From Lou Guida to Ron Burke to….Paul O’Neil

Wow…”how time flies”…or, should it be put, “how times fly!”

Seems like yesterday when Lou Guida came onto the harness racing scene with innovations that brought him to the pinnacle of success in our sport, or, for him, business, forming syndications, corporations and partnerships enticing and luring wealthy partners from his investment days in the brokerage business.

Hard to believe that it all started close to a half century ago and continued for more than a quarter century with the history books laced with his winners in Breeders Crown events—20 of them—and multiple trips to the winner’s circle in The Hambletonian, Hambletonian Oaks, Kentucky Futurity, World Trotting Derby, Meadowlands Pace, Little Brown Jug, Messenger, Cane Pace, Woodrow Wilson and Yonkers Trot, among many others.

His success stretched over the Atlantic Ocean waters, as well, with winners in the Italian Derby and Elitlopp.

From Niatross to Nihilator…from Mack Lobell to Peace Corps…perhaps 40 or 50 more, Guida had the market pretty much cornered.

Fast forward to 2009 when Ron Burke burst onto the scene taking the defining role in dad Mickey’s stable and with insurmountable speed—on the track and in stable performance—built the most powerful and successful stable in the two centuries plus history of the Standardbred.

Many see the Burke Stable as a “raceway” or “overnight” stable filling the racing programs throughout North America with precise and successful placements in claiming and condition events but he, too, can boast close to 20 wins in Breeders Crown events and multiple Stakes, including The Little Brown Jug and the Jugette.

With Burke just a “ns” away from $300,000,000 in lifetime purse earnings and well over 13,500 wins, he, historically, towers over every other rival with, some say, a near monopoly on the sport…but a well-deserved one.

Among his grand stars have been the incomparable Foiled Again, Sweet Lou, Atlanta, Hannelore Hanover (the latter two sub-1:50m trotting performers), Mission Brief, Southwind Frank and Dorsoduro Hanover, just to name a handful.

But, for every Lou Guida or Ron Burke, there are thousands more that support harness racing just for the love of horses…and with a hope that they, too, will one day own a world champion…or a memorable performer on the racetrack…and even “make a few bucks!”

Paul and Patricia O’Neil are two of those folks.

Paul has a chain of stores, mostly in the Northeast, supplying feed for all horse breeds, barnyard and domestic animals….and even wild birds. He even built a store in Malta in 2020…and he did so from the ground up!

The O’Neil’s live up Saratoga way and have a history of ownership going back some 30 years with his first foray into the sport being on February 12, 1992 in a three-way partnership in the Noble Gesture gelding Homage, a sub-2:00 trotter that eventually wound up the 41 lifetime wins and $277,508 in career bounty.

But for Paul O’Neil and his partners, in paying homage to Homage, described him as “not great,” as the trotter was well past his prime as an equine athlete.

That’s an understatement as, in the few months and 10 starts that Homage raced under the “O’Neil Stable” banner, Homage had but one lone win—in 2:05.4—with earnings of $1,512, not a very auspicious beginning as an incentive to continue investing in horseflesh.

But things did get better and, although it took “20 years” to figure things out, the last decade or so has been somewhat profitable in a business that is known, by the vast majority, to be unprofitable.

With Paul and wife Patricia as devoted partners in life, they were also devoted partners in their love of horses with a history going back to the early 1980’s with a first date at Saratoga Harness.

“I have been very lucky in ‘life’ with ‘Patti’ and, also, in the horse business with ’partner’ Patti.

“Our first success was with a horse named Mahony who won a pacing series at Saratoga for around $18,000…pretty good money in those ‘pre-slots’ days.

“We claimed a trotter (Little Nick) for $8,000 and he turned out to be one of the better ‘open’ trotters for a couple of years, as well.”

While those successes didn’t put the end result into the profitable column, it did “ease the pain a bit,” O’Neil recalled.

The O’Neil partnership got their first taste of New York Sire Stakes success in 2001 with Riddler’s Revange in a two-year-old pace and the consistent son of Kassa Branca never missed a check that season while taking a 2:00 mark…considered a noteworthy performance back a couple of decades ago on a half mile oval.

Fast forward to where times became profitable for the O’Neil Stable with the help of Hall of Fame horsemen Wally Hennessey.

