Plainville, MA — When Acushla Machree N won the featured $25,000 Open Handicap for pacing fillies and mares at Plainridge Park on Tuesday (Sept. 8), she gave Gretchen Athearn the 1,000th training win of her career.
Athearn, a native of Exeter, N.H., started learning about horse care and harness racing from Dana W. Childs when she was 14 years old. Then after high school, she attended the equine studies program at SUNY Morrisville and began applying what she learned there in the real world of racing at tracks in New England.
Athearn’s first training win came in 2014 with a 9-year-old pacing gelding named To Bad Honey, who opened up 7 lengths at the wire to claim a 2:02.3 victory at Scarborough Downs for purse of $1,000. Today, Athearn competes in all the top classes at Plainridge Park and has developed and campaigned a litany of horses that have made headlines throughout the industry.
For her career to date, Athearn has 1,000 wins, 1,177 second-place finishes and 1,156 thirds from 7,679 starts, with purse earnings just shy of $8.5 million and a .266 lifetime UTR. She had career high wins (68) and earnings ($979,945) in 2025, the year she won her first training title at Plainridge Park.
This year at Plainridge, Athearn is currently tied for the training lead with 33 wins and has the third-best earning totals at the meet of just under $500,000.
Athearn also has a family loaded with racing acumen, with her husband, Mark, and sons, Matty and Kyle, all driving and training.
In the race that produced the milestone, Acushla Machree N (Mitchell Cushing) got away mid-pack as Mrs Cheese (Drew Monti) parked Surfinmakescents A (Larry Stalbaum) to the quarter in :26. Surfinmakescents A crossed over and took the lead at that point and got to the half in :54.
As they paced onto the backstretch, Intothemysticmoon (Nick Graffam) pulled first-over and Acushla Machree N followed in step. Positions remained unchanged to three-quarters, where Mrs Cheese regained the lead from Surfinmakescents A and Acushla Machree N swung three-wide around the stalled Intothemysticmoon. Acushla Machree N continued to gain ground and by the top of the stretch and had forged a short lead ahead of another closer, Royally Hot (Mike Oosting). The two mares then locked up in a stretch-long sprint that saw Acushla Machree N win by a neck in 1:50.4.
It was the sixth win of the year for Acushla Machree N ($5.20), who is owned by Ray Campbell Jr.
There was also a $19,000 upper-level conditioned pace on the card, which was won by Virtual Horizon (Drew Monti), who sat third behind Courageous Warrior (Matty Athearn) as he set a lively pace of :26.4 and :54.4 to the half. As the race moved towards three-quarters, Virtual Horizon moved to the outside and paced into second before the last turn. From there, Virtual Horizon and Courageous Warrior matched strides through the final bend to the top of the stretch, where Virtual Horizon took the lead and held off a wall of horses in deep stretch to win in 1:51.
It was the fourth win of the year for Virtual Horizon ($5.20), who is owned by Kellogg Racing and trained by Jackie Greene.
Mike Oosting and Bruce Ranger both had two wins during the day while 11 different trainers won one race apiece.
Racing at Plainridge Park will resume on Thursday (Sept. 10) at 2 p.m. Free full-card past performance programs and replays for every card of racing at Plainridge Park are available at plainridgeparkcasino.com.