Trainer Leslie Young looks to build on success
Saratoga Springs—Many racing fans who just sit and watch the steeplechase races that kick off the Wednesday afternoon cards can get some useful handicapping information by following the career of trainer Leslie Young, last year’s champion conditioner of horses that race over jumps and currently this year’s top scorer on the National Steeplechase Association’s leaderboard.
After the Spring ‘chasing season was over, the Chester County (Pa.) horsewoman was able to boast about 21 first place finishes from 68 starts, a 30% win rate that would make any trainer of flat racers ecstatic.
Even with the reduced-rate purse structure for the jumping equines, Young-trained Thoroughbreds have banked over $450,000 for their owners thus far this season with the big dollar checks yet to come here at Saratoga, Belmont Park and Far Hills, N.J., the home of the American Grand National.
She will be out to expand on those numbers when she sends the veteran ‘chase campaigner Redicean postward in Wednesday’s $150,000, Grade I A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase at 2-1/16-th miles over nine National Steeplechase fences.
And, the first thing Leslie Young is quick to point out to prospective owners or casual observers is, “These are Thoroughbreds, just like the horses that run on that flat.” Racing genealogists trace their lineage back to the Godolphin Arabian, Darley’s Arabian and Byerly’s Turk just as their flat racing brothers and sisters.
When the racing historians see the name Dynaformer, they think of the mean-spirited stallion that produced Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner. When Leslie Young sees his name, she immediately jumps to McDynamo, Dynaformer’s son who was a three-time ‘chasing horse of the year and a five-time winner of the American Grand National from 2003 to 2007.
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