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A Lucky Change of Life for a Man and His Horses
A Lucky Change of Life for a Man and His Horses
By Leonard Shapiro
Race tracks have always been a breeding ground for heart warming (and breaking) real-life stories someone could hardly make up. Here’s another, in the feel-good category, courtesy of the Virginia Equine Alliance (VEA) and its annual harness racing meets at Shenandoah Downs in Woodstock.
You want to talk about a change in life? Just ask Steve Wetzel, a long time cattle farmer in the Shenandoah Valley. One rainy day in 2021, he took his then 14-year-old daughter Danielle, a 4-H member, to show a cow at the Shenandoah County Fair. He left the grounds that evening as a man soon to become fully invested in the horse business.
That fateful day three years ago, Wetzel had wandered over from the exhibiting area to the harness track to watch a few races. He was sitting in the nearly empty grandstand when “a lady came around and asked if I wanted to win a horse for a day,” Wetzel recalled. “They had a (VEA) contest going and they drew eight horses out of a hat. If your horse won, you kept the winnings.”
Wetzel’s horse was CC Big Boy Sam, a 5 to 1 long shot. In third place halfway around, Sam rallied for the victory and $2,625 in purse money. It didn’t take long for the check to burn a hole in Wetzel’s pocket.
After the race, he and the trainer, Brian Tomlinson, went back to the barn to tend to Sam and several other horses in the same race. Wetzel will never forget the great joy he felt that day, and a little pain as well.
As Sam was moving to the front, Wetzel—a big man at 250 pounds—was giddily leaping up and down so much he actually injured his foot and had to wear a padded boot for several weeks. It didn’t matter.
“I had so much adrenaline going,” he said. “Just the excitement of winning the race, then seeing all the horses, being around them. I knew I wanted to be a part of it myself.”
Not long afterward, he was. Using his winnings and a bit more, he soon purchased his first harness horse, Nosey Buggsy, for $6,000, with Tomlinson the trainer.
After years in the cattle business, Wetzel, 59, also decided he wanted to sell the cattle farm and start his own horse operation. He had thriving landscaping and party equipment businesses going, and soon he was stockpiling standardbred horses, now 17 in all.
Tomlinson was having some health issues and Wetzel began going to races at Rosecroft in Prince George’s County and various horse sales, trying to learn (and earn) as much as he could.
At one 2022 sale in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he had a list of six horses to possibly bid on, but each eventually sold for over $100,000, far more than he was prepared to pay. His wife, Nicole, was there that day and has a thing for sea turtles, he said.
“When she saw a horse named Sea of Life in the sale, she said I ought to try for that one.”
And so he did. He purchased the 7-year-old gelding for $22,000 and he’s the star of the barn. In his last ten races, he’s finished in the money—either first, second or third—every time, including one win.
Last summer, Wetzel purchased a small farm, Lineweaver Acres, in Mauertown, Va., ten minutes from Shenandoah Downs. Its barn is now home to 11 standardbreds and Wetzel is totally hands on. He’s earned his training license and loves to sit in the sulky and drive his horses on the training track he leases from a neighbor, a short trot from the stable.
He and Nicole live a few miles from Lineweaver and she handles the three broodmares they keep there, particularly enamored with caring for the weanlings. She’s also rather lucky. A year after her husband won the own-the-horse-for-a-day contest, Nicole won it, too, but kept the money.
Wetzel’s horses race twice a week at Rosecroft and this summer will compete at Ocean Downs in Ocean City, Md. He’ll be extremely busy over the next two months at Shenandoah Downs, with Saturday/ Sunday races from April 6 to May 19, and a fall meet in September.
“I wouldn’t have gotten into this unless the track was this close to me,” Wetzel said. “It’s a great place to race. The crowds are noisy, real enthusiastic. At this point in my life, you could say it’s a hobby and a business. It does pay its own way, and if that stops, maybe I’ll re-evaluate.”
Then again. Don’t bet on it.
