Off to the races
No horsing around here.
For Bill and Renee Bercury of Slippery Rock, Gary Johnston and his family in Evans City, Bob and Julie Krenitsky in Butler — and others like them — horses are a serious business and have been for a long time.
Numerous Butler County residents are involved in harness horse racing at The Meadows in Washington County, on the fair circuit, and at other tracks in the region.
“We've had horses for 40 years now,” Bill Bercury, 75, said. “I own six horses now and five of them race.
“They're all on different schedules. You can only race once a week. That puts the horses on different schedules. This has become a lifestyle for a lot of people around here,” he said.
About 50 horses are stabled at the Butler Fairgrounds. Bercury has his own stables in Slippery Rock. Krenitsky stables horses in Butler.
A horse can begin qualifying for harness races at 2 years old. Horses can race until they're 14.
A horse will race one day, rest the next, spend a day in the pasture, and be exercised on other days.
Their owners and trainers arrive at the stables around 6:30 a.m. each day. The fairgrounds track has drivers in their buggies, taking horses out for trots around the track to exercise them.
Horses are groomed, washed down, fed and simply worked with all morning. They are taken to The Meadows, Cleveland, Philadelphia or to a fair at any time.
“We're all a big family out here,” Johnston said of the users of the fairground stables. “Everybody knows everybody. Most of us are related in some way.
“Uncles, cousins, whatever ... It's a generational thing. My dad had horses. He did this as a hobby. That's what got me started. My sons, Aaron and Shawn, do most of the driving (of the horses in races) now.
“It's in my blood. It's the love of the animals, love of the horses,” Johnston said.
Chicora resident Susan Callihan can be found at the fairground stables every day. She got involved with her horses through her uncle, Bernard “Bean” Callihan.
“I've been around horses all my life,” she said. “He owned horses. I used to come out here and help him when I was a kid.
“Now I'm here two or three hours a day. My husband Gregory works at AK Steel. We've got four riding horses and seven racing horses ... We're hoping to retire here at some point and do this full-time.”
Brady wins in bunches
Slippery Rock resident Brady Brown, 26, began his driving career under Evans City's Steve Schoeffel, a former driver himself who has been training horses for decades.Schoeffel stables his horses at the Butler Fairgrounds. When Brown isn't driving horses, he's out there working at the stables.“I love being around it,” Brown said. “I come out here around 6:30 a.m., exercise some horses, do what needs done. Then I'll go to The Meadows and drive in some races.“Out of a 13-race card, I'll drive in 9 or 10 of them. When that show's over, I'll come back out here to the stables, feed the horses, do more work ... usually get out of here around 7:30 at night.“Get up the next morning and do it all again,” Brown added.Brown already has more than 500 career wins. His goal is to reach 1,000 before he turns 30.“That would be a big thing for me,” he said.Evan Pattak, a Meadows racing publicist, described Brown as an “in-demand driver. He's nicknamed 'Downtown Brown' for his propensity in bringing home long shots.”Brown won a pair of races at The Meadows on Tuesday night, including a victory driving 24-1 long shot An Original Dragon.Brown is a third-generation horseman.“I grew up on it. I never wanted to do anything else,” he said.“You have to have a good horse to be successful as a driver. Besides that, it's patience and understanding. Horses have different personalities. You have to get to know them,” he said.Brown does work for Schoeffel, a former 1,000-win driver himself.“I used to own enough horses to fill up this entire barn,” Schoeffel said. “Now we've got 10 to 15. That's what I'm comfortable with.”Finding a winnerBig winners in harness racing don't come along all the time — but are much appreciated when they do arrive.The Bercurys have one right now in Touchamatic, who has won eight of her last nine starts and compiled more than $300,000 in total earnings.“She's been making $85,000 or more a year for us,” Bill Bercury said. “You get a horse like that, you ride it out as long as you can. But you have to take care of the animal, too.”Krenitsky has a similar horse in McAlvin. With career winnings into six figures, McAlvin ran a stakes record time of one minute, 52.3 seconds in winning a third-straight Pennsylvania Stallion Series race at The Meadows as a two-year-old in 2012.
The Krenitsky family paid $7,500 for McAlvin as a yearling, planning only to use the horse in fair racing.“He's certainly exceeded expectations. That happens,” Krenitsky said.Schoeffel got started in harness racing at 13 and has been a horse trainer and owner for several decades.“You remember the big winners because they only come along every so often,” he said. “I've got a horse who's 7 now and has won $305,000, averaging $80,000 per year in winnings.“You get offers from people wanting to buy, but I would never sell a horse of that caliber. They just don't come along all the time.”The horse marketThe two biggest horse sales in the region occur in Harrisburg and Lexington, Ky.“It all comes down to what you want to spend,” Schoeffel said. “The price range can be from $3,000 to $200,000.“I like to buy babies so I can break them in and train them myself. You get those horses cheaper, but it's more of a risk because you're never quite sure what you're getting. You never know how a horse is going to react once it's harnessed and pulling a driver.”Even when the horse is 2 years old and eligible to qualify (for racing), “you have no idea what it's going to do when you first take him out there (on the track),” Schoeffel said. “It's a gamble. You take your shot.”Johnston recalled setting a horse up for its first jog around a track pulling a driver.“Everything went fine,” he said. “We sent the horse back out for a second time and it tried kicking the driver right out of the cart.“We took the blinders off the horse and it was fine ever since. It takes a while to figure some of them out.”Krenitsky's father trained horses at The Meadows starting the day the facility opened in 1963.
“The breeding of horses has changed dramatically in recent years,” Krenitsky said. “Horses have more speed now because there are better studs.“Back in the day, people would breed anything. But today, breeding is done much more efficiently,” he said.Economic impactOther than the Big Butler Fair, horse racing doesn't occur in Butler County.But the sport has an impact on the local economy.“Money generated through winning purses is spent here,” Bercury said. “People have to pay to stable their horses, to buy feed, to use the fairgrounds track.“A lot of money gets tossed around through this sport,” said Bercury.Johnston agreed.“There's the feed, the hay, sawdust, straw ... Those things are bought locally and there's a lot of it. When you think about all the (harness racing) horses stabled in this county ... I can't even put a number on it.”It's big business. It also creates great passion.“I've been at this for 40 years now,” said Johnston, 55. “My sons and I, we probably go to 15 different fairs each year along with the regular tracks.“I used to work at Armco. Now I'm out here at 6 a.m. every day ... and wouldn't trade it for anything.”
