Kevin Reynolds knows exactly what Andy Warhol was talking about. When Reynolds’ pacer Really Rockin won the first race at Freehold Raceway on New Year’s Day – the first harness race of 2011 – Reynolds was the leading trainer in North America
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“For 15 minutes,” he said, laughing.
Reynolds’ 15 minutes of fame were good enough.
“I just enjoy the horses,” Reynolds said. “If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. Even if you’re not making money, you’ve got to enjoy it. I like to race. I like to see them go around the track.
“We just want to get a check every start. You don’t have to win every start, because you’re not going to.”
Reynolds is a third generation horseman from Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, not far from Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in northeast Pennsylvania. His late grandfather, Paul Reynolds, worked with horses on a full-time basis and his father, Robert Sr., did it part time.
Prior to last year, Robert Jr. trained the majority of Reynolds’ horses. Now, Reynolds and his son, Kevin Jr., handle the duties. They have 14 horses, mostly stabled now at the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey.
Reynolds bought Really Rockin for $6,000 in November at the Standardbred Mixed Sale. The now five-year-old gelding was winless in 2010, but faced stakes company during his two- and three-year-old campaigns and earned $55,746 in his career to that point.
In his last start prior to the sale, Really Rockin was second at Balmoral Park in Chicago. He lost by a nose and paced the final half-mile in :55.1-seconds.
“We just took a shot and bought him,” Reynolds said. “All we did is correct his shoeing. I don’t try to be smarter than the guy before me. I think he’ll be a nice 20 [thousand-dollar]-claimer at Pocono.
“For now, we’ll race him in the conditions. He fits because he doesn’t have many wins. We don’t want to buy a horse that you have to race above your head. You want to race where you can compete.”
Really Rockin’s next start, Reynolds hopes, will be at the Meadowlands.
“I don’t know if he’ll pick up speed going to the big track. That’s what I want to find out,” Reynolds said. “Yonkers is close to where he’s stabled, but you have to deal with the traffic all the time. I’d rather race where I’m stabled.”
Reynolds expects to reduce his stable to six to eight horses as the year progresses.
“We want to get about six good horses, then I don’t have work so hard,” he said, laughing again. “That’s enough because then we can do it alone.”
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.