Allen Jerkens took out his trainer’s license as soon as he turned 21, and he only waited that long because his father forbid him to do so any sooner. He enjoyed solid success almost from the very beginning and won his first stakes race in 1955 with a horse named War Command, whom Jerkens had claimed for $8,000. Seven years later, he agreed to become the private trainer for Jack Dreyfus Jr.’s Hobeau Farm. Though Hobeau Farm didn’t always deal in the most fashionable of pedigrees, it did provide Jerkens with volume. And Jerkens certainly had a knack for getting the most out of his horses.
Tag: The Sport
Reincarnate Battles Back to Post Determined Victory in Sham Stakes
After winning for the first time in late November, Bob Baffert trainee Reincarnate powered into 2023 with renewed energy to win by a neck at 16-1 odds in the Jan. 8 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita Park.
Swaps: A Speedy, Well-Oiled Machine
Barry Irwin, now the head of Team Valor International, was entering his teenage years in Southern California when Swaps burst onto the scene in 1955. “He just really excited me and caught my imagination,” Irwin recalled. Irwin was hardly alone. Swaps’ popularity became so enormous that Union 76 gas stations began distributing posters of him. “I kept pushing my father to get gas there so I could get more pictures,” Irwin said.
Lugan Knight Posts Front-Running Score in Jerome
Michael McCarthy has trained a champion in the female sprinter Ce Ce, and Grade 1 and Breeders' Cup winners such as City of Light, Smooth Like Strait, and Queen Goddess. He was even the trainer of record for Rags to Riches in one of her Grade 1 wins.
