Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — It has a catchy advertising slogan, but Ace was definitely not the place for Amanda Blackford. And it had nothing to do with a faulty rake or bum cabinet fixture.

At age 19, the Maryland resident was involved in harness racing, but stepped away for financial reasons and took a job at Ace Hardware. She shot up the employee ladder, quickly being promoted from cashier to assistant manager.

During that time Blackford did a paddock for Tammy and Gary Crescenze of Northern Creek Farm. Gary was impressed enough to offer her a job, but the lure of the promotion kept Amanda in hardware for a bit longer.

But . . .

“It was killing me; I missed the barn work,” said the 21-year-old trainer, who has seven wins and $43,220 in purses in 44 starts this year at Rosecroft Raceway, where she is tied for 10th in victories. “I missed working with the horses. I decided I didn’t want to be inside all day. I liked having a little more freedom than what a regular job gives you.”

Amanda Blackford and John Mac, with whom she got her first win as a trainer in January 2023. Provided photo.

So, 18 months ago she took Crescenze up on his offer and has been there ever since. It could not come at a better time, as Blackford has suffered some emotional hits recently.

A year ago, she lost her mom, who had battled a long illness that prompted the two to move from Florida to Maryland when she was 4 years old. They moved in with Amanda’s grandfather, Robert Smith, his wife Valerie, and her aunt and uncle, Stephanie and Lou DuBrel.

After moving out just last year, tragedy struck the home she grew up in as a fire burned it to the ground. No human lives were taken but three dogs and seven cats perished, and the DuBrels lost all their belongings. A GoFundMe page has been established by Blackford to help her family.

“It was pretty rough to get through when I lost my mom,” Blackford said. “And that fire was pretty rough. I only moved out last month and we lost a lot.”

Amid tough times, however, the horses provide solace.

“They absolutely help,” she said. “I started with them when I moved up here. I was always around them. I’d go to fairs and dress the horses and watch them race. It was like an addiction right away. You just can’t shake it.”

Blackford currently trains five horses at Northern Creek. One is a 2-year-old preparing for this season and she has four racehorses with R Hot Toddy, Golden Krisp, Sweetheart Deal, and Lookie A Cookie.

Sweetheart Deal has been the best so far, with three wins and $20,525 in purses this year.

“Definitely,” Blackford said. “They say Gary bought that horse as a maiden on my first day working there. It’s been incredible to see him grow. He was a 2-year-old back then and now he’s an open horse for us. He’s a pleasure to work with. By far the barn favorite.”

R Hot Toddy has not been too shabby either.

“He’s been phenomenal this year,” Blackford said. “He got hurt really bad in the field and was turned out for a while. He’s come back and been great. It’s surprising. He’s a finicky horse. He’s got to get the right trip. It seems recently he’s coming into himself. He’s five out of eight this year coming in first or second. He’s been racing great.”

What’s truly great is that Blackford seems to be exactly where she belongs in life, it just took a little time to get there.

She gained her love of horses while working with her grandfather and uncle, saying “My grandfather loved Ocean Downs. For a long time, he was in New Jersey racing at Freehold and Monticello back in the ’80s. He moved down here to Maryland, I moved up from Florida, and I was just around it my whole life.”

Upon her arrival in the nation’s Crab Capital, Valerie took Amanda to the Great Pocomoke Fair, which enhanced her equestrian love.

“That’s really a blast,” Blackford said. “Everyone could be involved. My grandmother was in a wheelchair, she would go in the barn, see all the horses, talk to all the people. It was a great family environment. A long time ago my family had some horses in it, and I was running around the fairgrounds helping them.”

When Smith passed away, Blackford became distanced from the racing world. In 2017, when Amanda was 15, Stephanie DuBrel signed her up for the Harness Horse Youth Foundation Camp, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association at Mohegan Pennsylvania’s Pocono Downs.

It was a fulfilling experience culminating with the exhibition racing finale. In third of the day’s three exhibitions, Blackford drove her horse to victory accompanied by professional driver Jim Marohn Jr.

“My aunt had seen it online, her two sons had done it when they were younger, she said ‘Hey I think you’d love this,’” Blackford said. “I went to the camp and that kind of lit the fire under me to get back into it more seriously. That was a whole lot of fun. I loved doing the Youth Foundation.”

Amanda eventually partnered with a friend to buy the horse Rockin Dougie. That is when she began her pursuit of a trainer’s license. Cliff White, a mentor who Blackford met at Pocomoke, was listed as the horse’s trainer.

“He’s a real nice man,” Blackford said. “He lives in Bloxom, Va., and was always stabled at Pocomoke. When we had a couple horses, he would always tell us different remedies to take care of the legs, give us different training ideas. He’s so supportive. Every night we race he gives me a call and wants to talk about the horses and what he saw. He’ll always congratulate us.”

But when Rockin Dougie got hurt and couldn’t race, Blackford was in need of money and had to live in the “real world.” That lasted about eight months.

“I got sick of Ace,” Blackford said. “At first I got sick of the cold but after a while I decided I didn’t like working out in the cold, but I realized being with the horses was better than working at Ace.”

Amanda quickly hooked up with the Crescenzes and her career was underway. She had four starts in 2022, then got her first win in January 2023 when Russell Foster drove John Mac to a wire-to-wire victory in 1:54.2 at Rosecroft. Amanda thought her horse might hit a wall after opening with a blistering :26.3.

“That was pretty shocking, I didn’t believe it when he finally crossed the wire,” she said. “He was not a horse that finished very well. I saw him on the front end, and I thought ‘This is going great, but I don’t know how long it will be going great for.’ It was pretty exciting. My head was in the clouds for a while.”

Blackford finished last season with three wins and $39,835 in earnings, marks that she has already surpassed this season.

“I’m very happy with this year so far,” she said. “The horses are great to work with. Gary and Tammy are wonderful people to work for and work with. They’re super nice and they just treat you like family. It’s just a great environment to be in.”

Her highlight came last year when Sweetheart Deal won his first open race at Ocean Downs.

Things have continued to improve, and she is grateful to her aunt and uncle, “who are always behind me and support me no matter what. They love it too.”

Gary and Tammy Crescenze have also been helpful.

“They’ve taught me a lot of things, like when it’s time to sell or buy, how to look for good horses,” Blackford said. “They’ve given me the opportunity to train all these horses. They’re nice horses, and they’re nice people.”

In looking toward her future, Amanda will continue to race in Maryland but eventually hopes to venture north to Harrah’s Philadelphia and the Meadowlands.

As for possibly driving, she feels her smaller size makes it difficult, saying “these horses are so strong, they can easily overpower you. I’m taking that part of things kind of slow.”

Actually, that is how she is taking her entire career for now.

“I don’t really have any kind of plan or idea set,” she said. “It’s just a go-with-the-flow kind of thing.”

She is just happy the flow took her from the murky stream of selling hardware into the sparkling waters of harness racing.