Shelly Grieco’s journey from chores to champions: A life defined by Market Share

by Chris Lomon

Shelly Grieco’s earliest memories of life in the barn are far different from what they would eventually become.

The work, in the estimation of the young girl who had not yet reached her teenage years, was tedious at best.

It was also bereft of what she wanted most.

“I grew up in the business,” Grieco said. “My dad, Mike Grieco, had a stable back in Buffalo, at Batavia Downs. I literally grew up in the barn – weekends, holidays, summers. I was young and all I could do at that point was scrub water buckets, clean feed tubs and equipment. To a kid, it was just work. You didn’t get that connection to the horse.”

That would change over time.

“As I got older, I was able to be more hands-on with my dad’s horses,” Shelly said. “That’s when I started to enjoy being around these wonderful animals. My older sister, Suzanne, was more into it than I was. You could put her in a race bike and she could hit every quarter perfectly. My dad always said she would have been a great driver. She enjoyed it, but it was not something she wanted to pursue as a career.”

Neither did Shelly – or so she thought.

That changed thanks to a bay mare who would go on to race 201 times.

“I didn’t take a true interest in racing until I got a bit older,” Shelly said. “We had Sea Comet, an old mare, who, if you put the jog cart on her and put the lines to the seat, she would find her way to the track, jog her three miles, then come back to the barn and wait for someone to unhook her. That was the first horse I would jog with my dad. He’d hop on, pull me upon his lap and off we’d go. I was around 10 or 11.”

One day, Shelly’s dad decided it was time for her to fly solo.

“My dad told me to hop on, and I asked him if he was going to get on first,” she said. “I remember he looked at me and said, ‘Nope… you’re going solo. It’s time for you to start jogging alone.’”

So, she did – hesitant at first but thrilled at the chance to connect with a horse on her own terms.

“When you get that feeling, there becomes a different connection with horses,” Shelly said. “I was a nervous wreck taking her out there. When I got back, I had the biggest smile on my face. I realized it was a different ball game when you can develop that type of bond with horses. I was hooked. I went to college, but something kept pulling me back. So, here I am.”

Exactly where she wants to be.

After working alongside her father in Buffalo — paddocking for Richie Blaun, a second father figure to her and her sister — Grieco joined the stable of trainer Chris Oakes.

“I was there for about six years,” she said. “The only reason I left was that winters were tough in Buffalo. We were in a small farm outside of Batavia. We had a lot of babies back then. One December, he told me that he was done there, and that after Christmas, he was going to Pinehurst.”

The half-mile oval in North Carolina was not an ideal fit, at least not at that time, for Shelly.

“Back then, Pinehurst wasn’t what it is today,” she said. “The joke back then was that Pinehurst was old men and golf courses. I was a young girl — I was 24 and I didn’t golf — so there was nothing there for me. My dad told me that if I was going to stay in the business for a little while, to go and work for a good stakes barn and make some decent money.

“My dad was friends with Monte Gelrod, so I ended up going to New Jersey to work for him. When he got rid of a bunch of horses, I think eight of us got laid off at the same time. I then ended up with Ron Coyne for eight years.”

In early 2004, Shelly joined the barn of renowned trainer Linda Toscano.

She’s been there ever since.

It was in Toscano’s stable that Shelly met a trotter who would change her life.

“I had broken my collarbone the June before he came in from the yearling sale,” Shelly said, of Market Share, a son of Revenue S out of the Yankee Glide mare Classical Flirt, who sold for $16,000 at the 2010 Lexington Select Yearling Sale. “I started back to work on Thanksgiving weekend, but because it hadn’t been a smooth recovery, it took me a long while to get back. I had limited mobility and strength when I came back to the barn.”

Toscano gave her a kindred spirit in Market Share to take care of.

“He had been sick, so he hadn’t been able to do much,” Shelly said. “They knew I loved trotters, so they gave me ‘Marky’ to take care of. Here’s this little yearling, coming from the sale in November, and he’s on stall rest. He did two things: he was either laying down sleeping or he had his head over the gate, watching everything that was going on.”

