Kelly Breen From the undercard to the main event. That has been the journey of thoroughbred horse trainer Kelly Breen of Farmingdale.
“I used to come to the Haskell for the hat,” he said, referring to the gift presented annually to fans at the premier stakes race of Monmouth Park’s season. “Now I’m coming for the trophy.”
There was a time, Breen recalled, when he just wanted to have a horse in one of the races on the card on the day that Monmouth Park held the Grade I Resorts Haskell Invitational. Now he has a chance to win the $1 million Haskell on July 31.
Breen has two of the pre-race favorites with Belmont Stakes-winner Ruler On Ice as well as Pants On Fire, who is coming off a victory at Monmouth Park in his last start.
“They are two dynamite horses,” Breen said over breakfast at Monmouth Park, Oceanport. “I can’t tell you which one would win.”
Breen made the decision to enter both horses in the Haskell after they went through a very good workout on July 17 at Monmouth Park.
“Fire and Ice,” as they are known, are two completely different racehorses. Pants On Fire is a speed horse who likes to run from the front, while Ruler On Ice, in winning the 1½-mile Belmont Stakes, has the stamina and can come off the pace to win.
Breen plays no favorites and as long as one of them gets home first, he’ll be happy. He has two “world class” jockeys riding his entries. Elvis Trujillo will be riding Pants On Fire, and Ruler On Ice will be ridden by Jose Valdivia, who guided him to his Belmont Stakes victory.
Winning the Haskell would be special to Breen because it was at Monmouth Park at the age of 13 when his father, Jackie, took him there for the first time, that his obsession with horse racing began.
Things have changed in a big way this year for Breen, thanks mostly to winning the Belmont Stakes with long-shot Ruler On Ice. It was the first win in a Triple Crown race for the trainer, who, as an avid golfer, knows that a Triple Crown win is like winning a major championship in golf.
“I feel like I belong now,” he said. “You get elite status.”
Although Ruler On Ice was a 24-1 shot in the Belmont, Breen was confident his horse would run well.
“He had been training awfully well,” he said. “I remember saying before we left [for Belmont] that I’m going to hit the board. I had a feeling he’d do well and that he belonged.”
Breen said the muddy track suited Ruler On Ice because he had raced on an off-track before.
After returning to his home base at Monmouth Park following his victory at Belmont Park in New York, everyone sought Breen out to congratulate him.
“It was like I was a rock star,” he said. “It was surreal.” In the cafeteria in the stable area at the track, press clippings about Ruler On Ice’s win hang on the wall in recognition of Breen’s accomplishments. He was the local boy who made it big.
Pants On Fire started off what has been an incredible year for Breen, an Old Bridge native. In March, Pants on Fire gave Breen his first $1 million purse victory, the Louisiana Derby. Three months later he won the Belmont Stakes.
Breen now has a stable of 33 horses that he trains. He recalled working in Marlboro as a 13-year-old for no pay mucking out stalls. Going from those humble beginnings to the winner’s circle at the Belmont Stakes “fulfilled every dream,” he said.
It was also a tribute to his parents, Milve and Jackie. They would drive him to work in Marlboro (first at Baymar Farms and then with Ralph DeSantis) in the morning before school and then take him back after school.
“They are a big part of my being able to live out my dream,” Breen said. “They followed the dream of a 13-year-old.”
Winning the Haskell would be another dream come true for Breen, who trains for owners George and Lori Hall.
If history means anything in the 2011 Haskell, Ruler On Ice is the son of a previous Haskell winner, Roman Ruler.
Breen knows that winning the Haskell (ABC-TV, 5-6 p.m.) is far from a given.
“It’s a great field,” he said.
The field of eight horses will include Shackleford, who won the 2011 Preakness and will be the likely favorite. Also in the field is Rattlesnake Hanover, who won the Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Haskell four times, will go to the gate with Coil (the son of Haskell winner Point Given) or Prayer For Relief
“I only hope we have a record crowd,” Breen said. “These are my people.”
Nothing would please Breen more than winning another $1 million race at his home track in front of his friends and fans.