Redland Rocket Man’s Logan McMurren looks for a crowning achievement to his year

by Matthew Lomon

Before he became the caretaker of Redland Rocket Man, winner of the 81st Little Brown Jug, Logan McMurren had spent a lifetime preparing for the role.

“My grandpa had horses, so I was in the barn pretty much every day from when I was born,” McMurren said. “I’d go to the barn with him instead of daycare, so when I say I’ve been in it since I was born, I really was in it since I was born.”

Some of his first steps on this Earth came in the barn of his grandfather, longtime Ontario horseman Vic McMurren, whom Logan credits with laying his foundation in the sport.

“He taught me a lot; he’s been the biggest role model in my career,” Logan said.

Logan also recognized Richard and Mary Carroll, as well as Ron Duford, as key figures in his early development as a young horseman.

With a strong network of mentors behind him, Logan was quick to capitalize on the first opportunity to take his involvement to the next level.

“Once I was 10 [years old] and could get my groom’s license, I was able to go to the track every night and race,” he said. “On weekends, I’d be in the barn, and on days off I’d be in the barn.”

And the occasional time in between.

“There might have been a few days of skipping school to go to the barn,” he said with a laugh.

Logan’s equine education took another sizable leap forward upon receiving his first racehorse, Partysatdougs, from a neighbor the same year he obtained his groom’s license.

A yearling at the time, the now 18-year-old son of Intrepid Seelster—Kendal Rhapsody provided Logan with his first victory.

While he may not remember the milestone moment in detail, Logan has since found a way of preserving his career’s most precious moments.

“I keep a binder at home with all the win photos of horses that I’ve owned or horses that I really liked,” he said.

Among those enshrined in his album of winners is trotter Frost On Ballykeel, the first horse he ever purchased.

The Majestic Son mare, who reached the winner’s circle five times for Logan, was just as valuable for what she represented.

“I started buying horses when I was about 16, and that was when it became clear that this is what I was going to do going forward,” he said.

Looking ahead, however, also meant reflecting on the lessons learned from Partysatdougs and Frost On Ballykeel.

“You learn that every horse is different,” he said, adding with a laugh, “Some will test your patience, especially when they’re trotters. But there’s no cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solution to every horse. You have to listen to what each horse needs and go from there.”

Logan had just as much to discover on the business side.

“You figure out pretty quickly that it’s a rollercoaster,” he said. “You’ll have some great highs and some low lows.

“When you’re a kid it’s all fun and games – go play and go hang out with horses. You eventually start to learn the business portion of it and that becomes the next part of your education.”

In the years that followed, Logan developed connections with several other horses he owned, including Woman On A Mission and Calgary Seelster.

“There was this indescribable quality about Woman On A Mission,” he said. “There was just something about her when I got her. He [Calgary Seelster] was such a classy old veteran that he was really hard not to like. Unfortunately, I didn’t have him for very long because he got claimed.”

Perhaps Logan’s greatest connection is the one he’s formed with pacing superstar Redland Rocket Man, whose full-time groom duties he took on after joining trainer John Pentland’s operation last September.

“He’s just a big, playful horse,” Logan said. “Tori, one of our other grooms, and I joke that he’ll pretend like he’s going to bite you, but he never bites you. He’ll look at you like, ‘Oh, I’m grumpy,’ and then next thing you know, he’s nuzzling up against you being a big suck.”

For Logan, who is typically “pretty contained” while his horses race, the thrill of watching Redland Rocket Man soar through the wire in the Little Brown Jug proved too much to contain.

“There are times with ‘Redland’ or other good horses that I do get a little nervous and start yelling a lot more than normal down the stretch – the Jug was one of those times,” he said with a laugh.

“I was pretty sure at the head of the stretch that he was the winner, and five steps from the wire I’m still yelling, and you know he’s won the race, but yet you’re still cheering like crazy.”

The trip back from Ohio’s Delaware County Fair was about all the time Logan had to come down from the excitement, as Redland Rocket Man, and fellow sensation Jersey Bulldog, fresh off a Grade 1 She’s A Great Lady score, were both back in action for the Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Super Final card on Oct. 10 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

It was a record-setting night that nobody in the Pentland barn would soon forget.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Logan said. “The Jug was John’s first Grade 1, and then ‘Jersey’ came back in the She’s A Great Lady with the monster mile she went. While you’re still on that high, they both do their big trips in the Super Finals.”

Logan’s reaction to Redland Rocket Man’s OSS-record 1:48 mile was anything but “contained.”

“There was screaming in that one,” he said with a laugh. “When Beau’s [Beau Jangles] chasing you down, with how good of a horse he is, you never totally know.”

Once again, the cool-down period between heavyweight bouts was virtually non-existent for Logan, who traveled down to Ohio on Thursday alongside Redland Rocket Man in preparation for the Breeders Crown.

The son of Bulldog Hanover, out of the Captaintreacherous mare Granny Hanover, is set to contest the 3-year-old colt and gelding pace elimination on Saturday (Oct. 17) at Scioto Downs.

Logan is still wrapping his head around it all.

“This will be my first Breeders Crown,” he said. “Now, it’s still in the early phases, and he’s got to make the final, but it’ll start feeling more real as it gets closer.”

Like Redland Rocket Man, Logan’s career has taken off under Pentland’s tutelage.

Longtime acquaintances while stabling at Dorchester Downs Training Centre, located just outside of London, ON, Logan took an immediate liking to his new employer’s management style.

“John gives you the freedom to do your job, but he’s also there if you need to bounce ideas off him, and he’s willing to listen to you if you have an idea,” Logan said. “He’s not set in his ways. If you have a better idea, then he’ll go with your idea.

“It’s a big team effort. Everybody’s involved and everybody will bounce ideas off each other and help each other out. It’s a great environment.”

Logan, now 29 and overseeing Pentland’s Ideal Training Centre in Erin, ON, has come a long way since the early days in his grandfather’s barn.

While Logan’s ambitions in the industry extend beyond the present, with his team firing on all cylinders and a prolific pacer taking him on the ride of a lifetime, he’s in no rush to get off.

“I’ve got my trainer’s license already, and I’d be lying if I said I’ll never train my own horses because I will, but when you get to look after horses like Redland or Jersey Bulldog — and John’s such a good guy to work for — it’s one of those situations where you go, ‘If you’re happy, why change it?’”