Trainer Jeff Runco on verge of career victory No. 4,000

Trainer Jeff Runco, who long ago wrapped up his 12th consecutive Charles Town training title, came into Friday night’s program at the West Virginia track on the verge of his 4,000th career victory. He had entrants in two races.

Runco, with 3,999 wins, is the 12th winningest trainer in Thoroughbred history. His horses have earned more than $48 million.

“It’s a great milestone, not just for me but for our whole operation,” Runco said. “My wife, Susan, is a big part of what we do. I’ve also had a number of great assistants. It’s just good for all of us.”

Runco, 58, was raised in Omaha, Neb. He was a jockey for six years before he grew too heavy and turned to training in 1984. He sent out his first winner the following season at Charles Town.

Remarkably consistent throughout his career, Runco has won between 104 and 172 races every year since 1991, with the exception of 2005, when he won 87 times. He has 157 victories in 2017 and a career win average of 21 percent. He won his 3,000th race in 2011.

Runco has 3,368 victories at Charles Town, but also has been successful at other Mid-Atlantic tracks, including Penn National (419 wins), Laurel Park (71), Mountaineer (46), and Pimlico (39).

Runco has 60 stakes wins, 55 of which have come at Charles Town. His lone graded victory came in the 2008 Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct with the best horse he has trained, Researcher.

From 2006-10, Researcher won 13 races and more than $1.3 million. In addition to the Queens County, he won the first two runnings of the Charles Town Classic in 2009 and 2010.

Runco keeps between 45 and 55 horses in training at Charles Town.

“That number works out good,” he said. “If an outfit has any more than that they really need to have a division at another track. If at some point we end up trimming things back here and start a second string, maybe in Florida, maybe in Maryland, we would increase the numbers. We have some really good owners.”

The Runcos own Coleswood Farm in nearby Ranson, W.Va. The horses they’ve bred on the 30-acre farm include In the Fairway, a 15-time winner of $570,000; Slip the Cable, who won 8 of 14 starts and $379,000; Sea Rescue, an earner of $414,000; Navy Chapel, the West Virginia-bred champion filly of 2011; and Dahlgren Hall, the champion statebred 2-yearold male of 2006.

“It’s really an all-purpose farm,” Runco said. “We keep five to six mares there, plus weanlings and yearlings. We send some horses there in between starts who don’t like to be at the track.

“Susan is really good at the breeding. She handles all of that.”

In the Fairway, who is 8, finished second in the Autumn Handicap at Charles Town on Thanksgiving night.

“He could run again next year, we’ll have to see, but he will have a great new career when he is finished racing,” Runco said. “Susan works with show horses, and he’ll get to try that. We have plans for him.”

Other top runners Runco has campaigned in recent years include Spa Creek and Bullets Fever.

Spa Creek, an 8-year-old mare, has won 10 of 36 starts and $368,000. She last raced in November and is scheduled to sell at the Keeneland January sale.

Bullets Fever went a perfect 8 for 8 in 2015-16 and earned $270,000 while winning five Charles Town stakes.

Runco has trained four West Virginia Breeders’ Classic winners – Slip the Cable in 2016; Sea Rescue in 2010; Coolmars in 2000; and E.B.F. Express in 1994.

Runco’s latest emerging runner is the Maryland-bred Lewisfield, who is 3 for 4 in his career. He was slated to make his stakes debut Saturday at Laurel in the $75,000 Howard Bender Memorial Stakes.