Douglas Nunn

Born: April 10, 1969 | Birthplace: Newark, NY | Residence: Howell, NJ

First Win: Garaja, Garden State, 1993 | Started Training: 1992, Meadowlands Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Monmouth Park, Mid-Atlantic

The newcomer to the Tampa Bay Downs training ranks kept the claims clerk busy last season, claiming 31 horses through the course of the meet while losing 27. When the dust settled, Nunn, then training primarily for Winner Circle Stables, had sent out 15 winners, good for a 10th-place finish. Nunn’s ability to spot a horse with potential came through again last summer, when he claimed New Jersey-bred Smithwick’s Spice for $15,000 at Monmouth Park for the gelding’s breeder, New Spice Stable. After Nunn moved him to the turf, Smithwick’s Spice ran off three victories in a row, capped by the 5-furlong Joey P. Handicap at Monmouth. Nunn also trained the mare Karmageddon, winning three stakes with her from 2009-2011. Nunn is a former jockey whose twin brother, David, was a successful trainer, conditioning the mare Withgreatpleasure to victory in the Grade II Ruffian Handicap in 2013 at Aqueduct. The twins’ late sister, Michele Harris, was a jockey who rode at Tampa Bay Downs (then Florida Downs) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Douglas Nunn rode his last race in 2013 at Penn National, winning an Amateur Riders Club of America-sponsored race for amateur riders aboard a 28-1 shot, Red Jack. Before becoming a jockey, he worked for Hall of Fame trainer MacKenzie “Mack” Miller as an exercise rider in Aiken, S.C. In 2018, Nunn worked for New Beginnings Thoroughbreds in New Jersey, a nonprofit organization devoted to re-training off-the-track racehorses for second careers. Nunn believes in the spirit and desire inherent in all Thoroughbreds and is willing to ship horses to different tracks in pursuit of victory. “I always say there is a place for a horse to race. You just have to find that spot. It’s not always at home, but there is a spot if you keep that condition book open,” he says.