by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — There are a lot of trainers out there preparing Standardbreds to compete on the track, but probably few entered the profession with as diverse a resume as Jennifer Falcone.

Based in upstate New York, the 32-year-old grew up tending to horses and loving every second of it. But she procrastinated until last year to get her trainer’s license, and finally gained her first training win on March 16.

Why the wait?

“Well,” she said. “I hate taking tests and I worry about failing.”

That seems like an unnecessary attitude, since Falcone is pretty successful in whatever she does.

Jennifer Falcone recorded her first win as a trainer on March 16 with Ugly Betty (right).

From the time she left Jamestown (N.Y.) Community College with an accounting degree until she earned her license in 2015, Jennifer has worked in numerous professions and always left her employers feeling they got their money’s worth.

Falcone has gone from gritty to glamorous and everything in between. She worked in her stepfather’s trucking company and at a farm supply store, and her natural beauty allowed her to model all over the U.S. and Canada. She also cooked, worked as a bartender and was a waitress.

Her modeling career, which started when she went on a call to Model Search America, was not just a fling. Jennifer started in middle school and continued for eight years, doing both runway modeling and TV swimsuit work. When she had the audacity to go from 120 pounds to a still shapely 130, Falcone went against the fashion model’s code of being thinner than a thread.

“The modeling was really huge for me and I always had a very thin build,” she said. “But I ended up putting on a little weight and they called me pudgy. It was all muscle, but they thought I was pudgy. And I wasn’t going to be like those girls who starved themselves.”

Quite the contrary, in fact.

“All these other girls’ parents were bringing in salads with no dressing for their lunch,” Falcone said. “I would be the first person saying ‘I’m going to Wendy’s! Who wants something?’ The make-up artists and clothes people loved me.”

Indeed, as good go-fers are hard to find.

When she left the profession, it was just as well since her true love in life was making a negative impact in the eyes of the powers that be.

“They didn’t like my horses,” Falcone said. “I’d go to photo shoots and one of my babies would have kicked me and I’d have a footprint on my leg. They were yelling at me going ‘Those horses are going to kill you!’ I said ‘Just put some make-up on it and cover it up.’”

Falcone puts Ugly Betty through a morning workout.

Horses are, in fact, what Falcone lives for.

When Jennifer was born in Newburgh, N.Y., in 1983, her mom, Margaret Payne, was already in her second year owning horses. The family moved to Fredonia when she was in third grade and by then Falcone was firmly entrenched in the Standardbreds.

“I pretty much took right to them,” she said. “My mom tried to keep me away from the racehorses for as long as possible. I had show horses and stuff like that, but I got back into the racehorses.”

Falcone embraced the animals and tended to them constantly. Asked if she was one of those kids who ran home from school just to be in the barn, Falcone said “Yeah, pretty much. I went to college for business management and accounting, now I basically shovel (crap) every day.”

Her mom began to breed horses, which led to Jennifer’s first official training win.

Margaret owned Mystical Beauty and bred the mare to On The Road Again, resulting in female pacer Red Road Rage, who won multiple times on the New York Sire Stakes circuit. When Red Road Rage’s racing days were completed, she was bred to Camluck, resulting in female pacer Ugly Betty.

Now an 8-year-old, Ugly Betty’s story is one for the ages. As a 3-year-old she was warming up on the track prior to an Ontario Sire Stakes race and a water truck made a U-turn and hit the horse head on. She was pronounced dead on the track but then, to the astonishment of everyone, got up and was very much alive.

Ugly Betty gets a kiss from her trainer while they are out in the field.

Ugly Betty returned to the races within four months, but after little success in Canada she was shipped back to New York, where Jennifer had the magic touch while working on her with other trainers.

Despite all her other jobs and interests, the lure of training overcame the fear of failure and Falcone finally got the license she seemed born to procure. March 16 of this year became a landmark day when Ugly Betty won at Buffalo Raceway to give Jennifer her first official training win.

“She’s been an absolutely amazing mare,” Jennifer said. “We’ve had other trainers working with her but I’ve been right there working alongside them. So it was pretty cool for me to finally get my trainer’s license and have all my hard work pay off.”

It continues to pay off, as Falcone has won three times since. She gained another win with Ugly Betty, along with one each with September Hall and Son Of Nordic. Falcone co-owns all three horses with her mom.

The mother-daughter team owns 14 horses, including several babies that Jennifer works with, along with five that are currently racing. Payne and her recently engaged daughter have their babies in Portland, N.Y. The older horses they own are in Buffalo and Dunkirk. September Hall and Son Of Nordic are both racing Friday.

Jennifer now has help, as her fiancé, Jamie Grover, has come on board after the gas-and-oil company he worked for had massive layoffs.

“It’s kind of cool having him here because I’m so busy,” Falcone said. “It’s tough being a girl and having everything to do yourself. He helps every day and does all the heavy lifting. His family always had quarter horses and show horses, but he didn’t even know the race world existed.”

Like pretty much everything else in her life, there is an interesting backstory to Jennifer’s engagement. Along with horses, runways and mixing drinks, she has also ridden a Harley Davidson since age 16.

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Falcone

Jennifer Falcone enjoys riding her Harley Davidson.

“My dad had a bike when I was a baby, and I used to sleep on the gas tank between his legs when I was just a baby,” she said. “I’ve always loved to ride. I guess you can say it’s in my blood. I like going on bike runs during the summer; especially runs that raise money for good causes.”

Just recently, Grover took her on a ride that provided a really good personal cause. Since her bike wouldn’t start, Jennifer hopped on the back of her boyfriend’s ride. As they headed down the road, he put it on cruise control, whipped out a ring and asked Falcone to marry him as they were moving.

That was the kind of question that needed to be answered standing still.

“I was shocked when he pulled the ring out,” she said. “I said ‘Would you pull over?’”

She quickly said yes, admitting that it was love at first sight when Grover walked into the bar where she was celebrating a girlfriend’s birthday in January.

The irony in all of this is that while Falcone loves going fast on a motorcycle, she has no desire to ever get into the sulky and drive a horse in competition. That being said, Falcone still has what she wants in life after getting that trainer’s license.

“I’ve always wanted to be with the horses and I love doing it every day,” she said. “You get to wake up and do something and try not to consider it work. My mom and I are partners, so I get to see everything from every aspect. It is a lot of work. But it’s an amazing feeling when the babies that you raise make it to the track and do well.”

As for the future, she said, “I’m just hoping everybody stays safe and sound and keeps racing good. The two trotting colts we have (yearlings Incoherent and Mondaynitefootball) can start working in September for next year. So that will be exciting.”

If anyone knows about exciting, it’s Jennifer Falcone. Just look at the life she’s led up to this point.