New England Owner Took Unusual Route to Top

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It is not surprising that Frank Stronach's high profile stable is atop the owners' list by earnings for 2000 with more than $9.1 million earned through Oct. 16. After all, the Magna International chairman and racetrack operator has been building a successful racing and breeding operation over the past decade.

The owners' standings, however, do offer a surprise when ranked by number of wins, with New England owner Michael Gill on top with 168 winners from 960 starters. Second is Richard Englander's 154 wins, followed by the 138 for Stronach.

According to Washington Post columnist Andy Beyer, Gill, 44, took an unusual route to the top. A native of Salem, N.H., where Rockingham Park is located, Gill had an early orientation to racing. Beyer reports that Gill was walking home from an after-school job one day during his youth when he stepped through ice in a brook near Rockingham Park. The young Gill went into the track to dry out and while there wagered $20 on a horse. The horse won, returning $360 to Gill. He was hooked.

As a professional in the mortgage business, Gill made his foray into horse ownership in the mid-1990s, concentrating on claiming horses. Beyer wrote that Gill obtained a trainer's license and began training his own horses after firing one of his trainers. That proved a valuable lesson, however, as the first horse saddled by Gill tested positive for a prohibited medication. The positive, coupled with a search of Gill's barn, resulted in a three-year ban by the state racing commission, the Post reported.

After concentrating on his primary business during his time off from racing, Gill returned to the ownership ranks in mid-1999, again concentrating on claimers and also seeking to profit from the purses fueled by slot machine-gaming at Delaware Park. "If I commit to it, I've got to be the best," Gill told Beyer. Beyer said Gill is noted for abrupt changes in trainers, having used seven different trainers in New England this year, and five different trainers in Delaware.

With stable earnings of more than $2.3 million this year, Gill's stable has come under scrutiny, Beyer reported. Gill said his present trainer, second generation horseman Gammy Vazquez, has been closely watched and his barn searched by regulators, with nothing illegal found.

(More, Washington Post)

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