Rich Fisher

Trenton NJ — There comes a time in everyone’s life when a single thought rushes through their mind, even if it’s just for a scant second — “What have I done?”

Shane and Lauren Tritton likely asked themselves that question in mid-March.

The husband-and-wife team had dominated Australia’s harness racing scene over the past several years but, since it’s tough to make decent money in the sport Down Under, decided to try America.

It is turning out to be a nice move, as Shane has amassed 19 training wins, nine seconds, 11 thirds and $199,498 in purses in 72 starts. His horses, which he owns with a group from Australia, took five firsts and a third in their first six starts at The Meadowlands in June. Lauren, a superstar driver back home, has focused more on helping Shane train but did get her first U.S. driving win July 31 at Yonkers.

Shane and Lauren Tritton are acclimating to racing in America. Ashlea Brennan Photography.

“We couldn’t have dreamt we’d start that well,” Shane said. “It’s hard when you first come. It’s so different here, the racing is different. You’ve got to put your school hat back on and try to learn. Me and Lauren train the horses together so we’ve been trying to work things out between us. I think the horses are looking really good and feeling good. I think they’ve responded pretty well and hopefully we can keep things going.”

It sounds great. But man (or mate, in this case), did they have some anxious moments before it all started.

After deciding to abandon highly successful careers in Australia, the Trittons planned on coming here with 3-year-old son Levi in the late spring. But when word came down that European borders were going to be closed due to COVID-19, the couple worried it might happen to their country as well.

“We were kind of stuck,” Tritton said. “We planned for our horses to come, we’d sold most of our stuff and we planned to move out of that house. If they shut the borders to Australia, we’d have all these horses with nowhere to go and nowhere to be, so we basically made a decision to leave early.

“We sold everything we owned in the space of about four days and moved the horses up as fast as we could. We got here the 8th of March. It was basically right in the middle of everything. It was pretty scary.”

For several reasons.

First, they were traveling with a 3-year-old. Secondly, they had no idea when their horses would arrive at their barn in Pine Bush, N.Y.

“Our horses’ flights got cancelled twice in the first two weeks we were here,” Tritton said. “The horses could come, they were fine, but we couldn’t get grooms because they needed to quarantine. We had to pay a guy two grand to quarantine for two weeks so the flight would get off the ground. It was really stressful. We didn’t even know if they were going to get here.”

Making things tougher is that their horse Muscle Factory, Australia’s top 3-year-old, was unable to come due to injury. The horse won the 2019 Victoria Derby, Australia’s oldest and most prestigious 3-year-old race, in a track-tying record at Tabcorp Park Melton. He also owns the Australasian 3-year-old record of 1:49.6.

“He beat a couple horses who were the best horses in Australia. I think he was the first Australian 3-year-old pacer to break 1:50,” Tritton said. “He was obviously very good but he injured a tendon. He was probably one of the main reasons we agreed to come. We wouldn’t have left him behind if he was healthy.

“So, it was a pretty surreal two months. But we’re here now and everything has worked out.”

No argument there.

In their first U.S. training start, the Trittons watched Jordan Stratton drive My Ruebe Star N to victory at The Meadowlands on June 12. With Stratton staying in the sulky, wins followed with Gods Spirit N and My Ruebe Star N again, a third by Ohoka Johnny N and wins by Lespndnitetogeta N and Flaming Flutter N.

The Trittons, who have just over 20 horses in their stable, have also been racing at Yonkers and The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

“It’s funny, you’d think Meadowlands would be the hardest track to race, but there’s a couple other tracks where they race them harder,” Tritton said. “They might not run as fast but they kind of push them pretty hard. I think finding out what horses can suit that is a big key. Hopefully, we can fine tune things and get better at it.”

In that respect, the COVID-19 shutdown actually helped the Trittons when they arrived at Pine Bush. It offered time to learn the nuances of American training and racing, rather than jumping right into things.

