Despite being a third generation horseman, James Atkinson was a heavy equipment operator up until 10 years ago when the lure of his roots became too hard to resist
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The 57-year-old native of Jackson, New Jersey now resides on a farm in Georgetown, Delaware, and will send out Connie Lauxmont in Friday’s $44,500 final of the Charles Singer Memorial at the Meadowlands Racetrack. The three-year-old colt by Conway Hall has drawn Post 10 (program No. 7) and has been rated as the 7-2 third choice in the morning line in Race 4.
“My grandfather and father were both in the business, yet I wasn’t,” Atkinson recalled. “When my father passed away several years ago, I got asked to start out as a groom, but I refused at the time. I decided to go to school to be a welder, and then I was a heavy equipment operator. Eventually, I got more interested in the horses again, but I had to get some capital in order to get started. I began with a couple of $10,000 claimers and I had very good luck with them here in Delaware. However, there were some good times and some rough times."
From humble beginnings, Connie Lauxmont blossomed into a New York Sires Stakes contender for Atkinson. “This colt was a $4,100 yearling a friend of mine purchased, and I bought him off my friend for $17,500. I had followed the horse, took him for a test drive and bought him early last spring. We were patient with him as a two-year-old and he got sick a few times. I just didn’t want to push him and he’s come along nicely. He’s eligible for the New York Sires Stakes. He raced in it a bit last year and he’ll do fine again. The key is he’s been doing it now quite easily and you want him to build confidence.”
Connie Lauxmont shipped in on a three-race winning streak at Dover Downs before making it four in a row in the first leg of the Charles Singer Memorial Series. “Last week, he cut the mile and just got beat by a nose, so we’re very proud of him. He improved almost two seconds from his win in the first leg and kicked home strong. We couldn’t have asked for any more. He’s very level headed and anybody could handle him. Post 10 is going to be tough, but we’ll have to leave that up to Brian Sears. He’s got his work cut out for him. My theory is if we get a four or five-hole trip we can make a race out of it.”
Atkinson and his wife, Carol, have 18 horses stabled on their farm just outside Harrington, Delaware. He has a dozen in training, along with several broodmares and one stallion, Impel Hanover, who won a division of the 2010 Horse & Groom and finished second by a nose in the final at the Meadowlands. Atkinson works his horses over a red clay training track.
“What I do with all of our horses is train them by themselves with nobody else here. I try to train a decent trip and pick up speed coming the final quarter. My track is six-tenths of a mile with five-eighths turns, and it’s all red clay. When I purchased the farm the track looked like a wagon path and it was about a foot deep with sand. I had an excavator dig it all up and found a vein of red clay. It’s absolutely perfect and really helps take out the shock on their feet.
“Plus, I shoe all of my horses, and that’s important to me. I watched somebody do it once and I decided I could do it myself. We bought all of the equipment and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
(Meadowlands)