by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — Despite being firmly entrenched in the Hoosier State, Bobby Brower never forsakes his Kentucky roots. He competes regularly at the fairs and is a fixture in the Sire Stakes. In fact, he has captured the lucrative final on several occasions over the last five years, but when he witnessed Penn’s performances as a juvenile he literally turned green with envy that the gelding was not a resident of his shedrow.

“I watched him tear it up at the fairs,” he said. “He won like eight races in a row as a 3-year-old and then I saw him at The Red Mile. I told my wife how much I wanted to buy him, but I knew he would probably be at $100,000 and that’s too much for my budget. I had known Mr. (Barkley) Counts (Penn’s owner) for a number of years and shortly after I said that, I received a call from him asking if I would train this horse. That’s when I told my wife how funny it is things work out this way. We would have him, but we just wouldn’t own him.”

Conrad photo

Penn established the all-age track standard of 1:52.3 at Dayton Raceway on Dec. 12, 2015.

A son of Master Glide and the S J’s Photo mare Photo Queen, Penn,was purchased by Flintville, Tenn. resident Barkley Counts for $4,000 at the 2011 Lexington Selected Sale. Counts, who is 77 years young, has been involved in harness racing for more than four decades and still gets up every morning, rain or shine, to jog all his own horses. He enjoys competing at the fairs in Kentucky, as Tennessee is not a hot bed for harness racing, and this horse might be the very best he’s ever had.

“Poppa has always been around horses his whole life,” his grandson, Dusty Syler, said. “My mom was an only child and he made sure she had a riding horse. He got involved with racehorses through a friend of his, but when his friend got out of the business, he stayed in. We train the horses over the only track I think they have in Tennessee. It’s a half-mile and a little rough, but he never misses a day taking them out there.

“I drive him to all the races, because his eyesight is not very good anymore, but he still works the horses every day. He sits next to me and my granny sits in the back seat. She will never miss a race. It doesn’t matter to them what is going on. They will be there to watch their horses and they just love the heck out of it.”

Now age six, Penn has compiled a record of 65-30-11-8, banked $231,294 and equaled the track record at Hoosier Park of 1:53 for older male trotters in 2014. He also established the all-age track standard at Dayton Raceway on Dec. 12, 2015, when he lowered world champion Market Share’s time of 1:52.4 to 1:52.3. That clocking is his lifetime mark.

The horse is currently on a four race win streak and has been excelling on the Ohio circuit since last fall. While his connections are thrilled with his recent appearances, they are looking forward to the rest of this season.

“We have always had good luck with Master Glide horses,” Syler said. “We had another horse by him, Master Host ($88,546), that was also really fast, but he had some problems keeping it together without jumping it off. He also did not have the same kind of heart as Penn. This horse wants to do it and gives it his all every time. Master Host did not seem to have the same attitude.

“Poppa has turned down a lot of nice offers for Penn, but he will never sell this one although he did Master Host and a lot of his other horses when they did not quite pan out. I just finished paying the stakes payments to make this horse eligible to all the big races in Indiana and Ohio. I will drive us to every one of them, especially since we have not seen him in awhile. It’s five hours for us to get to Lexington and seven to get to Hoosier Park. We have just allowed Bobby to take care of him.”

And that’s exactly what Brower has done. Penn is in the best form of his career and the Browers are also anxiously awaiting the gelding’s future miles.

“I liked Master Host and bought him before I had Penn,” Brower said. “He was also a nice horse, but this one is different. He is so perfect and does nothing wrong. If you go to his stall and sit down he will put his head right on your shoulder.

“People might think he needs to be on the lead, but he will do anything you ask him to. He’s just a very, very nice horse in every way.

“He did have a hock problem though and even when I saw him race at Lexington after all those wins at the fairs you could see him hiking in the back. We went over him with a fine tooth comb, scanned him and everything, but we could never find anything wrong. I think we finally have him perfectly sound now and although I don’t normally race in the winter, he’s so good at the moment that it doesn’t make sense not to for the purse money we are going for at Miami Valley.

“He will be in all the big races at Hoosier, Scioto and the other Ohio tracks. I usually race young horses and have never really had an Open horse of this caliber. He is my chance to be in these races and we are very excited about what he will accomplish this season.”

Brower has been told Penn could race out East and be quite the breadwinner, but he has no inclination to travel outside the confines of the Midwest with this horse.

“People have told me he could get around the half great at Yonkers,” Brower said. “I think they would all be watching his rear all the way around the track, because he would like it that much, but that is not what we will do with him. We are keeping him home. We are not going to beat up on him. I’m just thankful we did get him in the barn and we think he is really going to make some noise this year, plus provide opportunities for us we have not experienced before.

“This is one great horse and we think he’s going to show a lot of people that over the course of this season.”