Keplin Chasing the Gold Cup at Assiniboia Downs

By Scott Taylor (@staylorsports)

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Steve Keplin Jr., the 31-year-old thoroughbred trainer from Belcourt, N.D., suddenly has a hot one on his hands.

The horse’s name is Exacting and on Tuesday night, he shocked the field with a brilliant run in the $24,000 Nephrite Overnight Stakes. With Sven Balroop in the saddle, Exacting got a great break, settled in behind the speed horse, Glava until the top of the turn and then exploded to take a five-length lead on the field. In the end, he had to dig deep to hold off the streaking co-favourite, Blazing Bo, to win by a head, but overall, it was a tremendous race both the horse and jockey.

Of course, it was an even bigger win for the trainer, Steve Keplin Jr. Now that Exacting has won a Stakes race at ASD this summer, Keplin will gear up to enter his Kentucky-bred six-year-old bay gelding in the $50,000 Gold Cup, Manitoba’s smaller version of the Breeder’s Cup Classic.

“I’m now looking to enter him in the Gold Cup,” Keplin said earlier this week. “I have a three-year-old that finished third in the Manitoba Derby this year, Lt. Norm. He’s doing really well right now and if he runs again this year, I want him to run in a race with two turns. So, that might be the Gold Cup. He really likes two turns. He relishes the distance. He gets to relax a little bit. I think I might put him in the Gold Cup, too, but, you know, only one horse can win.”

Exacting, who has now won eight races in only 27 starts in his four-year career – he has two wins this summer at ASD — is by Ghostzapper out of Centring by A.P. Indy. Bred in Kentucky by Godophin Racing, he is owned by Steve Keplin’s Drop’en Racing, James Keplin and Parker Wallette. He has won $109,556 in his career, a career that started at Tampa Bay Downs in 2021.

Meanwhile, Keplin is now 11th in the trainers’ standings thanks to two wins this past week. He also won Race 4 on Monday night with four-year-old Kentucky-bred Moon Connection (Balroop aboard) and now has 13 wins, six seconds, nine thirds and $130,815 in winnings in 41 starts. That gives him a whopping 32 per cent win pace, third best at ASD this summer.

“Steve is part of the new generation of talented young trainers here,” said Downs CEO Darren Dunn. “I have literally watched him grow up in the backstretch over the years with his father who was a former trainer. He comes by his understanding of racing honestly and the outstanding results he has produced mirror the dedication and hard work that he has invested in the sport. Steve will be a trainer to watch for years to come at Assiniboia Downs.”

Keplin hails from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reserve, just south of Killarney, Man., near the International Peace Garden on the North Dakota side of the border. His dad used to train a few horses, seasonally, “a couple at a time,” according to Steve Jr., and he’d ship them back and forth from Belcourt to Winnipeg.

“I loved the game growing up,” Steve Jr. said. “I think the first book I ever read was the Daily Racing Form. That’s how it started.

“When I turned 19, I went to Canterbury Downs (Shakopee, Minn.) for two summers and I worked at the track there, grooming and stuff. I spent one winter at Oaklawn (Hot Springs, Ark.) and one winter at Turf Paradise (Phoenix), just working for different trainers and different barns, just trying to learn as much as I could about the game.

“I took my trainer’s test when I was 19 years old. The first horse I ever saddled, his name was Peckinpah. He went off at 18-1 and won that day. From that moment on, I was hooked.”

His dad and five-time Assiniboia Downs’ trainers’ champion, Gerry Gourneau, have birthdays just a couple of days apart. They grew up as close friends and the Keplins and Gourneaus are still next-door neighbours in Belcourt.

Steve Jr. first arrived at Assiniboia Downs when he was very young.

“I can’t even put an actual date on it because it was that long ago, I remember coming up with my dad and I had a load of little buddies here at the track. (Trainer) Mike Nault’s kids, (jockey) Rohan Singh’s daughters were good friends and (trainer) Lisa Pruitt’s son Brady was a good friend. I remember coming up one year and we’d take out the bikes and race them and we’d go to the races together. That’s how I remember growing up. I always looked forward to the summer so I could hang out with my best friends, play around at the track, watch racing and not worry about school.”

As a professional trainer, he arrived in Winnipeg in 2014 and has been based here ever since. During the COVID lockdown in 2020 — the summer he couldn’t cross the border — he shipped his horses in and out. That’s the only meet he’s missed in more than a decade.

“When COVID ended, we’ve been back every year,” he said. “Right now, I have eight head in my barn. We’re going to stay at 8-10 for the rest of the meet, but in the future, I want to get to the point where I’m sitting in the 20-25 range. I think that’s a big enough stable for somebody like me.”

Steve and his fiancé have two boys, Kenner, 7, and Kestin, 6.

“They love racing, too,” Steve said. “Kenner likes to come up to Winnipeg and help in the barn, but Kestin likes to sleep in and you can’t sleep in and be the horse racing business.

In the winter, Keplin shuts down his operation, goes home and handles maintenance at the local school and drives the school bus on the reserve.

“I get my summers off, so I get to do this,” he said with a smile. “It’s a great life.”