Gerald Bennett saddled the 3,975th winner of his career Friday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., becoming the winningest Canadian-born Thoroughbred trainer of all time.
The 77-year-old trainer saddled Tampa Bay Downs shipper Baby Boomer ($12.40) for a victory in Race 3 on April 23 to pass Frank Merrill Jr., a Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Famer who won 19 Canadian championships and led all North American trainers three times by races won, as well as winning four Gulfstream titles between 1955-1980.
“Frankie Merrill had the record for the amount of wins for a Canadian-born trainer. I’m Canadian-born. I raced at Woodbine and all over the place. I tied him today in the third race at Tampa. This breaks the all-time record for wins,” said Bennett, who saddled West Side Warrior for a win at Tampa before scoring at Gulfstream with Baby Boomer, who led throughout under Emisael Jaramillo.
Bennett, a Springhill, Nova Scotia, native, began his training career in Canada in 1976 saddling horses alongside Merrill, who passed away in 1990.
“Frankie Merrill was big in the claiming game. When you’re young starting out, you said, ‘I’m going to be like Merrill,’” said Bennett, who ranks 13th on the all-time North America races-won list.
Bennett has trained many stakes winners and is best known by fellow Canadians for his work with the Ontario-bred Bold Ruckus horse BEAU GENIUS. Bennett got Beau Genius as an already accomplished stakes winner from trainer Gerry Belanger and Joe Schiewitz and Dr. Brian Davidson’s colt became a millionaire. He won or placed in 30 of his 42 starts including victories in the Philip H. Iselin H.-G1, Michigan Mile and One-Eighth H.-G2, Display S., Churchill Downs H., Deputy Minister H.
Bennett, who is once again dominating at Tampa Bay Downs with a meet-leading 55 winners this year, has gone on to be an exceptional claiming trainer but still hasn’t given up on “every horseman’s dream.”
“I just go and try to buy young horses. We haven’t got to the Kentucky Derby, but we’ve won a lot of stakes here and there,” said Bennett, whose only Grade 1 success came with Beau Genius in the 1990 Philip Iselin (G1) at Monmouth. “I’ve never had anyone pay a lot of money for a horse. We usually buy for $17,000-$25,000 and hope to get lucky. Sooner or later, the harder you work, you might get lucky and someday get to the Derby. That’s every horseman’s dream.”
“He loves the horses. He loves the business,” said his wife, trainer Mary Bennett. “He got in the trailer (on a recent off-day) to take horses to Ocala to be laid up, and when he’s there he’ll watch horses train to see if he can get another good one. He loves everything about it. Racing is his adrenaline rush.”
~ with files from Jennifer Morrison
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