{"id":384608,"date":"2025-08-30T07:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T07:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384608\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T07:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T07:55:10","slug":"when-it-came-to-harness-racing-zach-carroll-had-no-plan-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384608\/","title":{"rendered":"When it came to harness racing, Zach Carroll had no plan B"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Matthew Lomon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zach Carroll will be the first to admit he\u2019s not a big believer in fate or destiny, but a life in standardbred racing is exactly where the 25-year-old horseman is meant to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing through school and high school, you play a lot of sports, and you have other interests, but as far as a career, I never found anything that piqued my interest like the horses did,\u201d Carroll said. \u201cI looked at colleges, universities, and stuff like that in and after high school, but I never found anything that was like, \u2018Yeah, this is what I want to do.\u2019 The horses were always number one. I guess I never had a backup plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding why a career in harness racing was plan A, B, and C for Carroll is quite simple.<\/p>\n

The oldest of four kids grew up in a horse racing family, led by mom Karen \u2013 a do-it-all horsewoman who won the 1999 Women\u2019s Driver Challenge in PEI representing Ontario \u2014 his veterinarian father Dr. Wayne Carroll, and maternal grandfather, trainer Blake Bennett.<\/p>\n

While mom and dad suggested he follow his siblings and pursue interests beyond racing, Zach had already inherited a deep bond with the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always interested in horses,\u201d Zach said. \u201cI was always around the horses growing up. My grandpa had his own farm with a half-mile track and pretty big barn. My uncle and mom always had a couple horses over there, too; she was still training and driving a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrandpa\u2019s farm is where we\u2019d spend most of our summers. Every morning we\u2019d get in the car, make the trek over, and spend the mornings there while they were jogging and training horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite their initial reluctance, Zach added that no two people have been more influential in his harness career than mom and dad.<\/p>\n

An accomplished horsewoman in the driving, training, breeding, and owning disciplines, Karen\u2019s passion for the game was ignited as a youngster, much like her son\u2019s, by her father (Blake) and grandfather George Bennett, who bred and raced standardbreds.<\/p>\n

Wayne, on the other hand, was the direct opposite.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t grow up in racing, or ever had any involvement for that matter, but went to the University of Guelph to specialize in Equine Medicine.<\/p>\n

Yet it was the horses, as Zach recalled, that brought Karen and Wayne together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey met when he was the vet at one of the tracks and she was racing,\u201d Zach said. \u201cThey got married, started their own farm, and have definitely been the biggest influence for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, mom\u2019s worn a lot of hats in this industry from trainer, driver, owner, breeder, and dad as a vet \u2014 I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever had an owner\u2019s license \u2014 but I certainly learned most of what I know from those two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen and Wayne established Talbot Creek Farm, a 128-acre property in Shedden, ON, in 1998 \u2013 two years before Zach was born.<\/p>\n

Those countless hours spent between his family\u2019s farms honing his craft and strengthening his connection with the game began materializing into something tangible during his high school years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already had my owner\u2019s license and owned a few horses, but around then is when I thought I might like to be a trainer,\u201d Zach said.<\/p>\n

The wheels on a conditioning career started turning rather quickly for Zach after he acquired his first training pupil, a chestnut trotter named El Diablo Rojo, or \u201cThe Red Devil,\u201d in English.<\/p>\n

Bought by Karen for $7,500 at the 2011 Standardbred Canada Yearling Sale at Flamboro, El Diablo Rojo performed admirably for the Carrolls, making nearly $120,000 across 154 starts (11-12-15).<\/p>\n

