Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Trainer of the Month
for August 2006

Mark Ford

A native of Lewisburg, West Virginia, Mark Ford is a first-generation horseman who cut his racing teeth with horsemen like Clint Galbraith and Ted Wing.

Ford is the youngest trainer in history to reach milestones of $10 million and $20 million in career earnings.

Mark is also the only trainer to have won a pair of million-dollar races before his 30th birthday.

Mark Ford

Born October 12, 1970 Mark passed up an agricultural scholarship in England and instead went to work for trainer Clint Galbraigth in Florida after high school. In 1990 he moved to the New Jersey/New York area and began working with horseman Ted Wing.

Ford stepped into the national spotlight with 2000 Horse of the Year Gallo Blue Chip, a winner of $4.26 million in lifetime earnings and the richest pacing horse in harness racing history. Gallo Blue Chip won the $1,000,000 North America Cup, the $1,250,000 Meadowlands Pace, and the $319,164 Art Rooney Memorial at Yonkers Raceway and the Breeders Crown, among others--giving him the richest three-year-old season of all time, of $2.3 million.

He has also trained millionaires Whosurboy and Turnpike Token, top performers Stonebridge Kisses and On The Attack, and double-gaited world champion Six Day War. He is on the board of the Standardbred Owners and Breeders Association of New Jersey and contributes regularly to New Vocations Racehorse Adoption. Ford won the training title during The Meadowlands’ fall 2002 meet, and races a stable of 50-75 horses at Yonkers, The Meadowlands, Freehold, and the Woodbine Entertainment Group for such owners as Ed Mullinax, Jim Snyder, Dean Davis, and Martin Scharf. In 2000 Mark was awarded the Trainer of the Year award by the US Harness Writers Association.
Photograph

Gallo Blue Chip in action at Deleware

Mark Ford's Career Training Statistics (through August 1, 2006)
Year    Starts   Wins    2nds   3rds     Earnings
2006      832      120      115      101      $1,897,791
2005      1391      245      177      168      $3,597,277
2004      1552      251      211      184      $3,149,843
2003      1444      210      214      190      $3,128,355
2002        948      147      135      120      $2,538,773
2001        789      106      87       100      $3,711,085
2000        486      77      65          52      $3,751,892
1999       386      62      55          42      $897,518
1998        304       41       38          39      $493,192
1997        321       41       43         46     $499,440
1996       301       41       44          30      $254,984
1995        152       29       20          22      $175,618
1994        165       31      18         28      $115,859
1993         13         0         0           1      $1,316
1992        60         5          8           5      $17,274
1991         11         1        1           1      $4,658
Total               1407                           $24,234,875

2006 Archives
July: Ron Gurfein
June: Jim Dennis
May: Delvin Miller
April: Chuck Sylvester
March: Billy Haughton
February: Bill Robinson