(Ontario trainers Mike Keeling (right) and his wife, Paula Wellwood were ecstatic in August after their colt Marion Marauder won the Hambletonian. Dave Landry photo)
by Dave Briggs
There’s little doubt Trotting Triple Crown winner Marion Marauder has been one of the highlights of Mike Keeling’s career, but it was a modest $5,500 yearling with a tongue-bedeviling name that changed the trainer’s life.
“There was a little Valleymeister horse I bought named Zorgwijk Bedeviled. I bought him probably the first year I went on my own,” Keeling said of the yearling purchased in 1999 at the Forest City Yearling Sale in London, ON when the trainer was 30. “It was me and my parents and the little guy made good money, but we sold him in Harrisburg and with the proceeds of that, my parents bought their first new pickup truck they’ve ever had in their life. They still have that truck."
Keeling, who lives in Cambridge, ON, raced the horse through most of his first two years before selling him to Linda Toscano. Zorgwijk Bedeviled made some $60,000 in those first two years and he proved to be something of an iron horse. He raced 10 years and earned nearly $300,000 with a record of 18-46-44 in 251 starts.
“He made some money in the (Ontario) Sires Stakes and this and that, but to have my parents get enough money out of it to buy a new diesel truck I thought, ‘Wow, if I can keep this up, maybe life can get better.’”
Hambletonian winner Marion Marauder is just one of many examples that life did indeed get better for Keeling. More than just getting Keeling’s career started, Zorgwijk Bedeviled played an important role in the trainer’s career development in other ways, as well.
“He was just a very well-made horse. I always look for horses that look like him that are kind of medium-sized and correct. He’s kind of been a benchmark for me, in a way. His pedigree wasn’t fantastic, but the individual was a benchmark.”
More For The Love of Racing