Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Engler making the most of his move to Florida
Trainer Jeff Engler has finally found a home, and he couldn’t be much happier about it.
“We’ve been welcomed here in Florida with open arms,” Engler said this week by phone from Boynton Beach, where he moved his stable for the first time in the spring. “It’s been refreshing. Everybody has been really good to us.”
That positive karma has been reflected in recent results for Engler. He is 2 for 2 at the Tampa Bay Downs meet, which began last month, and he notched arguably his most important victory of the year when a 2-year-old gelding named Willy Boi prevailed on debut in a maiden-special race Thursday at Gulfstream Park, earning a 67 Beyer Speed Figure.
Willy Boi, a Florida-bred by Uncaptured, is among the first horses purchased by the Lea Farms of Bill Cosgrove, a mortgage banker from the Cleveland area. Cosgrove, said Engler, “is so excited about this.”
“Winning a race with a 2-year-old at a meet like this is a pretty big deal for an outfit like ours,” Engler said. “This is just great.”
Engler, 50, had grown weary of bouncing around Midwest tracks since he began training in 2009, leading to the somewhat radical decision to base himself year-round at the Palm Meadows training center in Boynton Beach. The move coincided with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, when Engler had left the Fair Grounds meet early to take his stable of about 20 horses to Keeneland.
“Everything was pretty much at a standstill at that time except for Gulfstream,” said Engler, who said he “just kept bugging” Mike Lakow, the Gulfstream vice president for racing operations, to allot him stalls.
“I’ve always been one of those guys who’s had to dig and claw for everything,” he said. “I’m really grateful for the way Mike came through for me.”
Born in Michigan, Engler grew up just north of Cincinnati, where he began working around Quarter Horses at age 15. After attending Middle Tennessee State University, he enjoyed considerable success for 17 years in the corporate world before deciding it was time to dive headfirst into racing.
“It was always my dream and passion to do this,” he said.
After starting as a smalltime owner, he learned the training ropes under Larry Smith, a perennial top trainer in Ohio, while also befriending colleagues such as Bill Helmbrecht and Mike Stidham.
“When those guys talk, I’m listening,” said Engler. “You can learn something new in this game every day if you’re paying attention.”
His accomplishments thus far are modest. His only stakes victory from a career total of 165 winners came when Candy Bites captured a couple of Ohio-bred races in the spring of 2013 at old Beulah Park, and his horses typically compete in maiden or claiming races.
But buoyed by the Willy Boi triumph and the momentum he has sustained since moving to Florida, Engler is seeing the glass as half full.
“All the horses are just thriving,” he said. “I’ve got great help right now, a great team, and I want to keep building on that. I’m hoping that in six months or so we’ll have 40 to 50 horses and we can just keep it going.”
Allowance doubleheader
Back-to-back allowances anchor an 11-race Sunday card that starts at 12:05 p.m. Eastern. Both are $48,000 second-level allowances, with race 8 going at five furlongs on turf and race 9 at six furlongs on the main track.
With Verve and As Seen On Tv, both of them factors in the 3-year-old stakes ranks at Gulfstream earlier this year, will line up alongside each other in race 9. With Verve won the Hutcheson in February, while As Seen On Tv was beaten just a head in the Much Macho Man in January.
The co-features are part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 6-11), which had a carryover of $319,997 into Friday and was expected to have a pool guarantee of at least $600,000 for Sunday, assuming the jackpot is not emptied by a single winning ticket before then.
Six of the 11 Sunday races are for 2-year-olds. Six are scheduled for the turf, which is expected to be firm, given another forecast for dry conditions.
After Sunday, Gulfstream goes dark for two days before another five-day week starts Wednesday. The highlights next week are the $100,000 Mr. Prospector and the $100,000 Via Borghese, both to be run next Saturday.