Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Harness racing has been part of the Ebersole family’s life for quite some time, although Luke Ebersole fought the lure of the sport for a while. The 29-year-old finally decided to embrace Standardbreds several years ago and, after a lot of hard work and paying dues, Luke finds himself on a major stage for the first time this weekend.

Having mostly driven the Ohio fair circuit successfully, Ebersole will drive his pacing gelding, Cross Country, in the 3-year-old male division of the Ohio Sire Stakes finals at Northfield Park Sunday (Sept. 1). He owns the horse with his brother Logan and Cody Sipe and also trains him. Cross Country was bred by Luke’s mom, Linda, at her Morrow County farm.

“I’m just very humbled and grateful for the opportunity,” Luke said. “I’ve gotten us this far, the rest is up to having a little racing luck. To be honest, I just want to be respectable. I mean, everybody hopes for the Cinderella story. I’ve always said all along, I just want my colt to look respectable and just look for a piece.”

It’s already somewhat of a Cinderella story just by the fact Cross Country has made it this far. Then again, Ebersole had faith in him even as a 2-year-old after he made some adjustments.

Cross Country has hit the board in six of nine starts this season, with three firsts, a second and two thirds for $53,250. JJ Zamaiko photo.

“I had trouble starting out with him, keeping him flat,” Ebersole said. “He got to the first turn and got crooked. I talked to a friend of mine, once we got him straightened up, I started him at a fair and it was first time he stayed flat in a race. He set a track record at Cortland. He paced (1):58.3 that day by open lengths. I had a little homebred that trained down as good as others and that day was kind of an eye opener for me.

“I really didn’t know what I had before then. But he stayed flat that day and that was kind of a factor. I thought we had something to compete with, we should race good horses. I took him to Scioto (Downs) in a maiden (pari-mutuel) race, he put in a good effort there, went (1):55.1 and won by (nine) lengths. From there, there was one leg of the Sire Stakes left. I couldn’t make the final or anything — he was lightly raced as a 2-year-old — but I thought I might as well take a shot. He took fourth, raced (1):54 and change. I thought ‘This is good’ and I quit there for the season.”

Cross Country had a solid rookie campaign as he took three firsts, one second and one third in seven starts, winning $16,996.

“I had it in my head coming back, all along I thought he was a decent horse as a 2-year-old,” Ebersole said. “The first time I qualified him this year he didn’t disappoint. He qualified in (1):55.1 and I didn’t feel like I had extended him that much, and he did it right too. He’s got the right mindset. I say it every day. He’s smart, he’s easy to be around.”

The horse has hit the board in six of nine starts this season, with three firsts, a second and two thirds for $53,250. In the four OSS legs leading up to Super Night at Northfield, Cross Country was second by a half-length to Rock Candy in the first at Miami Valley, won his second leg at Northfield in 1:50.4, suffered a bad trip at Scioto Downs in leg three, but rebounded with a strong third-place finish in the fourth leg at Scioto to finish the series in fourth place in points.

“In the third leg I thought he still raced good, it was just a bad trip, a matter of circumstances,” Ebersole said. “I knew I was going to have to have a lot of luck in the last leg to get into the final. I was never confident (about advancing) until after the last leg because everything was still wide open. There’s so many good horses now going for the money.”

And the Ebersole family now has one of those horses after decades of plugging away at the fairs. Luke’s great-grandfather was in the business, as were his grandparents. His parents had a roundabout meeting as his father Jeff, an Ohio native, met Linda, from Maine, in Florida. They have since settled in Ohio where they breed and train a small stable in Mount Vernon.

“Both my grandfathers were owners,” Luke said. “They weren’t into training them. They left that to my mom and her brothers and my dad. I guess they were more or less supporting the habit we all had. I’m not saying it’s a bad habit. I guess you can say they were supporting a way of life.”

Luke grew up around the barn and actually got his driver’s license at age 16, but two years later he headed off into the real world by taking a factory job at a distribution center. He then “whittled my way back in and helped my dad and whatnot. He let me drive an old conditioned trotter a lot, a pacing filly. And then I got away from it again.”

He began making hard money by pouring concrete and working in the coal mines. The latter job, he said, was a life changing experience.

“In between building mines they lay you off, sometimes you miss a couple weeks,” he said. “We were laid off for two weeks, I came home, started helping dad at the barn again, the rest was history. When they called me back to work I told them I couldn’t make it.”

After working for Jeff for a while, Ebersole’s first job at another facility was with Ammon Hershberger, who produced world-record holder Victory Is Coming. From there he worked with Clair Umholtz at Northfield, followed by stints with Eric Hamlet and Kelly O’Donnell. Luke set up his own stable at Sahbra Farms in Streetsboro, about two hours away from his parents, in 2017.

“All of those guys taught me something, but my dad really taught me so much,” said Ebersole, who drives regularly at Northfield. “Dad just has a different way of teaching me. The further I go in the business, I feel more humbled by what he taught me without really teaching me. I don’t know how to thank him and explain how much I learned from him.”

His dad also provided Ebersole and his brother with an outstanding Yule Tide offering. After Linda bred Cross Country, Jeff gave it to Luke and his brother Logan as a Christmas present. The horse is out of Esquisse Hanover and is by Palone Ranger, and Linda came up with the name in honor of her husband and two sons, who all ran cross country in high school.

“The colt is my pride and joy,” Luke said. “All winter long when he was turned out, he was always turned out with a rottweiler. The other drivers like to mess with me. When he qualified they said ‘What did you do to him?’ I said ‘He’s just a homebred we turned out with a rottweiler all winter. Almost like Sea Biscuit and War Admiral. A homebred we turned out with a rottweiler, that’s who he had to play with.”

When he drives the rottweiler’s buddy on Sunday, Ebersole will be doing so with a very special whip. Cody Sipe’s grandfather, Donald Sipe, always hoped Hall of Famer John Campbell would drive one of his horses. When Donald fell ill in August 1995, Campbell came to Donald’s final race at the Morrow County Fair to drive one of his horses to a second-place finish. As fate would have, Donald passed away on Sept. 21 of that year, the same day Campbell drove and won his final Little Brown Jug with Nick’s Fantasy.

Campbell presented the autographed whip to Donald Sipe, who passed it along to his grandson. Cross Country’s co-owner is giving it to Ebersole to use at the Sire Stakes final.

“I sure hope and pray we get a little something on our side with that,” Luke said with a laugh.

Whatever happens, it represents a high-water mark for Ebersole at this stage of his career. He hopes it’s only the beginning.

“To be honest, I’d love to be on the grand stage,” Luke said. “It’s a goal of mine to have a stable with that kind of power to where I can get to bigger races and go for more money. That’s why I’m involved, for that almighty dollar. But you’ve got to love it. To me I don’t ever go to work. It’s crazy. I never feel like I’m working. I’m putting in more hours than at any other place. I’m doing my own thing, I guess it’s hard for me to look at it as work.

“This is where my heart is right now, and if I’m honestly going to try to make a real living in this, I’ve got to give it a good shot. I’ve been blessed with a pretty good little start. I’m not bragging, I have a little racehorse stable, a nice little colt I get to play with, conditioned horses, racehorses. I’ve been very blessed by it all.”