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The third weekend of the Fonner Park racing season saw a successful debut by the Steve Larue barn as the Henderson, Ky., horseman won three races in his Nebraska racing debut.
A debut that was marked not only by his success on the track, but his warm feelings for Nebraska racing.
While Larue's success on the track with two wins and a second and two thirds in eight starts was noteworthy, it was shipping in last Thursday evening that impressed the veteran owner and trainer.
"We pulled into our barn area about six o'clock Thursday night," Larue said. "My shed row foreman, Pearl Keyes, and myself went into the barn to get our stalls ready, meanwhile my son (Steve Jr.) was maneuvering the van to unload the horses."
When the wheels on the left side of the van went into the ditch, it could've been a major disaster for Larue's horses. Thankfully some local horsemen came to Larue's aid.
"Horses were sideways in the van, but suddenly we saw complete strangers coming to our aid with halters and shanks," Larue said. "We really couldn't have pulled it off without everyone's help. I wanted to thank everyone involved, but some of the guys and girls were gone before we had a chance to give out some proper thank yous.
"I've been training 33 years, but this is the nicest bunch of horsemen I've ever been around."
Once Larue's charges were safe and bedded down for the night, they made their presence felt on the track. Karin's Girl and Forty Si both won for Larue less than 24 hours later.
"We came here to run," Larue said. "We had good success on our first weekend and we have five horses entered for Friday and four more on Saturday."
Larue told the story of how he came to Fonner as he walked the shedrow feeding peppermint candies to his horses.
"I had been running at both Turfway Park in Kentucky and Beulah Park in Ohio," Larue said. "We've missed quite a few days of racing because of bad weather and I entered a horse at Beulah with the hope that Yuri Yaranga would ride him."
When Yaranga's agent told Larue that Yuri had left to ride in Grand Island, Larue went to his computer.
"I had never raced here didn't even know anyone who had but I looked at the entries, saw they were running there and we weren't," Larue said. "The fields weren't overly big and the money was better than Beulah. We talked it over with my crew and here we are."
Larue credits is success last weekend with his horses adapting so well to the shipping and their new surroundings.
"They think they're home," Larue said. "We train at Riverside training track which is a half-mile track so they're used to the banked turns, plus our shed rows here are almost identical to our facilities back home."
After his success last week, Larue dialed up for some reinforcements.
"We left Fonner at 8:30 a.m. Monday morning and met my wife (Tina) in Booneville, Mo.," Larue said. "We traded my son for my wife, loaded up horses in the parking lot, got some soft drinks and gas and made it back to Fonner by 10 p.m."
Larue said that they've enjoyed their new surroundings so much that they may stay longer than he anticipated.
"We'll be here for awhile," Larue said. "Maybe we'll stay for the Nebraska circuit."
As long as Larue keeps doling out the peppermints, his horses will feel like they're right at home in Nebraska.
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