Cinderella Amish buggy horse wins again

Even a month’s worth of cobwebs couldn’t keep Cooper, the Cinderella Amish buggy horse, out of the winner’s circle at Northfield Park last night.

Undefeated this year in his harness racing comeback season, but out of action since Aug. 21, the 6-year-old gelding  went wire-to-wire to prevail by a neck for driver Kurt Sugg. He was timed a mile in 1:57 2/5 and paid $2.40 for a $2 wager as the heavily-bet 1-5 favorite.

The victory was Cooper’s eighth in a row. He earned $4,000 for his efforts, boosting his bankroll for 2019 to $28,700.

Cooper, a trotter, failed to win in six starts as a two-year-old in 2015 and left the racetrack to be a personal horse for an Amish family in Sugarcreek, Oh. Earlier this year, when then owner Homer Stutzman realized the Cooper was traveling down the roads of Tuscarawas County at a hectic clip, he turned him over to a friend, harness trainer Firman Troyer.

The conversion from pulling a buggy to pulling a sulky has resulted in a run of victories, all at Northfield, stretching from early June until late September.   

Reprinted with permission from the Cleveland Plains Dealer by Bob Roberts