Over the past decade, Diamond Creek Farm has burst onto the North American harness racing scene with great success, both on the track and in the breeding shed, while developing a broodmare band to envy.

Now, with a stallion roster that gets more impressive each year, they appear bound for glory on that side of the business as well. Meet Adam Bowden... the man behind this fast-growing equine nursery. By Chris Lomon

ADAM BOWDEN (3rd from left) and his team AT THE STANDARDBRED HORSE SALES COMPANY sale IN HARRISBURG

One of his earliest horse racing memories had him coming out on the losing end, so to speak, but there’s no doubt Adam Bowden has found the winning formula for success through his Diamond Creek Farm.

Years before he rose to prominence in the standardbred world, a pre-teen Bowden had much more modest pursuits in mind whenever he’d accompany his younger brother, and father, Chris, to the racetrack.

“My earliest memories of the sport are running around the Scarborough Downs and Lewiston Raceway track aprons with my brother picking up ‘losing’ discarded tickets,” recalled Bowden, who was born in Portland, Maine, before moving to Kentucky when he was 23. “We played a game to see who could end the day with the highest amount of ‘losing’ money. In hindsight, my brother must have been smarter than I was because not only was he younger but more diligent in his selections. I ran wild picking up as many tickets (and germs) as possible while my brother cautiously and meticulously picked the biggest ‘losers’ and won every time.”

His fortunes have changed greatly since those days.

Bowden knew he was destined to be involved in standardbreds – there was never any doubt in his mind. As in what role, there was a time he wasn’t so sure.

“I guess I was born with it,” he offered. “I realized it at a very early age. My father took me to the Cumberland Fair, which was our hometown track, when I was four and some of my earliest memories are driving back and forth to Lewiston Raceway with my father. My math lessons were figuring out quarter splits and win payoffs. My father and grandfather had a few racehorses while I was younger but they primarily raced on the fair circuit in Maine.”

It was a job during Bowden’s collegiate days that further fueled his passion for all things standardbred.

“During college I interned at Hanover Shoe Farms for two summers,” Bowden recalled. “It was arguably the best job I ever had until I went to work for myself. I learned something from everyone I came in contact with and it became an invaluable learning experience. To this day, I still value the time I spent there and the people I worked with.”

It was 2005 when Diamond Creek Farm, owned by Adam and his father - who is in the commercial real estate business – burst onto the North American standardbred scene, with the purchase of a farm in the horse-rich hills of Paris, Kentucky.

They have since added a farm in Wellsville, Pennsylvania, where some of the sport’s most recognizable stars are now stationed.

Success came quickly for Diamond Creek through its regally-bred broodmare band.

The farm has bred, raised or sold some of the sport’s most accomplished colts and fillies, including Archangel, Vertical Horizon, Valentino, Big Rigs, Ultimate Cameron, Swan For All, A Rocknroll Dance, and Naughtytiltheend.

The list of top-tier performers doesn’t end there, with the ever-growing stallion roster at Diamond Creek getting more impressive annually.

Dan Patch and O’Brien Award-winning trotter Father Patrick, Ponder, sire of Bolt The Duer and Breeders Crown champion Thinking Out Loud, Meadowlands Pace winner A Rocknroll Dance, and Sweet Lou, the only horse to win six consecutive races in sub-1:48, all stand stud at Diamond Creek’s Pennsylvania farm.

“I’m honoured and thrilled all at the same time,” offered Bowden. “I have been very fortunate and have worked hard to bring the farm along since its infancy and to be trusted now with many of the sport’s young stars, I couldn’t be more humbled. When we first started, standing stallions was always the eventual goal but it took longer to get to this point than we originally thought. But it has been worth the struggle.”

Next year, Southwind Frank, Creatine and Always B Miki will be added to the Diamond Creek band.

It was in early October when the announcement was made that world champion and multiple stakes winner Always B Miki, who holds the distinction of winning three races in 1:47 in a single season – no other horse has more than one 1:47 or faster mile in the same season – will be retired to stud duty at the end of his 2016 racing campaign.

“Miki is a stunning individual with the sheer speed to complement it,” raved Bowden. “(Trainer) Jimmy Takter summed it up simply by saying he is the fastest horse he has been around and to have him prove it on a big stage like Kentucky Futurity Day in front of the world, it couldn’t have been scripted more perfect. Well before we considered him as a future stallion, his runner-up finish in the Meadowlands Pace was as great a race as I can remember seeing and it was the first time I had to sit back in awe while watching a horse lose. I think it was a greater performance than watching Somebeachsomewhere lose to Art Official in the Meadowlands Pace.

“What Miki has been able to overcome is nothing short of astonishing and his story could one day find itself being scripted for a Hollywood movie. Guts, glory, brilliance, determination. Very rarely does a horse rise up to the pinnacle of the sport only to be knocked back down not once but twice with a broken leg to return to the top and pace a mile faster than any other horse in history. I’m grateful to the ownership group that we were given an opportunity to showcase this horse as he enters the next chapter in his career, one that has a chance to be greater than the one he is about to complete.”

There is also the story of Pure Country, Creatine and Divine Caroline.

Diamond Creek put its name in the record book after all three horses won their respective Breeders Crown races on October 24, 2015 at Woodbine, becoming the only breeder to have three winners on one Crown card. And in the case of Creatine and Pure Country, Bowden’s name is also down on the ownership papers as well.

Pure Country took the Two-Year-Old Filly Pace, Creatine triumphed in the Open Trot and Divine Caroline took all the spoils in the Three-Year-Old Filly pace.

“Homebred champions are very similar to watching your kids compete in the Olympics and win a gold medal,” noted Bowden. “Having inseminated the mares, been there for the foalings, been there when, in Creatine’s case, no one else wanted him, and then being there when they cross the line first in a Breeders Crown race, I don’t know how you can top it. Creatine was the first great homebred that we had, and watching him overcome the adversity of being an unwanted yearling - multiple people turned down not only the ability to train him but own him for free - to become a top flight trotter here and in Europe, has been very gratifying.”

“With Pure Country, the opposite is true,” he continued. “She has been good from the beginning. She was the mare’s fourth foal but a bigger, better version of anything she had produced up to that point. Jimmy Takter agreed to train her, she was undefeated at two, and is arguably the best at three (although Nancy and the Darlinonthebeach’s connections would beg to differ), winning a majority of the major stakes for three-year old fillies. She has been an absolute blessing and a thrill to be a part of.”

So, too, was that October night at Woodbine Racetrack.

“The 2015 Breeders Crown was the greatest night I’ve ever had in racing and was the greatest night by a breeder in Breeders Crown history,” said Bowden. “I was fortunate and blessed to be able to share that night with my mother and father. Enough said.”

Bowden is grateful for all of the successes, but driven to experience more of them.

The past two years have yielded an abundance of accomplishments. The future could hold even greater achievements for Diamond Creek.

But what is it that truly motivates Bowden to be a mainstay in the standardbred industry?

“The thrill of winning, whether it’s on the track or in the breeding shed or making the right decision that saves a horse’s life,” he offered. “Someone else said it first, but ’there is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.’”

Outside of the long hours dedicated to Diamond Creek, Bowden endeavors to stay as fit as his equines.

“I still like to compete,” he said. “I run, swim, bike, or do all three at once when I’m not injured, which seems to be more of a problem now than it used to be.”

Not the end of the world for a man committed to ensuring his Diamond is always a cut above.