Shelly was enraptured by the young trotter and felt a near-immediate bond.

When Market Share started training down, his doting groom followed his every move.

“He got colt sore early on,” she said. “He always wanted to do everything right, but after his miles, he was a little sore. He had great owners [Richard Gutnick, T L P Stable and Bill Augustine], so they told us to do the right thing for him. We turned him out for 45 days.

“When he came back in, I had a stall ready for him. When Linda asked who was going in there, I said, ‘Marky is coming back.’ The thought, back then, was that he could possibly have a good career, not a great one. But he was determined. He loved his work, and he was a happy horse. Linda was very busy with Chapter Seven that year, on the road a lot, and racing him in big stakes. No one ever thought he could be what he turned out to be.”

By the time of his last race, on Nov. 11, 2017, at The Meadowlands, Market Share had 32 wins from 100 starts and recorded $3.79 million in purses. He was a two-time Dan Patch Award winner, for best 3-year-old male trotter in 2012 and best older male trotter in 2013.

The gelding, trained by Toscano and driven primarily by Tim Tetrick throughout his career, counted the Hambletonian, Breeders Crown Open Trot, Maple Leaf Trot, and Canadian Trotting Classic among his victories.

For Shelly, he was much more than a titan on the track.

“Everything about him — his conformation, he was chubby — said this isn’t going to be a good one. If you look at his lines, you would take notice, but if you walked by him in the barn, he would never catch your eye.

“He was the sweetest, kindest stud. He never knew he was a stud at all. At Chester, when he won the 2014 Maxie Lee, he had to go to detention and he had to be there by 10 in the morning. They give you shavings and there he is, in the paddock, sound asleep. At Balmoral Park, both times when he set the track record, at 3 and 4, I have video of him. It’s loud in the paddock, races are going on, and he’s laying down, sound asleep. I would literally have to put a halter on and pull him up off the ground. This horse would sleep anywhere.”

Marky could also sense when Shelly needed him most.

“Marky read my moods,” she said. “If I was upset, he would do silly stuff to make me laugh. If I was sad, he was always a little love bug. He knew how to read my moods. He made my life easy. He traveled well. The only thing he worried about coming off the trailer was that he wanted to eat. He was a great horse in every way. He was just my boy.”

He still is.

Shelly recently had a surprise visit from the 16-year-old gelding.

“One of our second trainers pulled up to the barn and said, ‘Linda, where am I putting this new horse?’” Shelly said. “Linda said, ‘I forgot to tell Shelly to get his stall ready.’ There was a stall open, but it had my buckets in it. I told them I’ll get it ready. I’m in there getting it all set and Linda walks by. ‘Shelly, I have a present for you.’ When I realized it was him, it was all over… the waterworks started. It is so great to have him in the barn, even though it’s for a short while. It is so nice to come into the barn each morning and have his face there to greet you.”

Market Share was front and center as lead pony in the 100th edition of the Hambletonian, the iconic race that took place on the first Saturday in August at The Meadowlands.

Shelly posts near-daily photos of her and Market Share on Facebook.

“I got to sit behind him for the first time in eight years,” Shelly said. “It is just that connection. I fall in love with all my horses, but there was just something about him. I tell everyone to forget about what he has done for me on the racetrack. He took me to so many places and fulfilled dreams I never could have imagined, but for me, it is what he has done for me off the racetrack. I could talk forever about him.”

It’s a far cry from the days of boredom and bucket-scrubbing in her dad’s barn.

Shelly still does many of those same chores – but they carry new meaning.

“My favorite part of the day — and it might sound horrible — is when everyone has left and it is just me and my horses,” she said. “It is quiet and you can enjoy the peacefulness of the moment. I rush all morning and when they are back in their stalls, I can take a deep breath and take as long as I want with my horses.”

Some moments even bring her back to the early days of Market Share.

“Linda has a lot of babies in her barn,” Shelly said. “I love seeing horses who have never had a harness on, watching them grow, mature and learn. When they finally do get to the races, you can take pride that you played a little part in that. It’s a wonderful feeling.”