Newcomer Collin Workman loves the business

Like many in harness racing, Collin Workman did not begin his foray into the business through the traditional path of following in the footsteps of family members. Despite the challenge, the 26-year-old Sewell, New Jersey native recently scored his first pari-mutuel win, guiding the pacer Racing For Rick (Western Maverick) to victory on March 29 at Freehold.

As the youngest of five children (brothers Cody and Damien, sisters Misty and Megan), Collin, began working with rodeo horses from a very young age in Cowtown, New Jersey. His mother Staci is a special needs schoolteacher, and his father is a union truck driver.

“My dad was a rodeo clown on the weekends,” Collin explained. “I grew up rodeoing—bull and bronc riding. When I was a teenager—in middle school—I was with my dad every Saturday night, as Cowtown has a rodeo from May through September. A few years later I started traveling with Dave Martin, a local rodeo guy, through Pennsylvania and a few other places.”

After graduating from Salem County Vocational and Technical School in 2016, where he focused on carpentry, Collin continued to focus on rodeoing. That all changed five years ago, however, when Collin broke his ankle due to an especially fractious bucking horse.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do after that,” Collin admitted. “I had worked my senior year part time for a small construction business and also at a place called EP Henry—they make cement blocks and pavers. But we averaged about 84 hours a week and I had enough of it after three years; it was dusty, demanding work. So, I went back to school to learn how to work on boat engines. I love working on boats and right before I went back to school, I hit a deer and totaled my car, and decided to push school back to the fall.

“My girlfriend, Brielle Roman, who was working for Chris Ryder at the time, told me that he was looking for a groom for the summer, so I went and talked with Chris, and he hired me,” Collin added.

That was exactly two years ago, in April 2022, and Collin is still working for Ryder, who has 65 horses at Winner’s Training Center in Chesterfield, New Jersey. A quick study, Collin has progressed from caretaker to second trainer in a relatively short time.

“I started out cleaning stalls and taking care of horses, and then gravitated up from grooming,” Collin offered. “Chris moved me up to his main barn and gave me better horses to take care of and made me a second trainer.”

In the meantime, Collin and Brielle have acquired six horses of their own, also housed at Winner’s.

“I never have any problems and enjoy working for Chris because I show up and do my job,” Collin stressed. “Brielle and I began our day at five in the morning taking care of our own horses, and then I start at Chris’ barn at seven. Chris has a ton of horses, and at times it can be overwhelming, but we get it done.

“Chris is a good, honest guy,” Collin continued. “Everything I know about training I learned from Chris—his biggest strength is having a good opinion about horses. He treats every horse as an individual.  I see a lot of trainers who put the same stuff on all their horses, and Chris doesn’t do that. He definitely cares about integrity and the horses themselves. He’s honest. I went to Chris’ barn, the first harness training I knew, and I never left. I love going to the barn every day and sometimes I never want to leave.”

The calm demeanor of Standardbreds initially came as a bit of a surprise to Collin.

“When I was in my mid-teens and early 20s, I had taken care of some Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses for some people,” Collin said. “What shocked me the most was how nice and easy the harness horses were to deal with. Also, it’s wild that these horses can trot at such high speeds, since horses are genetically inclined to gallop. That’s amazing.”

Collin says the first horse that he ever trained the Western Ideal pacer, Barrage Hanover, p, 3, 1:51 ($91,926)—for Ryder in 2022, will be one he will always remember.

“Barrage was an average horse, but he was the first horse that Chris let me train, and even though we really weren’t going a fast mile, to me it felt like we were flying, and I’ll never forget that first time,” Collin admitted. “Later, I got to sit behind Walner Payton (Walner-Lonely Lady-Muscle Hill) quite a few times, and she will always be special to me as well.”

Walner Payton 3, 1:51.4 ($801,701) won the $105,900 International Stallion Stakes at 2 and was second in both her Breeders Crown elim and final in 2022, and as a sophomore won her Hambo Oaks elim and the $78,000 Bluegrass Stakes at Lexington—both in 1:51.4.

“Being in Lexington was like nowhere else I had ever been,” Collin stressed. “It’s a whole different world racing there. I feel like horse racing should be at places like The Red Mile—where everyone hangs out and you’re in a beautiful setting. The Meadowlands is nice, but it’s all concrete, and after the races everyone just packs up and goes home. At The Red Mile, there is a lot going on in the barn area, and people spend time together, and the atmosphere is great for the horses.”

Enamored by the horses and the business, Collin purchased his first horse, a pacer named Legato, a son of Art Director-Badland’s Legacy-Badlands Hanover) in October 2022.

“Brielle got me my first horse through some Facebook connections,” Collin said. “She and I had met during Covid when she was working for a riding horse barn, and we’ve been together ever since.”

Collin began qualifying horses in July of 2023, with his first start coming at the Meadowlands behind Legato. He had 11 qualifiers under his belt last year, and four more in early 2024, before going behind the gate for the first time in his pari-mutuel debut as a “P” driver on March 15, steering the 11-year-old Racing For Rick (Western Maverick) to a second-place finish at Freehold. Three starts later, on March 29, he piloted the same mare to a front-stepping 1:59.1 triumph at Freehold.

“My first win—it happened so quick,” Collin recalled. “I thought I had a good chance to win this raced, as I knew if I got her on the front, I more than likely had it wrapped up.”

Collin, who has hunter green, black, and white silks, says while he is happy in his current situation, he would someday like to settle down near The Red Mile.

“Our end goal, for Brielle and me, is to end up in Lexington,” he said. “I’m happy where I’m at now, but I see Kentucky, with all the opportunities that are springing up there, as the place a lot of horsemen will want to be in years to come.”

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink