by Chris Lomon

Gabrielle O’Hearn is always willing to go the extra mile, or in some instances, 260 miles, for the love of harness racing.

She didn’t have a horse in to race, she wasn’t scheduled to paddock, and she didn’t have any caretaking duties on tap the afternoon and evening of Sept. 28 at Dayton Raceway.

Yet, the horsewoman from Mount Morris, MI, was in the stands to watch all 14 races on the card before making the near four-hour trip back home.

“I drove all the way to Dayton to watch some friends race and then I turned around and came back home,” O’Hearn said. “I guess I just can’t get enough of it.”

It has been that way for the past seven years.

Although O’Hearn didn’t grow up in the sport, it happened to find her while she was working with a different breed of horse in her home state.

“It’s kind of a funny story,” O’Hearn said. “I drove the draft horses in Frankenmuth [MI], which takes tourists around to look at spots throughout the area. A girl who had come to work with us was in harness racing and they needed help one night.

“They asked if I wanted to come out and I said, ‘Sure!’ I like learning different things and thought it would be a great experience.”

And that is precisely what it was for O’Hearn.

Although she viewed it as a one-and-done moment, others had a different hope.

“I went to the track with her, and I got my groom license,” O’Hearn said. “I was there all of five minutes and other people started asking me if I could help them too. I asked my friend if that was okay and she was all for it, so I did.

“Then, everyone told me to come back next week, and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ But I enjoyed it and that’s what I did. It turned into a weekly thing, and I picked up more and more paddocks. I had a blast. And then I never left.”

To her amazement, O’Hearn was soon going places, quite literally.

“Another trainer needed someone to groom and took me down to Cleveland, so I got to go there for the first time,” she said. “I ended up basically living in Cleveland for two years and came back to Michigan because of my kids.”

When Starry Nite Teen, a racehorse with plenty of miles to his name came into her life, O’Hearn immediately bonded with the hard-to-handle pacer.

“He is very arrogant,” she said of the son of Art Official—Rosatina, bred by Robert Key of Leechburg, PA. “I got him for free because a trainer I was working for had claimed him out of a race, and he ended up having a broken coffin joint. He asked me if I’d like to take him.

“My intention was rehabbing him, breaking him to ride, and selling him… but then I got attached.”

So much, in fact, that it prompted O’Hearn to write the trainer’s exam just after Christmas 2021.

She passed the test.

On March 12, 2022, Starry Nite Teen, in his first race under the tutelage of O’Hearn, finished seventh at Northville Downs.

One week later, again at Northville, he was third.

Six days after, in race 12 at the same racetrack, Starry Nite Teen was three-quarters-of-a-length the best in a time of 1:57.2.

“I cried… a lot,” O’Hearn said. “He won. He was really bad in the winner’s circle, and everyone was making fun of me because I didn’t grab him.

“He is still very arrogant. But he’s not going anywhere. He gave me my first win as an owner and a trainer, and we won the High Point award for the Signature Series with him – he was my first everything.”

Starry Nite Teen, whose final start came this June, still is.

“My horse is my baby,” O’Hearn said. “I still have him, and he is going to be a jumper.”

Last year, O’Hearn didn’t send out any starters.

“I didn’t have access to a truck and trailer, and the kids’ schedules got busy,” she said. “He [Starry Nite Teen] split time between Jason Moore and David Lake.”

Now, O’Hearn is looking for a refresh and reset.

Her top priority is to find new stock.

“I am currently looking for a new horse and I want to keep training,” O’Hearn said. “I would paddock every day if I could. Ideally, I would like to move to Ohio because it doesn’t make financial sense to ship from Michigan every week.

“My ideal number of horses — in my head, I need even numbers — would be four to eight horses, if I was by myself. Anything more than that would be too much.”

Understandable, when you consider horse racing isn’t O’Hearn’s only career.

Her other job does, however, have ties to the equine world.

“I am a real estate agent, and I specialize in equestrian properties,” O’Hearn said. “When my ex and I were looking into houses, our agent was great, but I was speaking in a foreign language as far as what I needed in terms of zoning requirements for a barn and horses. I realize that there aren’t a lot of agents who specialize in equestrian properties in Michigan and most states in the U.S.”

O’Hearn is dressed for success whenever she meets with prospective buyers.

“People ask me why I only do equestrian properties, and I tell them that I can leave the barn in jeans and boots, and not worry about having to wear a dress or fancy outfit,” she said. “I’m usually walking fence lines and acreage with my clients, so they understand why I show up dressed like that.”

Outside of the racetrack and real estate worlds, O’Hearn is happily busy raising her two children, a daughter, 12, and a 9-year-old son.

Both have already developed their mother’s affection for harness racing and horses.

“I’m a happy mom,” O’Hearn said. “My son, when he was smaller — he still does it now too — would have no problem telling you what you were doing wrong. He thinks he’s a mini driver. He loves the track, and he loves following the drivers.

“My daughter does equestrian vaulting, so she enjoys everything about horses too. We kind of do everything with the horses.”

The hope, for O’Hearn, is that there is more to come with pacers and trotters.

Going the extra mile to see that come to fruition won’t be an issue.

“We’ll see where it all goes,” she said. “But I do know I love everything about this sport. How could you not?”