“As much as no one wants this to happen, it gave us a chance to take things a bit slower and it was probably better for the horses too,” Tritton said. “They’re not quite racing as much as they would have if we were here under normal conditions. We try to look at the bright side of things.”

One thing the Trittons learned is that the style of racing is different in America.

“Everything is fairly similar except the way the drivers drive the horses,” Shane said. “They kind of leave nothing in the tank. That’s the biggest difference when it comes to the training of them. In Australia we’re still very technical. If you can get an easy quarter, you do, and then the last quarter is usually the quickest. It doesn’t really take as big a toll as the races do here.

“A couple of the tracks here they’re sort of all out the whole way. As much as they run quicker times it also takes a bit out of the horses too. You have to have them prepared a little bit different and have them trained a little different as well. The racing’s a lot harder, we need to reflect that in their work. I think we’re adapting to that OK and I think our horses will keep getting better. And we’re starting to get some outside horses too, so we can kind of experiment a little more with them.”

Helping in the transition process has been Shane’s dad, Peter, who has been in America for 20 years and set his family up at Pine Bush. Shane jokingly noted he repaid dad by beating him twice in their first three head-to-head match-ups.

“We’ve always sort of bounced things off each other,” Tritton said. “Now that we’re here, he just said ‘These are the things you don’t do. Bringing the horses over it’s very important not to get them sick; and you can’t push them.’ He’s had trial and error the last 20 years and I can leapfrog that trial and error and go straight to the stuff that works.”

The fact that it worked right away was a pleasant surprise for Tritton, but also a relief.

“If you come here and get beat in your first 10 starts, you start to question why you’re here and what you’re doing,” Shane said. “It’s really unknown. We didn’t know if the horses we brought were good enough and we didn’t know if the way we train would suit them. As much as you want success you also don’t want to fail.”

Failure was unheard of for the Aussie in his home state of New South Wales. He set the NSW record with 222 wins in a season and won the past three NSW Metropolitan trainers’ titles. In Keinbah, Shane won seven straight Newcastle premierships.

Why would anyone leave all that?

Money.

“We couldn’t have been any more successful than we were, but it was hard to get ahead, which is a shame,” Tritton said. “We thought ‘We can’t really do much more than this,’ and we really weren’t getting ahead. My dad always knew we could make money here if we came.”

Shane wasn’t the only Tritton success story on the continent. Since she began driving four years ago, Lauren became the youngest driver in Australia’s history to win more than 500 races (and left with more than 900). She also became the first female to win the NSW Metropolitan driver’s title.

Lauren’s drives have curtailed dramatically in America so far, but Shane was happy to see her guide 11-year-old Flaming Flutter N to victory on July 31 at Yonkers.

“We’re so used to Lauren driving every horse and here we wanted to let the horses settle into things without Lauren worrying about driving them,” Tritton said. “She’s finally got the chance for the horses to get used to everything plus for us to learn how it’s done and what’s going on.

“I know how good of a driver she is. I know my horses have always gone better for her than anybody I’ve ever put on them. I’ve got full faith in her. I was just more relieved that America got to see she can drive. I know, pound for pound, she’s as good as any person in the world. I think with time we’ll get to see more of that, and you’ll definitely see more of her when she feels comfortable enough.

“She’s been pushed pretty hard and raced a lot the past five years. I think she’s enjoying the training side a bit more and not having the pressure of the driving. When she feels comfortable enough you’ll definitely see more of her.”

In Australia, the Trittons had 50 to 100 horses at one time, whereas here they want to limit the amount to 25 in order to enjoy life as a family more. But there are some things they hope to accomplish.

“We want to break into a few of the bigger races,” Shane said. “We probably will get a couple babies and start to get into some of the stakes races. We did that at home, where here we’ve obviously taken on the overnights.

“We don’t want to push things too much. In five years, I’m hoping all that’s changed is the quality of horses are a little better and we’re a little bit happier.”