Meet horse trainer Danielle Hodsdon who has saddled horses on and off for 19 years and has reached the winner’s circle 14 times. Her history at Colonial Downs goes back decades though.
She rode in her first sanctioned steeplechase race there — and broke her collarbone in that event — during the infamous Strawberry Hill Races in 2000. She won her first race as a trainer at the New Kent track in 2006. And most recently, this past Wednesday in fact, a horse she trains finished first in a $70,000 race at Colonial literally minutes before another horse she trains won a race at Delaware Park.
Not a bad story. Fourteen wins in 19 years, then two in a five-minute span!
Lightning struck when Hodsdon recorded that pair of maiden wins at two different tracks almost simultaneously. Zevon, her 7-year-old Imagining gelding named after legendary singer Warren Zevon, won a $70,000 maiden special weight at Colonial — his first in 13 tries — at nearly the same time Pegster, a 3-year-old Speightster filly of hers, captured a $28,000 maiden claimer at Delaware Park — her first in seven tries — where Hodsdon was based that afternoon.
“It was incredible and came within five minutes of each other,” she said Saturday in New Kent recalling the moment of a few days earlier. “I was walking out of the paddock from saddling Pegster at Delaware and checking a TV screen to see Zevon run here — while still watching Pegster on another screen warming up. There was an inquiry in Zevon’s race and even as Pegster started running her race, I was on the phone with people at Colonial trying to see if they finished the inquiry. Pegster ends up winning and I know I can’t find out Zevon’s result now until we take the winners circle picture. It was an incredible and gratifying moment, a career highlight for sure.”
Hodsdon had a rich career riding steeplechase horses before she turned to training. “Riding races, I’ve won lots,” she said, “But training has kind of been a win here and there type deal. I’ve never had a lot of horses going. On the way back home from Delaware that day, my owner said to celebrate Zevon’s win by listening to the song ‘Werewolves of London’.”
Hodsdon moved to Virginia from New Hampshire years ago to attend Shenandoah University in Winchester to study athletic training. Hodsdon didn’t even know what the word ‘steeplechase’ meant before arriving in the Commonwealth but ironically, served as an assistant trainer to Hall of Famer Jonthan Sheppard and ended up riding jump horses for him too. She went on to ride over 800 times, win 140 races and horses she rode won $4 million in purse earnings over a 16-year period.
Hodsdon’s first training win came at Colonial Downs with a horse named Honour Emblem in 2006.
Asked if she has a soft spot for Colonial Downs, Hodsdon replied, “I have a soft and a probably a hard spot too. My first sanctioned ride was at Strawberry Hill with a jump horse for Jimmy Day named Belluga. In contention and coming up on the final fence, I got too zealous, gunned him at the fence, fell off the horse and broke my collarbone. I rode my first sanctioned race and broke a collarbone there on the same day. It-was quite an up and down experience!”
Hodsdon stays busy now, working part time as a physical therapy assistant 32 hours a week and training a stable of eight horses as well. “I’d love it if I could just train horses,” she said, “But physical therapy provides benefits and health insurance. That’s the practical part of my life.”