The date was May 31, 2013 at Saratoga Harness with a qualifier setting the stage after an event featuring a “high strung” trotter named Count Speed still behaving badly becoming discombobulated going to the gate and finishing last in his field of six timed in 2:09.2.

Hennessey got a good look at Count Speed as he was driving another horse in that qually that also made a break!

Evidently, Hennessey, who only knew O’Neil on a casual basis, saw something in the trotter and called to see if was for sale.

Paul said, “no” and told Hennessey that he thought the horse could be a “serious” trotter…if someone could just “figure him out!”

“With the blessings of the current trainer at the time,” lamented Paul, “I asked Wally if he would train him and, although Hennessey wanted to buy him, he relented and agreed to take him and give him a try.”

Team Hennessey—Wally and brother Dan—started working with Count Speed and, after some trying times in the first couple of weeks, settled him down, and, by the end of the year, he was an “open” trotter.

A thankful Paul O’Neil said, “That’s the fate that brought us together and that’s the fate that spurred us on to get more horses in, for and with the Hennessey Stable.

“We heard of some horses available in Ontario and got a nice trotter, High Blue and Godiva Seelster, who, of course, turned out to be one of the greatest and gamest mares wherever she raced, especially at Pompano Park, where she became so dominant that they ‘kicked her out.’

“We got her in the fall of 2013 and, when someone says a horse can change your life, this was the perfect example.”

Godiva Seelster—known as Big Mama around the barn—raced at Pompano Park for five seasons and was as tough a competitor on the racetrack “as you will ever see!”

After being asked to leave Pompano Park, she went to Ohio and took her world record 1:50 mark over the half mile track at Northfield…at the age of eight.

Paul lamented, “Wally called after getting the news that Godiva was barred from racing at Pompano and said, “we need to find a place to race her!

“Years prior, I had met Don Sherman and Jessica Roegner in Saratoga selling them grain and was very impressed by them as the kind of people they were and the operation they ran.

“I sent them a problem child (horse) once and they did an outstanding job with him and I sent another that couldn’t be repaired.

“Shortly thereafter, they moved to Ohio, and they campaigned our trotter SASS and he became a dominate force mostly at Northfield and won, probably, around 30 times for us over four seasons—16 of them in 2018.

So good was SASS that Paul promised Sherman and Roegner that he would send them another “good” one.

Godiva Seelster was that ‘good one!’”

She finished her career with 65 wins and $662,251 and, as both Paul and Patti said, “changed our lives!”

Unfortunately, when tragedy strikes in the horse business, it can be devastating, and the O’Neil’s felt that “Grief Beyond Belief” devastation when Godiva Seelster, beginning a new career as a broodmare, caught a strain of pneumonia with a veterinarian warning that “in many cases, this is fatal.”

“We got the call at 7:00 a.m. in the morning,” Paul said, “that she didn’t make it. It’s tough to describe a feeling of complete numbness when you lose a member of the family…and that’s what Godiva was…a member of the family.”

Boli and Sea Shadows have followed Godiva Seelster with their hoof prints on the racetracks and the O’Neil’s sum it all up this way…

“We have been very fortunate to have around 20 horses that have become ‘Open’ winners, something we never expected. Winning our first Sire Stakes was a great thrill and Godiva (Seelster) setting the world record put us in a state of euphoria.

“Sea Shadows has won the top events at Northfield, Scioto Downs and The Meadows.  Last year, she was a bit off form and we sent her to Wally to get her straightened out and, when she went up to Saratoga to the Beckwith Stable, she was named Mare of the Year and Horse of the Year.

“That ranks up there, too, with our biggest thrills, especially in our hometown.

“As mentioned, we were in the ‘red’ the first 20 years in the business but, since meeting Wally Hennessey, our racing luck has turned around and the last 10 or 11 years have been somewhat profitable.

“Our long relationship was based on trust from day one and there has never been even one second to change our thoughts and, now that I think of it, dreams.”

Hennessey echoed O’Neil’s thoughts saying, “This sport needs about 5,000 new owners with the same philosophy and love of the horse as Paul and Patti O’Neil. We have an unbreakable bond…kind of a mutuel admiration society…make that a ‘pari-mutuel’ admiration society!”

by John Berry, for Harnesslink