Twelve-year-old Colton Hay wants to be the next Ronnie Wrenn, Jr.

by Chris Lomon

Colton Hay hasn’t reached his teens, but the aspiring horseman is already on the fast track to success in the standardbred world.

Familiarity with harness racing is hardly a new thing for the 12-year-old son of trainer and driver Emily Hay.

In fact, he already had a front-row seat to the sport as a wide-eyed toddler.

“I would sit in the race bike with my mom when she was doing training miles,” said Colton, who calls Celine, OH home.

Those miles were more than just a mother and son bonding over horses – they were also, at times, teachable moments.

“Colton would sing his ABCs,” Emily said. “We would go over the alphabet and practice it together.”

Emily’s love of the sport — her own family had no history in horse racing — and its equine stars were quickly passed along to Colton.

He was an eager student.

“Basically, he started in the barn when he was very young,” she said. “When he was old enough — and we always kept an eye on him — he would clean stalls and fill water buckets.”

One of his favorites is Royal Delta, a bay mare who is one year his senior.

The daughter of Royal Art out of the Dragon’s Lair mare On A Dare, a nine-time winner from 156 starts, is trained by Emily, who co-owns with Colton.

“I just really like being around the horses,” Colton said. “They are amazing animals. You learn a lot of things from them.”

The same can be said of Colton’s relationship with drivers, trainers, and a network of other horsepeople.

By his first day of school, he had already built an impressive stable of strong relationships with notable harness racing names in Ohio.

Two of those connections came with drivers Ronnie Wrenn, Jr. and the late Hunter Myers.

“He’d go out to the track, see these people who he wanted to be like, and then want to meet them,” said Emily, who has raced at numerous tracks throughout Ohio over the years, as well as at Hoosier Park and Northville in Michigan. “Ronnie could not be more kind and supportive. He tells me to send Colton out to him – he is so good with the kids and understands that he was that person at one time.

“Hunter was amazing, too. Humble and nice and always encouraging.”

Colton has found the same support and encouragement from his mother.

“She is always helping me and teaching me new things,” Colton said.

Although they are bound by their affinity for horses and the industry, the two are emotional opposites when it comes to watching one of their horses compete.

“I am pretty quiet, but my mom, who is beside me, gets pretty loud,” Colton said.

Those shared experiences are never taken for granted.

“It’s nice to share that joy of racing and the horses with one another,” said Emily, who spent time on the OHHA board and assisted Tim Konkle with Facebook/Twitter and the Midwest Harness Report. “It’s also nice to see how much Colton loves everything about it.”

There could come a day when both will be at the racetrack, albeit on different sides of the fence.

Colton, who works summers in trainer Phil Belanger’s barn, is chasing the goal of becoming a driver in the Buckeye State and perhaps beyond.

“That’s what I want to do,” Colton said. “I want to drive like Ronnie Wrenn. We know him, and every time I have a question, he helps me. We went to Northfield and he post-paraded my pony with me.”

The younger Hay is anything but a one-trick pony.

Colton is also an award-winning bull rider; his talents having taken him across the United States.

“When he isn’t with the horses, he’s at the rodeos doing mini-bull riding,” Emily said. “He went to Utah for the International Miniature Bullriders Association — he won an event there — and then we are leaving Dec. 2 to go to Vegas for the Junior World finals.”

Colton has no shortage of support in those arenas.

“Scarlett Wilder [daughter of standardbred horsepeople Mike and Heather Wilder] was the one who got Colton into barrel racing, and he would ride one of her horses,” Emily said. “She went to Vegas with her horse Roland and told Colton he could ride her horse when he got good enough. He did that and when he was around 7, we would go to Pennsylvania, and Hunter Myers would come watch him.”

Colton added, “It’s a lot of fun and you get to go to a lot of fun places and meet a lot of new people.”

Outside of the ring, Colton, who works the radios during training sessions, along with other numerous roles in the barn, has also recently added a new skill set to his ever-growing list of capabilities.

Alongside his racing pony, I Am Legend, aka, Baloney Sandwich, he is learning the farrier trade.

“We got him, so I can learn to race,” Colton said. “But I am also learning how to shoe horses. [Driver] Jason Beattie is helping me with it.”

Emily said, “Colton went down to Jason and Bobby Jo’s place, and they introduced him to shoeing the horses. When he came back, he had a little farrier kit. Colton has done it on some of our older horses and now he’s shoeing his pony.

“You have to start somewhere. He will take pictures and send them to Jason, who will then send back some helpful advice.”

There will be plenty more guidance and words of wisdom along the way as Colton, who plays as a wide receiver and running back for his school’s football team, pursues life in the race bike.

And if it does come to be, he will sport a look that is an homage to his favorite drivers.

“I would want green and black because it is a good mix of Hunter and Ronnie,” said Colton, who attended the HHYF Leadership camp at Hoosier Park this year, where he worked with Jay Hochstetler and some of the trainer’s stars, including Ponda Warrior and Ponda Jet.

The young man from Ohio is looking to make much more than a fashion statement in standardbred racing.

His primary goal?

“I want to be the next Ronnie Wrenn,” he said.