by Bill Heller

Growing up in New England, Paul Kelley figured his future was likely going to be spent in hockey arenas or at racetracks.

“I spent more time in the hockey arena than I did in school,” he laughed. “I was always involved with horses, too.”

He still is, as trainer/owner of Kelley Racing Stable in Gansevoort, N.Y., in Saratoga County. Last year, Kelley Racing Stable and Bill Weaver’s New York Sire Stakes champion 2-year-old filly trotter You Want Me won her $225,000 final by a neck.

In partnership with Abraham Singer and Theodore Gewertz, Kelley Racing Stable also had success in the Sire Stakes last year with their 2-year-old trotting gelding Twisted Pretzel, who won Sire Stakes legs at Batavia Downs and Vernon Downs and finished second at Yonkers and Saratoga.

“Last year was great, a lot of fun,” the 59-year-old Kelley said.

Fun and success seem to follow Paul’s family everywhere. His dad, Jack, who began coaching at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, won back-to-back national championships at Boston University before moving on to the pros, coaching and serving as general manager for the Hartford/New England Whalers and becoming the president of the Pittsburgh Penguins before retiring. He is now 85.

His family always had horses and Shetland ponies on their 45-acre farm in Belmont, Mass., west of Boston. They raced at Foxboro.

Paul’s brother Mark made hockey his life. He is a scout for the Chicago Blackhawks, whose head coach, Joel Quenneville, is a Thoroughbred owner and fan.

You might have heard of Paul’s other younger brother and horse partner, David, a TV writer and producer — whose TV successes have included Picket Fences, Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Public and Boston Legal — or David’s wife, actress Michelle Pfeiffer.

“We don’t look at him as a star,” Paul laughed.

And Michelle Pfeiffer?

“She’s as down-to-earth as a person could possibly be. We have a lot of fun when our families spend time together.”

Paul isn’t the only Kelley who stayed with horses. His younger sister, Nancy, maintains a small harness farm in Waterville.

Along the way in his harness racing career, Paul was mentored by Ted Wing, who ranks 80th in all-time victories with more than 5,000, and, in turn, mentored Chad Brown, already one of the top Thoroughbred trainers in the world despite his youth (34). Brown’s Normandy Invasion led late in this year’s Kentucky Derby before finishing fourth.

Paul hasn’t forgotten hockey: He coaches youth hockey in Saratoga Springs. In high school, he was captain of his hockey team, playing center and left wing. He hoped to continue playing as a student at Colby, but left college.

“Like anybody else, I just wasn’t good enough in hockey,” he said.

He initially took a job with the athletic department at Boston University, where he got to know basketball coach Rick Pitino, who also had a horse in this year’s Kentucky Derby, Santa Anita Derby winner Goldencents, who finished far back in the Kentucky Derby before finishing fifth in the Preakness.

Paul wasn’t at BU long, committing to a career and a life in harness racing. He did his apprenticeship with Warren Strout in Maine, Leo Bauer at Pompano Park and Ted Wing, at Roosevelt and the Meadowlands.

“I drove horses for his dad,” Wing said. “Paul worked for me and I mentored him. He’s always been hard-working. He’s an excellent horseman. Classy guy. Good asset to harness racing. His integrity is why he’s gotten so far.”

But, when Paul began on his own in 1995, racing at Saratoga Harness and Foxboro, he struggled.

“He’d call and ask me about pedigrees,” Wing said. “For a while he was buying cheap horses. He told me one year he was going home for Thanksgiving.”

Wing asked: “Is your brother David going to be there?”

“Yes.”

“Is Michelle and your father going to be there?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want me to come with you and pass the hat around?”

Paul got the message.

“I started to look at the business in a different light,” he said. “I needed to change my stable, upgrade my stable and get young horses.”

His brother David offered to help. They’ve been partners in Kelley Racing Stable ever since, and Kelley Racing Stable has never been better. Besides the success of his two New York Sire Stakes winners last year, his 2-year-old filly trotter Aspidistra Hanover, a Pennsylvania-bred, finished second in an $88,250 division of the Bluegrass Stakes and made $177,000 last year.

But his stable relies on New York-breds.

“We have 30 horses in training and most are New York-breds,” he said. “Eight of our 14 2-year-olds are New York-breds, and we have six 3-year-old New York breds.”

He’s hoping You Want Me, a daughter of Credit Winner out of Annette Hall by Valley Victory, who was bred by Valley High Stable, can duplicate her success as a 2-year-old, when she won five of nine starts, with two seconds and a third and earnings topping $200,000. A big chunk of her bankroll came on the Night of Champions in the $225,000 New York Sire Stakes final. She looked hopelessly boxed in at the top of the stretch.

“I thought we were trapped,” Paul said. “I was hoping for a third- or a fourth-place check.”

Instead, her talented driver, Tim Tetrick, found an opening. You Want Me squeezed through and won by a neck.

“That was a fun night,” Paul said.

At his farm, Paul is helped by his wife Joyce and, when they’re not in college, their two sons, 21-year-old Mark and 19-year-old Sam.

Through various partnerships, Paul has helped harness racing by bringing in new owners.

“We do a lot of partnerships with our clients,” he said. “We piece things out and I’m involved with a great group of people, probably 16 to 18 owners. Twelve years ago, I had a two-man stable. Now I have nine on my staff, besides myself.”

The most accomplished former member of his staff is Chad Brown, who remains close friends with Paul.

“He walked into my barn one day and introduced himself,” Paul said. “He was 16. He really had an aptitude for this. I’d tell him to do five things and he’d do 10.”

Brown had fallen in love with horses at Saratoga’s Thoroughbred track, but wasn’t sure how to get started. His neighbor, Mary, happened to be Paul’s mother-in-law and she suggested approaching him.

“At first, I was a little uninterested,” Brown said. “I was more interested in Thoroughbreds. But you have to start somewhere. It was the best decision I ever made.”

While he finished his education at Mechanicville High School, Brown worked for Paul full-time for three summers and intermittently on weekends and school vacations the rest of the year.

“He is a great horseman and he always was,” Brown said. “What I learned early from Paul is that he always put his horses first. He was very conscientious about early detection of problems and was constantly checking them over. Paul was never a guy to push a horse. That stuck with me.”

So did Paul’s character.

“He’s not only a great horseman, but he’s a great person,” Brown said. “He took the time to teach me, to share things with me. It was a one-way street. I don’t know what he got out of it. It takes a great person to have patience with a young person. Quite frankly, I didn’t know anything. But I sure learned a lot.”