by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — He wasn’t exactly sold on Neely Dunn as a sire and conditioned his dam for a season of her racing career, so Marty Wollam did not have very high expectations for Neely’s Messenger. However, after recently being crowned as Ohio’s Horse of the Year, Wollam has a whole new perspective on his Buckeye State Trotting Triple Crown victor.

“I had never trained any of the Neely Dunns,” he said. “Fun Message, his dam, wasn’t the greatest racehorse even though she was well bred and they bred her to nice stallions, but she never produced anything. I didn’t really think too much of him when we first brought him in and he actually paced a lot early on. A lot of trotters do that though and as time went on he just kept improving.”

Purchased for $10,000 by Dale and Julie Ann Sweet at the 2013 Blooded Horse Sale, Neely’s Messenger is an extremely handsome horse that compiled a record of 8-7-0-0 last year as a freshman and earned $215,945 while racing solely in Ohio. If not for a fourth place finish in his first start on July 4, the gelding would have been undefeated. In fact, as the year progressed, so did Neely’s Messenger.

Conrad photo

Neely’s Messenger won the Ohio Triple Crown on his way to Horse of the Year honors in the Buckeye State.

His last two performances, in a $32,767 division of the Ohio Breeders Championship on Sept. 16 at Delaware and the $200,000 Ohio Sire Stakes Championship at Scioto Downs on Sept. 27, were powerful. He simply cruised around the track on Ohio Super Night and established his lifetime mark of 1:58.2f.

Wollam is also responsible for steering the horse.

“I really did not know what to make of this horse, because my thoughts on the Neely Dunns were they had a lot of speed but did not seem to finish out their miles well, but that is not him,” Wollam said. “The only time he’s ever done anything wrong — and I don’t know what got into him — but one night at Scioto he banged right into the gate before the start of the race. We had to have a recall and he broke his head pole. I just went back, took that off him and put him right on the gate. He’s never done that again and that’s what I always do with him now.”

Like many horses, Neely’s Messenger does have his little quirks. After last season, Wollam did decide to geld the horse and thinks it will improve him for this year’s campaign.

“He can be a little bit salty,” Wollam said. “That’s for sure. But he has good manners. I can already see where gelding him has made a happier horse. He has also really filled out over the winter and put on some weight.

“We’ll probably qualify him twice at The Meadows and then his first stake will be down at Miami Valley.”

Although Neely’s Messenger does have his own way about him, some of his preferences may actually have contributed to his success on the track.

“He can sulk a little bit and he liked to follow other horses,” Wollam said. “As he learned how to race that did improve, but he still had a tendency to do only what he needed to. I do think that might have helped him though because as he raced, he sped up accordingly with the other horses. It worked out for him.”

Naturally, the Sweets were thrilled with their horse’s success, but Neely’s Messenger definitely holds a special place in their hearts.

“It is great to see the Sweets have him turn out like this,” Wollam said. “They have been involved in racing for a long time and they owned his mother. They sold her and decided to buy him because of that even though she really had produced nothing.

“Dale’s wife died several years ago and it’s as if this horse has made everything come full circle, for all of us involved. It has been terrific to see how much the Sweets are enjoying him and what he has done for them. We are really looking forward to this year with him.”