When Acushla Machree N won the featured $34,722 Open Handicap Pace for fillies and mares at Plainridge Park on Tuesday, Sept. 8, it gave Gretchen Athearn the 1,000th training win of her career.
Athearn is a native of Exeter, New Hampshire who started learning about horse care and harness racing from Dana W. Childs when she was 14 years old. Then after high school, she attended the Equine Studies Program at SUNY Morrisville and began applying what she learned there, in the real world of racing at tracks in New England.
Athearn’s first training win was in 1994 with a nine-year-old pacing gelding named To Bad Honey, who opened up seven lengths at the wire to claim a 2:02.3 victory at Scarborough Downs for purse of $1,000. Today, Athearn competes in all the top classes at Plainridge Park and has developed and campaigned a litany of horses that have made headlines throughout the industry.
For her career to date, Athearn has 1,000 wins, 1,177 seconds and 1,156 thirds from 7,679 starts, with earnings just over $9.4 million and a .266 lifetime UTR. She had career high wins (68) and earnings ($1,355,854) in 2025, the year she won her first training title at Plainridge Park.
This year at Plainridge, Athearn is currently tied for the training lead with 33 wins and has the third best earning totals at the meet.
Athearn also has a family loaded with racing acumen, with husband Mark and sons Matty and Kyle all driving and training.
In the race that produced the milestone, Acushla Machree N and driver Mitchell Cushing got away mid-pack as Mrs Cheese (Drew Monti) parked Surfinmakescents A (Larry Stalbaum) to the quarter in :26. Surfinmakescents A crossed over and took the lead at that point and got to the half in :54 flat.
As they paced onto the backstretch, Intothemysticmoon (Nick Graffam) pulled first-over and Acushla Machree N followed in step. Positions remained unchanged to three-quarters where Mrs Cheese regained the lead from Surfinmakescents A and Acushla Machree N swung three-wide around the stalled Intothemysticmoon.
Acushla Machree N continued to gain ground and by the top of the stretch, had forged a short lead ahead of another closer, Royally Hot (Mike Oosting). The two mares then locked up in a stretch-long sprint that ended with Acushla Machree N winning by a neck in 1:50.4.
The win was the sixth of the year in 25 starts for Acushla Machree N, who returned $5.20 at the betting windows. The seven-year-old daughter of Vincent-Annie Morva is owned by Ray Campbell Jr. of Belchertown, Massachusetts.
There was also a $26,389 upper-level conditioned pace on the card that was won by Virtual Horizon, who sat third behind Courageous Warrior (Matty Athearn), as he set a lively pace of :26.4 and :54.4 to the half for driver Drew Monti. As the field moved towards three-quarters, Virtual Horizon moved to the outside and paced into second before the last turn. From there, Virtual Horizon and Courageous Warrior matched strides through the final bend to the top of the stretch where Virtual Horizon took the lead and held off a wall of horses in deep stretch to win in 1:51.
The win was the fourth of the year in 17 starts for Virtual Horizon, who returned $5.20 to his backers. The six-year-old Vertical Horizon-Saucy B gelding is trained by Jackie Greene and owned by Kellogg Racing of Queensbury, New York.
Mike Oosting and Bruce Ranger both had two wins during the day while 11 different trainers each won one race apiece.
Racing will resume at Plainridge Park on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 2 p.m.
(With files from Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)