Medomak Valley graduate, and former Waldoboro resident, Scott Blackler is hitting his stride on the harness horse racing circuit in New York. The 25-year-old horse trainer is closing in on a million dollars in earnings from horses he has trained.
As a trainer, he collects five percent of the take. He recently purchased his own horse, Winbak Fox. The five-year-old pacer has won nine out of 11 starts in 2010 and collected purses of $73,000.
“That’s not bad. It’s very good actually. I’ve done better than a lot of people thought I would. It’s a life changer,” Blackler said of the money he is making.
“The money they race for in New York is ridiculous,” he said. “The Open at Yonkers race for a purse of $32,000, and Scarborough Downs (Maine) is $6000. That’s quite the difference,” Blackler said.
The mischievous Winbak Fox was a handful at first, but the horse whisperer Blackler won him over. “He has always been good with horses,” Blackler’s uncle Nick DePatsy said.
The story of Blackler’s rise to fame appeared in an article in Harness Racing Communications on March 2. In the article, Blackler is quoted as saying Windbak Fox has “been very good to me. It’s been a blessing to have him, but to be totally honest, I hated this horse when I first got him. I couldn’t get him to go. I knew he was fast, but I couldn’t get him to function right, I tinkered with him, tried a couple different things, and one day everything clicked. He just needed a little TLC.”
Blackler got his start in the racing world from his late grandfather Nicholas DePatsy of Waldoboro. DePatsy kept his horses in his barn out behind the former DePatsy Bowling Lanes in Waldoboro. Blackler was the only one out of 12 grandchildren that inherited his grandfather’s love of horses.
“He did it as a hobby,” Blackler said. “He had six horses there, I started with him when I was 16 or 17, and went to the track with him,” Blackler said.
After his grandfather passed away on Blackler’s 21st birthday, Blackler moved the horses to Windsor Fair grounds and continued to train there. He met up with Jason and Dick Bartlett and started doing some training for them as well. Blackler and Jason Bartlett soon became good friends. Jason Bartlett went to New York and enjoyed incredible success as a driver, winning 1376 races and back to back driving titles at Yonkers Raceway.
A few years later, Blackler followed Bartlett to New York, where he rents stable space at the beautiful Mark Ford Training Center in Middletown, N.Y. The training facility has three race tracks. In 2008 Blackler teamed up with Bartlett and won 41 races, earning over $332,000.
Blackler has entered Winbak Fox into the George Mortin Levy Memorial Pacers Series at Yonkers, which has a $600,000 purse. The top five finishers split $300,000. The top eight race in the finals and split $200,000, and eight through 16 race in the consolations to split $100,000.
“He’s sharp right now, so I want to give him a shot,” Blackler said of Winbak Fox.
Blackler currently trains 12 horses, but would like to increase that number to 20. Eventually he would like to own his own stable. Blackler is quoted in Harness Racing Communications saying: “I’ve got some good horses and good owners that have given me the opportunity. Things are paying off. I just want to have a successful stable. I like doing the work myself. I like being in the barn. I have a hard time leaving. I just want to have good horses. Hopefully good things will happen.”
Bartlett still owns a horse in Blackler’s stable. “He is a very hard worker and takes A-1 care of his horses. You’re not going to find too many people to work harder than him. His dream was to have his own stable. I told him to go and chase his dream. That’s what I did and it worked for me. That’s what he did and so far it’s worked out for him, too,” Bartlett is quoted as saying in Harness Racing Communications.
