Sixteen of his runners were stakes winners, taking 23 stakes at 16 different tracks. Trainer Scott Lake, an Eclipse Award runner-up in 2000 and a finalist in 2001, saddled several of those stakes winners, including multiple stakes winners A Lot of Mary and Elektraline.
Success in sports sometimes can come quickly or take a long time. Take the Arizona Diamondbacks for example. They worked hard as a team and won the 2001 World Series in only their fourth season. Now think of Art Rooney. One of the founders of the National Football League, he waited 40 years before his Pittsburgh Steelers won a championship.So where does Richard A. Englander fit in? Right in there with the Diamondbacks. Englander, a Westchester County, N.Y., resident whose buying instincts were honed by years as a stock trader, acquired his first horse by way of a claim in the fall of 1998 and didn't stop there. In 1999, his runners topped the $1.2-million mark in earnings while making 407 starts.Englander continued to claim horses, then claim some more, all the while relying on the assistance of his several trainers and various advisers. In 2000, Englander's horses made 1,149 starts, won 213 races, and earned $4.9 million, fourth place on the North American leading earners list. Then, in only his third full season, Englander hit the top, with $9,812,272 in earnings and 406 wins in 2001. His horses won at a 20% clip.