FRANKLIN — Bethany Baumgardner has won two races in a training career that began in April as the Florida trainer for Glen Hill Farm. Both those winners will be in action this weekend at Kentucky Downs: Ocean Club was to run in Saturday’s $1.5 million Exacta Systems Ladies Sprint (G2) and Bridle a Butterfly in Sunday’s $1 million National Thoroughbred League Juvenile Sprint.

Ocean Club provided the 34-year-old Baumgardner, a former jockey both on the flat and over jumps, her first training victory. Ocean Club had previously been trained by Glen Hill’s longtime trainer Tom Proctor, for whom Baumgardner worked as an assistant out at Del Mar last year.

Baumgardner did her job, winning the Gulfstream Park stakes in her only race with the filly, and Ocean Club was sent on to Jack Sisterson.

“It was always understood that my base would be here in South Florida with the farm, and when bigger tracks or opportunities happened for these horses, they would be going there,” Baumgardner said. “I try to get them the best I can get them and send them off hopefully to do great things.”

Baumgardner plans to work a bunch of horses in Florida Saturday morning, hop on a flight to Nashville and hopes to make it to Kentucky Downs in time to watch Ocean Club run.

Her mission at Kentucky Downs is to run Bridle a Butterfly, a good-looking winner in his July 28 debut at Gulfstream, in Sunday’s 6 1/2-furlong Juvenile Sprint.

“It is amazing,” Baumgardner said. “It’s a $1 million race, and there obviously are some very nice horses in there. But I’m just as excited about our horse. I think it will be good to get him on that big stage and see where we stack. I am beyond excited. This is so cool to get to come to Kentucky Downs with this chestnut who jumped up and showed he’s got a nice little turn of foot.”

Bridle a Butterfly, a son of the adjudged 2019 Kentucky Derby winner Country House, appears to be the first good horse out of the Storm Cat mare Sly Storm, who was purchased in 2006 for $500,000 as a yearling by Glen Hill founder Leonard Lavin. Lavin built up Alberto-Culver Co. until selling the company in 2010 for $3.7 billion to Unilever. Lavin died in 2017, with his grandson Craig Bernick taking over the breeding and racing operation.

“She was a really good runner and very well-bred,” Bernick said of Sly Storm, “and just a complete failure as a mare. We bred her to many, many, many good stallions: Medaglia d’Oro twice, Smart Strike, Tiznow, Malibu Moon, Arrogate, Candy Ride and never had a runner, anything resembling a runner. I’m friends with Guinness McFadden, who owned Country House. He said, ‘We’re not going to stand this horse for any money because he got hurt after the Derby. He was second in the Derby, got put up, never won another graded stakes. So we’re just going to let people breed for free, and if he throws runners, we’ll make money.’ I sent him this mare, thinking, ‘what the heck.’ This horse ran darn good at Gulfstream.”

Right now Baumgardner is a private trainer for Glen Hill, with horses at their farm track in Ocala as well as Gulfstream’s Palm Meadows training center. Bridle a Butterfly has been training over an undulating turf gallop at the farm.

“She’s a really good horse person,” Bernick said of Baumgardner. “She worked for the jump trainer Tom Voss, and she worked us one winter at the Fair Grounds. Then she ended up at the farm over Covid. I was there too, and really liked her. I was impressed with her…. Last summer, they were still in Tom (Proctor’s) name, but she took nine of our horses to Del Mar. We made the deal, ‘Go to Del Mar, go back to Florida, run the barn. After the Championship Meet at Gulfstream, we’ll turn the horses over into your name.’

“All the horses start out with her. It’s convenient to the farm. They can win races at Gulfstream, especially this time of year, which is important. The really good horses will go to New York or Kentucky or California. She’s agreed to that and done a great job for us, and it’s a good opportunity for her.”

Baumgardner said nothing in her riding career, on the flat or steeplechase, compares to this, though it was a big thrill to have owned, trained and ridden her own horse in stakes races.

“This is an incredible opportunity,” she said. “Even at Gulfstream it’s an incredible opportunity to be training for Glen Hill Farm and to have their horses there. I’m so excited to have the iconic Glen Hill colors behind me.”

Gutfreund wins play-in tourney by going all in on first wager

Hall of Fame horseplayer David Gutfreund of Chicago won Thursday’s first of two play-in tournaments for the Sept. 7 King of the Turf Betting Challenge, finishing with a $2,078 bankroll. For his efforts, Gutfreund earned a seat in the 2025 National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) and a seat with its $2,500 buy-in for the King of the Turf. The second play-in tournament is on Sunday’s card, and Gutfreund plans to play that as well.

Thursday’s tournament had a $300 buy-in for the online, live-money competition, with $150 going toward the player’s bankroll and a requirement that at least five races be played with a $30 minimum. Gutfreund played two hands, waiting until the seventh race and betting $150 straight exactas on each using the Larry Rivelli-trained even-money favorite #8 Rich City Girl on top. He used #1 Princess Attitude on the bottom on one hand and #3 Bellavinino on the other. Rich City Girl held off Princess Attitude by a half-length after that 6-1 shot rallied from last for an exacta that paid $14.78 for $1.

Gutfreund said in a phone interview that he first thought he won by being very crafty until he saw the race replay.

“If that 1 horse hadn’t checked so badly in that seventh race on Thursday, we wouldn’t be talking right now,” he said. “Watch the replay. The horse got checked and lost five lengths. It was running like a steam train at the end to lose by a neck. After the race I thought I was a genius for doing what I did. I was patting myself on the back. Then I’m making notes after the race and going, ‘How lucky did I get?’”

Gutfreund just played the minimum per race the rest of the way. His other hand blew after that lone play, with Bellavininio finishing fourth.

“Different people treat their minimum bets differently,” Gutfreund said of his strategy. “I tried to essentially win it with my exacta bets and worry about the minimums after the facts. Most people are playing $30 a race. It’s hard to get to $2,000 playing $30 bets.”

Gutfreund said Kentucky Downs is his favorite track to play. He pointed out that Kentucky Downs’ overall takeout is the lowest among all the major tracks, with the largest fields and quality horses coming in from all over.

“The reason it’s my favorite betting product is because it’s the best betting product,” he said.

Email King of the Turf Handicapping Challenge Tournament Director Brian Skirka at bskirka@monmouthpark.com with questions and to register for the King of the Turf and the Sept. 1 play-in tournaments. All play is online only and everyone must be preregistered. All TVG/4NJBETS players must be pre-registered with Skirka by 3 p.m. Eastern on the day before the contests. Xpressbet players can sign up directly on Xpressbet up until post time for Race 1 on contest day.

The first-place King of the Turf finisher will receive a prize package to the 2025 National Horseplayers Championships (NHC) next March in Las Vegas and an entry into the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Betting Challenge (BCBC), worth $10,000. The winner also receives $25,000 cash (based on 100 entries), plus their winning bankroll. And, of course, there’s the instantly iconic Global Tote King of the Turf belt designed after boxing’s championship belts and guaranteed to gain the recipient the respect and envy of fellow tournament players.