Jeff Stafford, who has been the private trainer at White Birch Farm in central New Jersey since January 2001, is in the process of opening a public stable
.
"I'm training a few horses for White Birch until everything is in order here and I'm starting to take outside horses," Stafford said. "If there's room here (at White Birch) I'll stay here, otherwise I may have to go somewhere else. But I'll still be in the area."
Stafford, a 40-year-old native of Voorhees, New Jersey, is probably best known as the trainer of multi-millionaire pacing mare Darlins Delight. His grandfather, Randall, got the family started in harness racing. Other family members, such as Stafford's father, Alvin, and brother, Jody, followed.
This year marked the fifth consecutive season Stafford's trainees earned at least $715,000 and he twice topped $1 million during that span. This also was his fifth straight campaign with a trainer's rating of better than .300, and the sixth time he surpassed the mark in the last seven years.
Stafford worked at White Birch Farm in the mid-1990s, under trainer Brian Magie, before heading to Delaware. He took over at White Birch when Magie opened a public stable in 2001.
In addition to Darlins Delight, who won the 2006 Dan Patch Award as harness racing's best three-year-old filly pacer, Stafford's stakes-winners included Allamerican Raquel, Caviar Cream Puff, Queen OTRA, Racing Star, Rough Ruffles, Vegas Style, Worldly Treasure and Yankee Lacey.
Darlins Delight, now 6, has won 34 of 75 races and $3 million in her career. Her future is uncertain.
"She's turned out right now and we're just playing it by ear with her," Stafford said.
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This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S.
Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com. *