Coleman Hits 1,000-Win Milestone

For those that find employment within the standardbred racing industry, there is one thing that virtually every horseman or woman can relate to: the grind.

Be it extensive early hours in the barn, to clocks that seemingly go backward during paddock evenings. Be it long trips trucking stock or lengthy lulls between assignments, the grind can cause some to lose perspective. With the task at hand always in full view, sometimes it is tough to see much else.

It is safe to say that two-time O'Brien Award winning trainer Casie Coleman fits the mould of a horseperson well initiated to the grind. Always setting goals for the stable, Coleman and her staff always shoot high, and usually aren't far off target, either.

Since the 28-year-old resident of Cambridge, Ont. maintains a hectic schedule, which includes overseeing a relatively new satellite stable in New Jersey, Coleman may need to be excused since the grind blurred her vision of a major career milestone: 1,000 training wins.

"I didn't realize I was that close," Coleman told Trot Insider this afternoon, after one of her students, Race Track Ruler, brought her stable the significant victory Saturday, December 13 at the Meadowlands Racetrack. "I knew I was coming up on the milestone -- I had checked some time ago -- but someone actually had to give me the heads up that we hit it."

Blame it on the grind.

Coleman had been enjoying some well-deserved time off, a one-week trip to Las Vegas, when the five-year-old Lease On Life gelding tripped the Meadowlands clock on Saturday. "I wish I would've known. I wish I could've been there," said Coleman, who explained that she is hoping her New Jersey operation will crack the leaderboard at the Meadowlands in '09.

"This season for me has been absolutely unreal," she explained. "My barn has earned over $5 million in purses for the first time in its existence. My help has been tremendous and so far every year we've been doing a little better. I've been very happy with the year."

Having come to Ontario only a few years ago, Coleman and her stable cut its teeth racing in the province's overnights. Big stakes wins came with time, but Coleman told Trot Insider that she is hoping to add a new repertoire to her stable going forward.

"I've got lots of babies -- 13 in the barn and 15 turning three next year. I'm hoping to be able to get a lot of these younger horses in shape for some of the bigger two and three-year-old stakes. The Meadowlands Pace, the North America Cup and the Little Brown Jug are just some of the races I would really like to be a part of next year."