Breeders' Cup Presents Connections: 'It's Not A Job, It's Your Whole Life'
Shane Wilson, with Evelyn Benoit's Louisiana-bred Ova Charged as his stable star, is enjoying his best season as a Thoroughbred trainer
Chelsea Hackbarth | Pauulick Report
If you take a stroll down trainer Shane Wilson’s shedrow, you’d better be willing to pony up – on peppermints, that is. Brittlyn Stable's 6-year-old racemare Ova Charged will reach out over the stall guard and turn her head sideways, begging for her “candy,” Wilson said. And once Ova gets hers, well, the rest of the barn is demanding they get their piece, as well.
Wilson could be forgiven for handing over a couple extra treats to Ova Charged, however. The 6-year-old Louisiana-bred racemare by Star Guitar is six-for-six this year, all in stakes races, including a win at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks day in the G3 Unbridled Sidney Stakes.
“She came to me last summer after a freshening, and Mrs. (Evelyn) Benoit gave me a chance with her,” Wilson said. “She was always super talented, she maybe just didn’t need all the workouts, because she puts so much into her training every single day.
“She is really smart, and doesn’t waste any energy, but she’ll come off the track soaking wet every single day. She’ll also stand in the paddock at Churchill Downs with 100,000 people there on Kentucky Oaks day, and never turn a hair. She knows her job, and she is just the perfect definition of a racehorse.”
Ova Charged has won two more stakes since the Grade 3 at Churchill, improving her record in Wilson’s care to seven wins from seven starts, all in stakes races. Her Churchill win was the third graded stakes win of Wilson’s career, following two by Mocito Rojo in 2019.
“You always think you can do that, but until you get the athlete in the barn, you don’t really know and you can’t show what you can do,” Wilson explained.
There seem to be plenty of athletes in the 53-year-old Wilson’s barn right now; he won his first training title at the Fair Grounds winter meet earlier this year, and is on course for a career-best season in both wins and earnings.
Thus far, Wilson’s best year training came in 2023, with 91 wins and earnings of $2,444,313. Already in the first six months of 2024, he has won 69 races for earnings of $2,436,490.
“Gosh, we had a super meet at the Fair Grounds; everything just kind of came together,” he said. “It’s our big meet, compared to what we run for the rest of the year, so we point everything to that meet. Winning the title, that’s a big deal for us, because you’re competing with all these big names. I’m very proud.”
It’s a long way from the McDonald’s on top of the hill overlooking Louisiana Downs, where Wilson first learned about horse racing. He was 14 years old, working at the fast food restaurant to earn money for his first car; his father had said he’d co-sign the loan, but Wilson had to make all the payments for the automobile.
“This guy came in really early one morning, and I asked whether he was going hunting or fishing,” Wilson recalled. “He said he was working at the racetrack, and that I could make $125 a week walking the horses around to cool out after training. I was only making $75 a week at McDonald’s. Well, I played football and basketball, so I figured I could walk a horse!”
The next morning, Wilson was waiting outside the stable gate bright and early when a call came over the loudspeaker asking for a hotwalker at Jack Van Berg’s barn. He would wind up working for the Hall of Fame trainer in the mornings and at McDonald’s in the evenings that summer, earning enough to pay his car note and insurance all through the school year.
