An exuberant Elizabeth Snyder was smiling from ear to ear as she picked up her first parimutuel win on June 26th at the Meadows Racetrack. The 22-year-old clocked a 1:57 win in the Great Lakes Amateur Driving Series with Spicy Nugget, trained by her dad, Doug Snyder.
Days later, she was still enthusiastic about the win, and the way the race played out. A few butterflies were in her stomach before the gate opened, but she was ready. “I always get so nervous before I go out,” she admitted. “Then, once I get on the track, everything’s fine! I just have to get out there.”
Elizabeth did her homework prior to the race, taking a look at the race carefully. “It was a big field, and I had the 5 hole, so I knew I had to try to get out of there. I know my horse has gate speed because I’ve qualified him a couple times. We were against some nice horses, so with the group he was in, maybe he’s not as nice as some of them, but I know he can out-leave them. He gave me a lot of confidence to do that.”
She and Spicy Nugget are a good team, and to get to this point, it took time. “It was a bit of a process with him, actually,” she confided. “We bought him two years ago from the Burkes (Ron), and Yannick Gingras actually owned a piece of him, and drove him at Yonkers in a series. Then he was listed at onGait, and our owner liked him, and we ended up with him. He was a nice open trotter for a while, and when Jujubee went the fastest mile at the Meadows, he was in that race, and was 4th or 5th.”
Lameness issues forced Spicy Nugget to be turned out, Elizabeth and her father brought him back, and now share him with the owner. “My brother came back to work for us, and he takes care of him and I train him. My dad oversees everything. It’s fun to shoot ideas back and forth with them. The horse has been a process, and two years later, it’s finally paid off,” she laughed.
Her cool confidence comes from a lifetime of being around horses. “I’m fifth generation. I really started working for my dad when I was 16, and after that, there was nothing else I really wanted to do.” Her father, Doug Snyder, owner/trainer/driver, and blacksmith, has been in the business since 1970, and at the Meadows since 1973.
Both her dad and her mom were in the Winner’s Circle for her win at the Meadows, and Elizabeth admits a few tears were shed. “My mom was so excited, she is my biggest fan in everything I do, and my dad was so emotional! Then he gets me going when he starts!”
When she began working with the family barn, she started out taking care of a few horses they owned. Last year, as the ‘unofficial second trainer in the barn, she trained one she calls her favorite, Yo Yo Mexico. “He’s taught me a lot.”
She gave it the old ‘college try’, with three years at the University of Kentucky, but her future was already clear, in her mind. “I loved Lexington, loved going to the races, but I really missed home and being with the horses all the time. Hopefully, I’ll finish out a degree online, when I’m not as busy. It’s kind of hard with 10 horses in the barn.”
With an eye on continuing the training route, she’s happy with the direction she’s headed. “I kind of, right now, want to stay working for my dad. He has good owners. I’d like to work under him instead of going out on my own, and get to train some nicer horses first. I’d love to drive the trotters and younger ones that I help with.”
Summer plans include possible starts at some of the fairs, too. “We have a filly (Golden Magic) that just raced at Butler, and she won there. She’s the one that I got my first win with at a fair last year, but it was just a walkover. Shipping to the fairs is a lot, especially with us shipping to Pocono and Harrah’s Philly, too.”
“I would have loved to have qualified our babies this year,” she added. “I trained down Spoon Fed, and now that she had her first start, she’s too nice for me to drive. I’ll just train that one. I’d like to get some more horses that are more my size, I’m not going to go out there and drive some of our nicer ones. I’d rather be the trainer on them.”
With a deep passion for the sport, and a love for her horses, Elizabeth is bound for a long, successful career. Even though not all races turn out the way she anticipated, she has found a way to turn the page and move on. “I’m a bit of a sulker after a race, but then I get to work on the horses. You can’t blame the horses when they don’t race good. I’ll sulk, but then I’ll start going over the horses. I just feel that people need to listen to the horse more.”
Cover Photo Credit to Chris Gooden
