Faulkner posts 1,000th career win

Rodney Faulkner celebrated his 1,000th career victory with family and friends at Thistledown (Photo courtesy of J.J. Zamaiko) Trainer Rodney Faulkner hit the 1,000 career-win milestone on Friday when Fire Chief (Carson City) blazed through six furlongs to win the 2ND race at Thistledown, the trainer’s home base. The six-year-old gelding was in a hurry to get the job done, setting fractions of :22, :45 1/5 and :57 4/5 before finishing the starter allowance race in 1:11 under regular rider Ernesto Oro. “I’ve had good owners, good grooms, and fast horses,” Faulkner said after the race. “My family’s been in racing a long time, and I learned under my dad. The hardest worker in my barn and my biggest supporter is my wife, Peggy. She was the biggest win of my life.”

The 46-year-old trainer grew up working for his father, long-time
trainer Joe Faulkner, who also maintains a string at Thistledown. By age
12 the younger Faulkner was riding match races in the Texas hill
country. He eventually outgrew riding but continued working for his dad,
shipping to Texas tracks and fairs from the family farm in Big Spring.
Rodney took out his own trainer’s license at age 18 and scored his first
win at now-closed Bandera Downs. Many of his early wins came on the
Texas fair circuit.

In the late 1990s, Faulkner stepped away from racing and for about three
years drove a truck and worked at a refinery. His dad first stabled a string at
Thistledown in 2000, and in 2001 the family sold the farm in Texas and moved
permanently to Ohio. Faulkner returned to training, opening a stable at
Thistledown with five horses.

Today has 34 in training at Thistledown and races primarily in Kentucky, West
Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Among his trainees is his first homebred,
Shotgun Sinner (Saints n’ Sinners), who is expected to make its first start this
year. Some of Faulkner’s string race in the silks of R&P Racing Stables Inc., a
partnership with his wife, an assisted-living nurse who also runs the couple’s
farm in Berlin Center. Others are owned separately either by Faulkner or his
wife, while still others are trained for clients. In addition to the horses in
training, Faulkner has another 12 horses, including six yearlings, on the Berlin
Center farm.

Racing is a Faulkner family affair. One of Faulkner’s stepsons, Frankie
Pennington, is a leading rider at Parx Racing and two years ago set the record
for most wins in a year at that Pennsylvania track. Faulkner’s brother Rickey is
their father’s assistant and also works as a farrier. A nephew, Joshua, and
another brother, Randy Joe, have held training licenses in the past.

Faulkner’s other stepson, Cody Pennington, is a member of the U.S. Marine
Corps and is currently enrolled in officer training at Citadel College in
Charleston, South Carolina.