by Matthew Lomon

They had never met before the night of Jan. 11, but one look was all it took to sell Mitchell Tierney on KJ Owen.

“I was racing at Flamboro one night when he walked by me, and he was one of those horses where I had the ‘deer in headlights’ look like, ‘Who is that?’” Tierney said. “He was big and shiny, and he walked with class. I ran right over to the program, picked out his name and saw an 11-year-old Roll With Joe.”

Tierney’s initial assessment proved spot on, as the savvy son of Roll With Joe—Winsmith Jess cruised to a six-length score in 1:56 that very night.

Moved by what he saw, Tierney hastily dialed his long-time friend and racing partner Lynn Cameron to deliver one simple message: “We need this horse.”

Without any hesitation, Cameron approved, and five days and $8,000 later, KJ Owen was theirs.

“A lot of the horses in my barn are double digits,” Tierney said. “We have a lot of old, classy individuals, and that’s Lynn’s style, and that’s my style. Tough, old horses, they know how to win. I like young horses, but I love the old war horses.”

While age and experience were certainly part of the appeal — KJ Owen had made 260 starts at the time of claiming — it’s what the graceful brown pacer had yet to do that piqued Tierney’s interest.

“A lot of times when I claim a horse, I look at how many wins they have,” he said. “When I claimed ‘KJ,’ he had 47, and I thought this would be a really good opportunity to hopefully hang on to him long enough to get him his 50th.”

The quest for 50, and KJ Owen’s tenure with Tierney and Cameron, got off to a flying start when the battled-tested gelding stormed back from second-last to win his maiden voyage under Tierney’s tutelage by one-length on Jan. 23 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Triumph number 49, a coast-to-coast 5¾-length tally also at Mohawk with driver Brett MacDonald at the helm, came five starts later.

As Tierney recalled, the dazzling display underscored KJ Owen’s impressive versatility and dogged competitiveness.

“He loves to win, and he’ll do it any way, anywhere, on any size track,” Tierney said. “I couldn’t even fault the horse if I tried. It’s not like he’s not good on the half, or he’s not good at X or Y. He’s good everywhere, and he’s good every week.

“The night that he went to the front for Brett, going to the gate he shook an earplug out, and it was game on. He was leaving whether Brett wanted him to or not, and he won on the front. Another night, he’ll win from dead last. There’s no reliance that our prep has to work out a certain way. He’s going to go out there and give you 100 per cent every time.”

A trio of tough draws (8, 9, 9) put a temporary hold on the milestone moment, but Tierney and Cameron’s faith never wavered.

And neither did KJ Owen’s, who on April 3 against a downpour at Flamboro, delivered the highlight victory his owners first envisioned the second they laid eyes on him.

“We knew the milestone was coming, but that night, it was one of them days,” Tierney said. “It was raining, the weather was bad, but I thought he could get it, I just didn’t know if they’d actually race because it was so miserable out.

“Then he goes out and jogs in 1:54.2. He’s such a tough animal.”

The determined 1¼-length decision will forever be etched into the minds of Tierney and Cameron, who consider themselves eternally grateful for having crossed paths with a horse capable of making a profound impact in a short deal of time.

“It’s a big thing to have one that gets their 50th lifetime win,” Tierney said. “That’s a lot. I know we only had three of them, but there had to have been a lot of people to share the winner’s circle with him before us. Everybody loved him, but nobody loves him as much as Lynn does. He’s hard not to love.

“That’s her boy. He’s a family member.”

Such warm praise means a great deal coming from Tierney, who’s coached his fair share of standout talents over the years, including the greatest trotter in the history of Atlantic Canadian Racing, Waiting On A Woman.

Bred and raised in 2008 by Mitchell and his father David Tierney on their family farm in New Haven, PEI, the son of Northern Bailey—Southwind Faith went on to win 82 races and collect nearly $640,000 across 278 starts around Canada and the United States.

Although still early, Mitchell foresees KJ Owen occupying a similar position alongside the most memorable, and irreplaceable horses he and Cameron have ever worked with.

“KJ is an absolute gem,” Tierney said. “Lynn does most of the looking after him. He’s her pet. He’s a sweetheart. Like I said, I couldn’t even think of a way to fault him, because there isn’t. He carries so much class, which is very hard to find. I always say you can’t breed class.”

Closing in on $300,000 for his career, KJ Owen did it the hard way.

He didn’t make his living in stakes races, he did it as a war horse, traveling from track-to-track in the United States before eventually settling in Ontario, where he will continue to race out of Mitchell’s stable.

Now in his 10th year on the job, KJ Owen will continue to rely on the lunch pail mentality that led him to the half-century mark.

“No matter where we race him, he’s going to give it his all,” Mitchell said. “I think he’s going to have a good summer.

“We’re going to do the Kawartha-Georgian-Grand River circuit. No matter where we take him, he’s going to make money and try his best – he always does. He shows up every time.”