by Chris Lomon

Christine Holt figured she would be one and done when it came to working with standardbreds. Turns out, she would be happily wrong.

It was about 15 years ago when one of Holt’s friends came to her with an offer, a short-term job opportunity to help with groom duties at a standardbred barn.

She didn’t have to think long about her answer.

“I’ve been involved in riding horses for a while, and I worked with a girl who was involved in harness racing,” Holt said. “It was around 2008 or 2009 and she was about to go on vacation. She asked me if I could fill in for her.”

At the very least, Holt would have the chance to be around horses, something that had always made her happy.

So, off she went to an obligation-free gig for what she expected to be a short period of time.

“I was in the barn, so it was great because I love working with horses,” Holt said. “I was mucking stalls and taking care of the horses. I can’t remember how long it took, but it was pretty quick when I realized I didn’t want to leave. I ended up finding a job closer to home. After a couple of days there — I had never jogged a horse — they put me behind one. I just loved it.”

And so it began, a career in horse racing that started on the ownership side.

Holt’s first horse came in the form of Surf Side Sis, a pacing daughter of Fast Company—Think Of Me Fondly who launched her racing life in June 2012.

“She was a stakes horse and I got her when she was turning 3. The trainer I worked for, Kim Ireland, helped me. He jogged and trained her, and I took care of her at the racetrack. She was the one who gave me my first two wins. She was a lot of fun to take care of. Since her, I have always owned at least one racehorse. Now I’m up to owning five racehorses and I train all of them.”

Holt, who launched the training side of her racing repertoire in 2018, enjoyed moderate success in her early conditioning years.

In the past two years, Holt has begun to see her hard work and patient hand pay dividends. In 2022, she established several personal-best numbers, including 13 wins and was just shy of $75,000 in purse earnings.

She carried that momentum into 2023, a year that has produced some more winning moments. One of her stable standouts is Eleanor Jean.

A 7-year-old daughter of Big Bad John—Big City Hanover, Eleanor Jean has been a consistent performer for Holt.

“I got my first training double at Windsor, which stands out as a big highlight,” she said. “Eleanor Jean, she hits the board almost every week for me. Honestly, she has been the highlight of my training career so far. She makes everything so worthwhile.”

Outside of the happy times, there have been challenges along the way.

The biggest hurdle for Holt has been working in an industry she previously had no ties to.

“I would say the hard part is that I didn’t grow up in this industry, so learning the ins and outs has been a little bit tricky,” Holt said. “But all the trainers I have worked with along the way have helped me and they still do. Every time I struggle a little bit, someone is there to help me. I worked for Kim Ireland and now I work for Mike Cushing. I learn a little bit of something from them and then I take that and try to put that into my own training approach.”

An approach she is trying to put more of a personal stamp on.

“I’d like to be able to be more independent when it comes to training my horses,” she said. “I still need help because I’m still learning, so the goal is to do more on my own.”

Holt is also devoting time to growing her horse breeding operation.

For as hard as the work is, the end result makes it a labor of love, she noted.

“My main goal is to build up my breeding farm and get that really going in the next few years,” Holt said. “That’s my big goal. I started out with my first mare, Dovetail. Her ankles couldn’t hold up to the rigors of racing, so I made the decision to have her as a broodmare. I don’t like to give away my horses, so we bred her. We started out by sending her elsewhere to foal out, and now, I have three stallions, and a bunch of broodmares. We foal them out right at the farm. I love doing that. It’s tough work, but it’s so rewarding.”

Words that Holt had at one point never thought she would ever utter.

In fact, during her days before standardbreds, she would often ask herself a particular question when she was on horseback.

“I will say that when I was riding horses, one thing that crossed my mind was, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get behind one. Why would I ever do that?’ And I’m so glad I was wrong about that,” she said.

Holt, who grooms dogs on the side, time permitting, still finds time to ride, but for as long as she can remember, that question has never come up again.

After all, she has found her true horse calling.

“I have two horses that I need to start back in January,” Holt said. “I had to stop early with them, so the goal is to get them going again. That is pretty much my winter. I don’t usually take much of a break, but I’m okay with that. I’m happy right where I am.”

But, given the chance, what would be the one horse-themed Christmas present she would be happy to have?

“I have a little mare, Sweet Katie Bug, who I adore, but I struggle with her a little bit, so it would be great if he [Santa] could help me figure her out a little better,” she said.