When the son of Striking Sahbra\u2014Armbro Rosalind\u2019s heyday passed, Karen saw a prime learning opportunity for Zach.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce he turned 4 and 5, he wasn\u2019t quite as great as he was as a 2- and 3-year-old,\u201d Zach said. \u201cMom brought him back and let me train him a little bit. We didn\u2019t have a track or anything at mom\u2019s farm, but we lived on a gravel road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d jog him up and down that road and we\u2019d go race him at London [Western Fair], Sarnia [Hiawatha], wherever. That was kind of the start of my training.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young trainer\u2019s time with El Diablo Rojo set the foundation for a full boar charge into the next stage of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings really took off after high school,\u201d Zach said. \u201cI had found this mare for sale on Standardbred Canada named Amulet Seelster. She was listed for like $8,000 Canadian. She had just qualified. She was 5 years old up at Rideau [Carleton]. She had raced at 2, 3, and 4 \u2014 not a lot \u2014 but she had a pretty good pedigree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using his breeding knowledge \u2014 another invaluable lesson from the Karen and Wayne school of racing \u2014 Zach pitched Karen the idea to purchase Amulet Seelster, breed her, and sell her in the 2019 Harrisburg Mixed Sale.<\/p>\n

Karen agreed and opted to follow the same route with another mare she co-owned with her son, Glancewithme.<\/p>\n

Plans, however, famously change.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time the sale came around, I had grown to like this Amulet Seelster mare, especially her breeding and what her family was doing at the time; mom liked the other mare,\u201d Zach said, adding with a laugh, \u201cThey both shipped to Harrisburg, went through the ring and I bought Amulet Seelster and mom bought Glancewithme. It ended up being an expensive trip to Harrisburg for something that probably could have been solved over the kitchen table.\u201d<\/p>\n

With an effective, albeit admittedly expensive, solution in place, Zach now had a mare in foal to Control The Moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018You know what, I\u2019d like to see this one out, break him, train him, and see where it goes,\u2019\u201d said Zach after the birth of his new Control The Moment\u2014Amulet Seelster colt.<\/p>\n

That decision, and the exacting process of it all coming together, instantly proved worthwhile.<\/p>\n

The colt, a brown pacer by the name of Reign Supreme, became the horse Zach credits as the catalyst for getting his career in the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have him today,\u201d Zach said. \u201cHe\u2019s 5 years old now and he was the start of it. He\u2019s been so rewarding. He\u2019s not the easiest horse to handle, maybe that\u2019s my fault for spoiling him a little bit when he was young.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely not a people horse \u2014 we get along pretty well \u2014 but he\u2019s been so gratifying to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reign Supreme has been a stalwart for Zach, rattling off a 10-12-9 line, including four OSS victories, across 59 starts for north of $180,000 in prize money.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see him from when he was a baby, I was there when he was born, and then seeing the first time we put a halter on him, the first time we put a harness on him \u2013 it\u2019s just been such a rewarding experience,\u201d Zach said. \u201cHe had so much success, especially as a 2- and 3-year-old in the Grassroots program, and he\u2019s given me the ability to acquire more horses and grow my stable and my name too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reliable gelding was at his best yet again in the $11,000 preferred 2 pace on Monday (Aug. 18) at Grand River Raceway \u2013 a time when Zach needed someone to step up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been having a rough go the last couple of weeks and I raced a couple Friday night at Mohawk that I thought should have won or had a chance to win,\u201d he said. \u201cOne ended up being third at 3-5 and the other was no good at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure enough, he [Reign Supreme] goes out two days later and wins a preferred at Grand River when I really wasn\u2019t expecting him to. He always seems to pick us up when we\u2019re down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brought together by Amulet Seelster, in what some might call a stroke of luck, or even fate, Zach and Reign Supreme are exactly where they belong.<\/p>\n

A fitting first chapter for Zach in what is sure to be a long and prosperous career.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who is successful in this business are hard workers,\u201d Zach said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to work hard, pay attention to detail, and the biggest one for me is stay out of the horse\u2019s way as much as you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the horses be horses, help them where you can, but at the end of the day, if you\u2019re putting in your work, looking after your horses, they\u2019re going to do the rest for you.<\/p>\n

\u201cWork hard, keep it simple, and the horses will take care of the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Matthew Lomon Zach Carroll will be the first to admit he\u2019s not a big believer in fate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-384608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115116646410507349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}