by Chris Lomon

Kelly Clifford has mapped out a most interesting harness racing career.

That one day she would work with horses was never much of a longshot for the well-spoken woman from Dixmont, ME.

In fact, a fondness for all things equine was evident early on in her life.

“I have always loved horses, ever since I was a little girl,” Clifford said. “I loved reading about them, loved being around them – just everything. My original goal in life was to be a thoroughbred jockey. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world, but as I got older, I knew that wasn’t feasible.”

Standardbred racing wasn’t originally on her radar – but she eventually discovered it.

“As far as harness racing, I didn’t come from a background in the industry,” she said. “My parents, on both sides, are dairy farmers. But I would follow along by reading the newspaper back when they printed the results. I would glance through those and see who the people and horses were who were winning – so I followed along in that way.

“Eventually, I met a couple of people who were involved and paid a little more attention.”

Clifford paid a lot more attention when she moved across the street from Bangor Raceway just under 20 years ago.

The bright lights, sights and sounds seemed to beckon her to cross the road.

“I was able to walk over and go watch the races,” said Clifford, who started a full-time role at the University of Maine in the athletics department as an equipment manager in 2004. Three years later, she began taking classes in the school’s equine studies department.

“The following year, I ended up meeting Sonia Bartlett, [driver] Jason’s mother,” Clifford said. “She said, ‘Why don’t you come out and help us one night at the races and see if you like it?’ That was all it took. I was hooked. It was in my blood.”

Clifford, who had once dreamed of getting a leg up on thoroughbreds, was now harnessing her love of horses into the sport of pacers and trotters.

And she loved every minute of it.

Developing bonds with standardbreds came naturally to her.

“The University of Maine also owned a racehorse named Pembroke White Out, who was based in the Val Grondin barn, and I helped out with her paddocking and such for a few years,” Clifford said. “In 2011, I became a racehorse owner on Robby’s Cameo with my best friend Michael DeRuntz.”

Heart horses have been plentiful for Clifford.

“I could give you a handful, really,” she said with a laugh.

Liberation, a bay mare bred by Arlene and Jules Siegel, is one of them.

“She was with the Bartletts when I first started out, a 3-year-old filly at the time,” she said. “There was something where we just clicked. She was a spicy little wench, but I loved her.

“A couple of years later, she had finished her racing career with them and Sonia called me up. She knew I loved her and wanted to know if I wanted her. I wasn’t sure if I was in a position to take her, but I said, ‘Absolutely!’

“They ended up giving her to me. She raced for me for about a year and a half, and then I retired her. She’s now living in Hopkinsville (KY), with Tyler Shehan. She is living the life of the queen bee down there. I have taken her all over the country, from Pennsylvania to New York, to Kentucky. She has kind of gone everywhere with me. The only reason she is there is because it just isn’t feasible for me to have her here with me. But she is doing great, and that is the most important thing.

“Sonia teases me all the time. She will say, ‘Man, she lucked out getting you.’”

Lacy Asset, who had one start as a trotter and 94 as a pacer, came into Clifford’s life on campus in 2008.

Along with her studies and equipment manager responsibilities, Clifford was also a member of the university’s drill team.

“I was still at the University of Maine, and since I worked there, I was able to take classes for free,” Clifford said. “The university has a farm with dairy cows and horses – all standardbreds. People from the racetrack would donate their horses to the program so that we could help retrain and rehome them.

“Some of the horses were ridable enough to be on the university’s drill team, so I was able to get involved with that program. The goal was always to get these horses and then adopt them out. A lot of the people who take the course fall in love with the horses and end up buying them.”

Just like Clifford.

“The horse I was assigned, Lacy Asset, we kind of learned to ride together,” she said. “I rode her on the drill team. She was such a wonderful mare. When I left Maine, I ended up buying her. So, I had Lacy and Libby with me in Pennsylvania.”

They would soon have company.

Clifford found an immediate connection with For Now, a 2008 Lexington Yearling Sale graduate.

For Now, a bay son of Western Terror—Magic Moments, has also earned heart horse distinction for Clifford.

“When I got Liberation, I needed a trainer,” she said. “I was at UMaine, and I was helping out Val Grondin and Heath Campbell with paddocks and other stuff, while I was working. [Trainer] Shawn Thayer also needed me to paddock, so he put me in charge of For Now. At the time, he was one of the top horses in Maine.”

Bred by Perfect World Enterprises, the bay gelding would win 45 races in 123 starts, accompanied by $143,998 in career earnings.

