OCEANPORT – With Hall of Fame trainers Todd Pletcher, Steve Asmussen and Jerry Hollendorfer – along with future Hall of Famer Chad Brown – all having a formidable presence on the Monmouth Park backstretch this summer, it’s easy to forget the race for leading trainer honors still goes through Kelly Breen.
It did in 2020, when the 52-year-old Breen easily captured his third Monmouth Park trainer’s title, according to a press release from the thoroughbred racetrack.
There’s no reason to think things will be any different during Monmouth Park’s 76th season, which opened on May 28.
“We do gear up for Monmouth Park,” said Breen. “It goes back to me saying all we can do is continue to work hard and to try to do our best. So much depends on the condition book. I can’t predict how we will do this year because I don’t know how the condition book will play out.
“But we have a good variety of horses, from $5,000 claimers to multiple graded stakes winners. There are probably guys with more well-rounded stables, maybe with more claimers, guys with bigger stables. But we have 40 horses right now that are ready to run. We will just try to put them in the right spots.”
Breen’s impact will likely be felt throughout the 53-day meet, since he led all Monmouth Park trainers in 2020 with 117 starters. His 32 winners were nearly double that of runner-up Jose Delgado.
That Monmouth Park success was a major factor in a career year for the New Jersey native, who set personal bests in overall wins (84) and starters (418), while producing the second-best earnings year in a career that began in 1992.
“Last year was more validation after having built up a public stable after almost 10 years of being a private trainer and not being out there with multiple horses and this many horses,” said Breen.
“It has been a gradual process of evolving. I didn’t always have a big stable after I became a public trainer again. It took a couple of years to get to this point. It took time. But we have a nice, well-rounded stable now.”
Breen, who went 14 years between Monmouth Park training titles, again figures to make an impact when the 2-year-old races start as well. He currently has 15 “babies” with a couple more due in shortly.
“The 2-year-old program at Monmouth Park has always been exceptional, so we hope to be a factor in that later in the summer,” he said.
Though Breen says his sights are not necessarily set on another Monmouth Park title – “Whatever amount of wins we get, that’s what we’re going to have as a total,” he said – he knows he enters the meet as the favorite.
“Not being cocky or anything, but I like to think that when people think of Jersey racing they think of my name,” he said. “I’m a Jersey guy. I grew up here. We have more of a presence in New York than we have had in a while, but Monmouth Park is still home.”