Veteran horseman Todd Warren joined another rank of elite reinsmen to reach the 4,000 mark in career driving victories on Thursday, September 18 at Maywood Park.
Warren, a resident of Beecher, Ill., guided three-year-old pacing filly Stage Star to a decisive five and a quarter-length victory in Maywood Park’s 10th race. The milestone victory was part of a big five-win night for the 49-year-old veteran of the Illinois circuit.
Born in Mattoon, Ill. on New Year’s Day, 1965, Warren was introduced to the sport at an early age by his father and embarked on his driving career on the county fair circuit in 1981.
Like a fine wine, Warren has been getting better with age, notching more than 200 driving victories in five of the past seven years in the bike. The career winner of $17.7 million in purse earnings while in the bike has also been doing ‘double duty’ as a trainer, posting an amazing UTR of more than .300 in all but one year dating back to 2000 with 875 career training victories.
“It makes for some very long days like today (September18),” said Warren. “I started training horses before 8 a.m. this morning (and) caught a quick break and some lunch before shipping to Maywood with my horses. Now after getting these horses put away and back home it will be at least 1 a.m., so it makes for a pretty quick turnaround. But I’m not complaining. If I don’t have that kind of workload I get a little bored, really.”
When asked if he knew that he was getting close to reaching another milestone, the superstitious Warren was quick to ‘tune-out’ to his impending mark.
“I had heard from a trainer or two that I was getting close to the mark,” he said. “But after winning the first two (races) on Thursday night and not hearing anything else, it just sort of left my mind. The next thing I know I won with Stage Star, and here comes everybody down to the winner’s circle and the sign comes out. It was really a great feeling, I have to say.”
(Maywood)
