TRAINER SCOTT YOUNG, ONE OF THE BRIGHTEST SHOOTING STARS SINCE HANGING UP HIS JOCKEY SILKS
For eight years trainer Scott Young couldn’t even look at pizza or Mexican food, trying to retain his jockey weight of about 115 pounds. Then six years ago when he hung up his riding silks to become a trainer, ALL he could look at was food. Young has had plenty of dough to purchase all the cuisine he desires with the early success he has had as a trainer.
“That was the best part about giving up riding,” Young said. “I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. I think I gained about 15 pounds in 48 hours after I quit riding. I weigh about 145 pounds right now.”
Young had immediate success, sending out 14 starters in the first weeks of his first meet as a trainer at Remington Park in 2012. He hit the board in 12 of those starts, winning six. That was an incredible 86 percent in-the-money stat, and 43 percent in victories for the Pryor, Okla. resident.
“The whole time I was riding, I had my head on a swivel, watching what all the successful trainers were doing,” Young noted. “It turned out that the ones who won were the same ones who were treating their horses the best.”
Young has a couple of horses in the same race on Opening Night this Friday, with Fred C and Shannon C going in the seventh race, an Oklahoma-bred allowance at 6-1/2 furlongs. He is high on both horses, but Shannon C carries a very special place in the hearts of those in the barn.
“He is named after a guy named Shannon Cox,” Young said. “Shannon was a guy, you couldn’t ask for a better person to help around the barn. He unexpectedly passed away a couple of years ago. We were getting ready for the Will Rogers Downs meet and he was riding in the car with my wife and she looked over and it looked like he just went to sleep. It was an aneurysm. We miss him very much. For this horse to be named after him makes it very special for us.”
Shannon C is 3-1 in the morning line, but has been working a hole in the wind with five-furlong moves of 59-and-change and 58-and-change.
The $100,000 Remington Green is featured on Opening Night. Saturday evening is the 4th-annual “Remington Bark” featuring an evening of fun for canines and their guests with costume contests, obstacle course and exhibition dog races. The first Thoroughbred race on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 24 & 25, is at 7pm-Central.
-30-