from Harness Racing Communications, a division of the USTA

Freehold, NJ — Among the top 50 breeders of horses racing in North America, Gary and Barbara Iles of Harrington, Del., pack a small, but powerful punch.

Coming in at number 46 on that list, which includes all of the sport’s largest commercial operations, horses bred by the Iles have the highest percentage of winners from starters, a whopping 86 percent. Of the seven horses bred by the Iles to race this year, six of them have won a total of 18 races and Iles-bred horses have earned $251,913 in 2007.

Helping lead the way for the Iles is their broodmare, Pocket Comb, a daughter of In The Pocket and the Iles’ mare Shampoo Girl. Pocket Comb is the dam of four horses currently competing, Love That Cut (1:53.3, $270,116), Hot Lather (1:51.2, $174,264), Lather Machine (1:50.1, $224,023) and the lightly raced 3-year-old filly Lockes Of Love (1:53.4, $25,690). The Iles horses are trained by Bob Clark.

The tonsorial names are derived from the recently-retired Gary Iles’ career owning a barbershop.

“It started out that everything was named for something with the barbershop, like Nick The Neck or Brush On By,” Barbara Iles said. “We’re running out of names, so we’re trying to incorporate different things. We try to bring in the mom and dad’s name, but it’s difficult. We had a colt born last year named I’m Outta Hair; he was born to Hair She Goes. There’s a story to that one, too; a young lady dying of cancer suggested that name — we since lost that friendship, but the horse was named after her death, so it was a way of keeping Julie’s memory with us.”

Barbara is a retired emergency room and operating room nurse. They met in 1960 and subsequently married. Gary has owned horses since 1959 and manages the family’s Bridle Path Farm, caring for broodmares and their progeny.

They have high hopes for stable up-and-comer Lockes Of Love. The 3-year-old daughter of Blissfull Hall, racing at Harrington Raceway, is named for a charitable organization that provides hairpieces to children under 18 who have medical-related hair loss. The charity accepts donations of human hair to make the hairpieces. Barbara Iles says the name was inspired by their 12-year-old granddaughter.

“Our granddaughter, Riley, at the age of 9, had very long hair and she donated her hair to the Locks of Love Foundation (www.locksoflove.org),” Iles said. “Then when she was 11, it had grown quite long once again, and so she made a second donation. It was about that time we had this filly. We were looking for a name and our grandchildren always help us select names for our horses. We just threw out Lockes Of Love and said that would be her horse; she was happy to have her named that.

Foto Won photo

Lockes Of Love (Ross Wolfenden) crosses the finish line first in a February race at Dover Downs.

“Before the horse started racing, Gary and I said that if we had success with the horse, we would contribute a portion of her earnings to the Locks of Love Foundation and that’s what we’ve been doing. We committed to a 2 percent donation.”

Barbara Iles said Riley follows the filly’s exploits, and Lockes Of Love has never been off the board in eight lifetime starts.

“She’s very proud, very proud,” Iles said of Riley. “When the children lived up here (Riley has since moved away from Delaware) they attended a lot of races. Crew Cut Zach (1:51.2, $1,006,055, In The Pocket-Shampoo Girl) was named for our grandson, Zachary, so at a very young age the children were always coming to the races and rooting for their horse. We have another horse named Riley’s Do, as in hairdo. Now they watch the horses on computer. Riley has almost a year before her hair can be donated again, as you need a minimum of a 10-inch length.”

The Iles hope to see Lockes Of Love competing in their neighboring state of Pennsylvania this summer, in races for Keystone State breds.

“She’s not heavily staked because she was injured as a 2-year-old,” Iles said. “The Pennsylvania stakes are current.”

The status of the Iles Stable is hardly a surprise, Iles said.

“Gary has been trying to improve our stock for always,” she said. “Now Pocket Comb is bred to Western Hanover and he’d like a filly out of that. Pocket Comb was bred to be good and she is from Shampoo Girl, who is the mother of (their million dollar winner) Crew Cut Zach.”