by Chris Lomon

In the most trying moments, Amber Tucker knows that reassurance is less than an arm’s length away.

Whenever she takes out the timepiece with the words Keep on Training engraved on the back, Tucker is immediately comforted, not just by the encouraging message, but for the meaning behind the heartfelt gift.

“I love being around the horses,” Tucker said. “It might be weird to say, but it’s at the barn where I feel closest to my dad. When I was 18, he gave me a stopwatch for my birthday, and I read those words. On tough days when I want to give up or things aren’t going right, I just look at it, and I do what it says.”

Tucker, who was born and still lives in Bridgeville, a town of just under 3,000 people situated about a two-hour drive southeast of Baltimore, was born into a horse racing life.

A third-generation horsewoman on both sides, she took to the standardbreds and life at the stables immediately.

“That’s all I’ve done since I was born, which was being around horses,” she said. “My parents met at Ocean Downs, got married, had me and my sister, but I’m the only one of the grandchildren on both sides that has anything to do with horses. I wanted to be at the barn. I wanted to be around the horses. I would jog them with my parents when I was a kid. When my mom and dad would come home at night after the races, they would get me, and I would help take the horses off the trailer and feed them. It’s just always been something I loved doing.

“My grandfather, Bobby Myers, he always had a big stable when I was a kid, around 40 head. I would just love going over there during the day and watching everybody take care of the horses. I would jog horses with my uncle or my grandfather and love every minute of it. My family, we always bonded together over the horses, and we always helped each other out.”

Tucker’s adoration for racing and its equine stars grew exponentially over the years.

Working closely with her father, she was a willing student of the game, eager to learn about the sport and the pacers and trotters who were housed in her father’s barn.

“When I graduated high school, my dad was sick, and I started working full-time for him,” she said. “That’s when he taught me how to completely train down a horse. I learned so much from him. When he passed away, my mom and I took over the horses he had. He had horses for his dad, so mom and I trained those ones down.”

A bay mare, now 10, would become a memorable horse for Tucker, and not only for what she would deliver on the racetrack.

A daughter of Art Director, Julio’s Girl recorded 35 wins and earned more than $190,000 during her racing career.

She also provided Tucker with a treasured milestone and countless fond recollections of her father.

“My dad and I had a mare bred who was due days after he passed away,” she said. “I named her Julio’s Girl because my dad liked to play cards and Julio was his nickname at the card table. She’s the horse that gave me my first training win, in 2016, and it came at Ocean Downs, so she is special to me in a lot of ways.”

Tucker, who also trained horses for her maternal grandfather, went out fully on her own this year. In 2021, she had 15 top-three finishes, including five wins, from 35 starts.

Since then, her small stable has kept pace against bigger operations, including in a late-season 2022 Delaware Sires Stakes event.

Miss Timber Wolf, a hard-knocking 4-year-old trotting daughter of Anders Bluestone, has been a steady performer for Tucker, sporting a 4-4-10 mark from 27 lifetime starts.

It was, of all things, a second-place finish in a $100,000 sires stakes race, that ranks as one of Tucker’s biggest racing highlights to date.

“My grandfather owned her at the time,” she said. “That might be the closest I’ll ever get to winning a stakes race. The Delaware stakes are something everyone wants to race in and do well in. It’s a great program. We’ve bred mares and we’ve raced babies in that stakes program, but I’ve never had one have the success as this horse. This little filly is something special. She’s always raced well and picked up checks.

“My grandmother, who passed away just before the final in December, was part of the group that got the Delaware stakes program started. It was a great night when Miss Timber Wolf finished second. She came from way back to be the runner-up. I think a lot of people looking down that night would be proud.”

It was also a reminder for the modest horsewoman with the modest stable that there is nowhere else she’d rather be and nothing else she’d rather do for a living.

“Once you’re bred into this game, it’s hard to get away from it,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve thought about what else I would be doing. I got my degree in Agricultural Business, and I think about it at times, especially if I don’t feel like I’m succeeding. I’ll ask myself, ‘Where else would I want to go?’”

She always knows the answer.

For Tucker, home will aways be where the horses are.

“I can’t think of anywhere I would want to be other than at the barn with them,” she said.

And, on occasion, when she needs a boost in morale, Tucker will reach into her pocket and be immediately reminded of what the stopwatch signifies.

“My dad taught me so much about racing and life in general,” she said. “This is a tough business and there are times when you feel really worn down physically and mentally. But when those moments come, I look at that stopwatch and read those words on it. And that’s what I do. I keep on training.”