by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — He has more wins than most horses have career starts, but when 2011 arrives 14-year-old Boomer Berman can race no more.

The son of Defiant Yankee-Meadow Hattie, whose namesake is ESPN announcer Chris Berman, has trotted 253 pari- mutuel miles with 89 victories, 53 second place finishes and 28 thirds and has amassed $214,833 in purse money. Owned by Steve and Kathy Schoeffel of Evans City, Pa. and conditioned by Lisa Lederhouse of Akron, N.Y., the venerable gelding has a lifetime mark of 1:58.4f, has only been off the board in seven of his 36 starts this year and has earned nearly $60,000 while competing at Buffalo Raceway and Batavia Downs.

“We close here at Batavia the first week of December and his name is on the list for a retirement race they are trying to get together at Monticello,” said Lederhouse. “I’ll be honest, I’m getting a little greedy with him and he’s less than $2,000 away for $60,000 this year, so I might take him somewhere else to get there. To me it’s a big deal to have an overnight horse in this area make $60,000 and never be in higher than a $10,000 claimer. That says something about him and what kind of horse he is.

Paul White photo

Boomer Berman did not race until the age of five, but has still posted 89 lifetime victories and earnings of $214,833.

“He gives you 110 percent any time he goes to the gate and I do think he will miss the races,” she continued. “Fortunately, Steve is going to keep him to train down colts every year, so he will still be doing what he loves to do, he just won’t be going behind the gate.”

‘Boomer’ is normally all business on the racetrack, but there are times he shows his connections just who is really in charge.

“Some days when you take him out to jog or to warm up before the races, he’ll drop his head, try to take off and go 100 mph with you,” Lederhouse explained. “He never does anything wrong, but he can be a bully sometimes and I think it’s because he’s a little spoiled and realizes he can get away with it.”

The gelding’s personality is one of the reasons he receives extra attention.

“You can’t help but take a liking to him,” Lederhouse said. “He’s a real small horse. The bugger doesn’t even stand 15 hands high and is like a big pony. Someone that has never even seen a horse could go right up to him and start petting him. He even puts his head down for little kids and wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

After he failed to earn $5,000 during his 2008 campaign, Boomer’s former owner, Thomas Barrett, told Schoeffel, who was then training him, that he could have the horse since he didn’t think he was profitable anymore.

Schoeffel allowed several of the teenagers that worked for him to train the gelding down for overnight races on the Pennsylvania fair circuit, but after the kids got him ready that spring they realized overnight races were being culled from the fair program and Boomer was sent to Lederhouse as kind of an experiment.

“Steve, who I have been friends with for a long time told me, ‘Look, I don’t know if this guy is any good anymore, but I’ll bring him up to qualify him and if you have room for him, keep him,” Lederhouse said. “Last year the horse ended up winning more than $27,000 and after Steve paid my training bill he put the rest of his earnings aside for the kids that trained him down to go to college.

“They were tickled to death,” she continued. “Steve is a great guy and has had some success in this business which you always want to see with someone like him, because he gives back.”

Several people have approached Lederhouse about using Boomer in amateur races next year, but she doesn’t think that will actually occur.

When Boomer leaves her shedrow at the end of December, Lederhouse admits finding another horse to put in his stall will be easy, but no horse can ever quite take his place.

“You can’t help but love Boomer,” she said. “He didn’t get to the races until he was five and he’s had some things go wrong here and there like he has bad feet, but at 14 how can you not have some soundness issues? He’s so professional on the track and such a pet around the barn. He is the kind of horse that is difficult to replace.”