wins, including a 1:52.2 triumph in a race for Indiana-sired two-year-old male pacers at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. He then headed to the first leg of the Indiana Sire Stakes but went off stride in the first turn and was no factor. He rebounded in the second leg on July 28 to win by 1-1/2 lengths in 1:52.3 with a :25.3 last quarter.

“I like his versatility,” said Duffy, who has had horses with Miller for 20 years or so. “He’s come from way back and he’s won from basically on the pace. He’s pretty handy.”

Coach Stefanos has developed a following among kids and parents who know Stefanos and Duffy through athletics. Last month, their travel baseball team was playing in a tournament 30 miles from Hoosier Park, affording the opportunity to watch Coach Stefanos race on two occasions. The horse won one of the starts, leading to a packed winner’s circle.

“It’s amazing how many people ask when he’s racing,” said Stefanos, who no longer coaches travel baseball but is entering his fourth season as an assistant varsity football coach at Marist High School in Chicago. “It’s a great thing.”

Stefanos said he was at first a little nervous about having the horse named in his honour but can accept the pressure.

“The race where he broke stride, we had the biggest group out there,” Stefanos said with a laugh. “That’s a little tough when you’ve got the whole team there and everyone is looking. But that’s athletics. You don’t win them all. It’s like the life lessons you learn in athletics, about perseverance and getting yourself off the ground. He came right back with a big win the next race.

“Anything that’s worth anything in life comes with some pressure. So, it’s all good.”

Good enough to be a bad script that turns into a great story.

(USTA)