“I fell in love with him and we just got along perfectly,” Clifford said. “He was such a good boy, so nice to be around. I ended up leaving Maine at the beginning of 2014. I had been working with Shawn at the time – just in the mornings, and then on to my full-time job at the university.

“When I decided to leave Maine and go on to the next chapter of my career, which was a foaling intern at Diamond Creek Farm in Pennsylvania, For Now stayed behind. He was still racing under Shawn’s name. In June or July of that year, I got a call from the owner saying that they were going to put him in the Ohio Mixed Sale. But they knew I loved him and asked if I wanted him.”

She offered up a familiar reply.

“Again, I said, ‘Absolutely!’ and that’s how I got him.

“I kept him for several months, but economics forced me to let him go. I sold him and entered him in Full Circle just in case.”

A few years after she sold For Now, Clifford found out the horse was in a difficult situation, thanks to Full Circle.

She leapt into action.

“Some people I knew told me where he was, and I rescued him out,” she said. “He is back with me and is also living in Kentucky. He is a riding horse for Wranglers Riding Stable at Land Between the Lakes. He does guided trail rides, so he is enjoying a great life. If he ever comes up lame or sore, he will come back to me.”

The only caveat is where Clifford would be should she receive the call.

Not quite a sojourner or a wayfarer, nor peripatetic, perhaps itinerant is the best way to define the horsewoman who is always up for a new horse-related adventure.

There have been plenty.

In 2016, Clifford left Diamond Creek and went to Florida for the winter with Val Grondin and Heath Campbell to help break babies. She took a break from racing one year later, but was still heavily involved with horses, mostly with a therapeutic riding program in Pennsylvania. In 2018, she was back in the barn, working for trainer George Ducharme in New York, and Florida in the winter, until the end of 2021.

Clifford moved to Kentucky in 2022, to work for Diamond Creek as a farm manger. During that summer, she worked under trainer Nancy Takter with the Diamond Creek racehorses she had, including 15-time winner Cannibal, a son of Sweet Lou—No More Losses, who had $785,040 in purse earnings over 27 lifetime starts.

In August of 2022, she reunited with a familiar face.

“I was working for George [Ducharme] in Florida and this horse, Life Is A Feast, landed in my stall as a 2-year-old,” she said. “We instantly clicked. I looked at him and he looked back to me, and we bonded right away. It sounds silly, but that’s how it was.”

The son of Royalty For Life—Luau Hanover was a joy to be around, but tough to get a handle on as a racehorse.

“He was very difficult to break, so George had to work hard on him,” Clifford said. “Howard Parker was working there then, and he took him under his wing. He ended up winning the Mass Sires Stakes and set a track record at the time. He turned into something special, and I doted on him. He was also Ontario eligible, so he ended up going there to race in some Grassroots events and came back to me as a 3-year-old at the end of the year. From there, he went back to Ontario, and raced elsewhere, but I always kept track of him because I wanted to see him do well. I also wanted people to know that if he needed a home, I was available.”

As it would turn out, Life Is A Feast would require a home.

Enter Clifford.

“Three years ago, I was in Kentucky, working on that breeding farm, and also helping out Nancy Takter at The Red Mile,” Clifford said. “Through the owner he had then, Triple S Equine, I learned that he had posted a roster for a sale that was upcoming. I read the breeding, and I knew that it was Life Is A Feast. I was in Kentucky, and I wanted to buy him. The day the auction came, a man named Tommy Riley agreed to help me, and when the horse came in the ring, I was bidding over the phone.”

Clifford’s bid was the winning one.

“I gave him time off and put him back in training eventually,” she said. “He ended up winning his first two starts for me the following year — which was two years ago — at Plainridge, and his second win we got him his lifetime mark. We have had some ups and downs, but I have got him qualified at Saratoga and we will get him ready for Plainridge.”

In 2023, Clifford went back to the Sunshine State and the Val Grondin and Heath Campbell stable.

She had a new role when she arrived.

“I had my new trainer’s license,” Clifford said. “Val and Heath were a big help in helping me get Life Is A Feast to the races. Heath was my regular driver and jogger for him. I have been blessed with great people like Val and Heath. I was with them until this winter and then I went to Ohio to work for Mike Hitchcock and race my horse.”

Currently, Clifford is in a New York state of mind, working with Mitch Cushing, and getting Life Is A Feast ready for the 2025 Plainridge racing season – opening day was April 14.

And that suits Clifford perfectly.

“For whatever reason, I don’t like to settle down in one place for a long time,” she said. “I like the experience of being able to see different places and go to different tracks. I have a checklist of tracks I have been to and that I want to see. It’s always nice when you can check a new one off.”