Morgan with 2-year-old Ohio Sire Stakes winner Odds on Hialeah. (Photo by Jeff Zamaiko)
Trainer Virgil Morgan, Jr. has made Scioto Downs his home, and a pari-mutual playground. And if any horseman doubts his dominance, just check the books that are stacked higher than the quarter pole.
By Bob Roberts for Press Pros
Columbus, OH – The racing gods, at least those in the department of statistics and records, were fretting.
Yes, it’s opening night 2025 at Eldorado Scioto Downs, but what is he waiting for? Why has it taken him six hours and 16 races to make the lead? Thank goodness for those late-night, back-to-back winners.
Virgil Morgan, Jr. is more than at home at Scioto Downs. He’s made it his house, his pari-mutual playground. If any horseman doubts his dominance, well, just check the books that are stacked higher than the quarter pole.
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Morgan, who sent out three winners on the May 8 season opener at the Columbus oval, has been Scioto Downs’ leading trainer for 30 consecutive years. The last time Morgan wasn’t its top conditioner, Bill Clinton was president, U.S. figure skater Tonya Harding was party to an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan (a police baton to the knee), and O.J. Simpson was arrested on suspicion of murder. That was 1994.
The astonishing streak includes an 86-win laugher in the 2000 season and a six-win squeaker in 2021. Seven times, Morgan has sent out 100 winners or more at the spring/summer stand on Columbus’ Southside. That 2000 rout of his rivals saw him register a record 130 victories.
Morgan’s run has become so anticipated, so taken for granted, that a few years back, the Columbus Dispatch reported “Scioto Downs lost track of his consecutive training titles.”
A deep dive into the records compiled and posted by the United States Trotting Association restored order to the unprecedented streak that has seen Ron Burke, harness racing’s all-time winningest trainer, finish second to Morgan the last nine years in a row.
“I love racing at Scioto Downs. I focus on Scioto because it’s racing when the good two-year-olds and the three-year-olds usually start racing.” – Virgil Morgan (Mark Hall Photo)
“I love racing at Scioto Downs,” said Morgan. “My focus on Scioto is because it’s racing when the good two-year-olds and the three-year-olds usually start racing. I just race more horses from May to October because I have them ready at that time of the year.”
Ready like an invading equine army.
Morgan’s Winners Circle Training Center (in Ashville, in Pickaway County) is just 12 minutes from Scioto Downs, and the road between the two is well-worn. On May 2 of this year, just days before the season opener, Morgan qualified 29 horses that had to be shipped and returned to Ashville.
“It’s possible to qualify that many horses because I have excellent help. They do a great job,” he said. “That day, we probably took four or five trailers over to Scioto.”
Morgan currently has 100 horses at his training center. He employs about 30 people, including his children, son Tre and daughter Kiara.
“Tre has become my right-hand man,” he said. “But both my kids are really involved and very important to my operation.”
Morgan says he wakes at 4:00 a.m. and begins his daily routine a half hour later, putting out the training schedule for his help before 5:00 a.m.
Right-hand man…”Tre has become my right-hand man. Both of my kids (Tre and Kiara) are involved and important to my operation.”
“Sleep? I don’t get a whole lot, about four to five hours,” he said. “I’ll crash a little bit on Sundays, but Sunday is an all-day thing, as I do a schedule for every horse. It’s a slower pace, but it’s all day.”
The genesis of Morgan’s drive for success traces back to his youth. He attended Grove City High School (class of 1984) in his hometown south of Columbus, where he played three sports (football, basketball, and baseball)
As a young boy he would ride his bike to Beulah Park, the Grove City thoroughbred track that closed in 2014, at 5:30 in the morning to spend an hour on the backstretch before heading to school.
“My dad owned a couple of cheap claimers,” he said. “I was just obsessed with the horses at an early age.”
But another trip as a youngster with his dad to a racetrack of a different breed – the eight miles from Grove City to Scioto Downs – put Morgan on the road to a career in harness racing. By the time he was 18, he had purchased a few harness horses in partnership with his father, turned a quick profit and was soon a racetrack regular.
To learn the ropes of training, Morgan went to work for Scioto-based trainer, Randy Owens. By the age of 23, he went out on his own and the rest is pari-mutual history.
While Morgan has trained standout performers like Mister Big ($4 million in earnings), Pet Rock ($1 million), and dozens of Ohio Sires Stakes champions, his heart belongs to one of his earliest pupils.
“The horse’s name was Aaron Boy,” said Morgan. “He was a cheap claimer, but I liked him a lot. He was good to me.”
USTA record keeping for trainers began in 1992, four years after Morgan became a licensed trainer. His win total is a bit higher than reported, but he officially reached his 7,000th in 2022, and, as of May 22, his career total of 7,712 has him comfortably in second place on the all-time North American conditioners’ list.
While winning races is a constant in Morgan’s life, enjoying them is a problem that he’s recognized and wants to change.
“I don’t enjoy the wins for as long as I should.” he said. “When a horse wins, right when they hit the wire, instead of enjoying it, I think about when they’ll race next and what condition they fit. I’d like to slow that down a bit and savor the moment.”
And, if you’re at Scioto Downs watching a race and you find yourself near Morgan, it’s best to keep to yourself.
“I don’t like a lot of talking during the race. And I hate it when somebody taps me on the shoulder at the half and says ‘Oh, you’re a winner, now.’ I don’t want to hear that. It’s the kiss of death.”
One of Morgan’s harness racing regrets is not following through after saying “cheese.”
“I don’t have winner’s circle pictures from some major races,” he said. “I’m really bad about that. I’ve got Breeders Cup wins that I don’t have pictures of and that’s kind of sad. I’d like to sit down and get some of those.”
While Morgan won an elimination heat with Mattropolois in 1996, he remains in search of a Little Brown Jug victory, as well as one in the Jugette, races that are the Holy Grail to horsemen, especially Ohioans.
“They are definitely on my bucket list,” said Morgan.
Away from the racetrack, Morgan is a passionate Cleveland Browns fan, currently a long-suffering Browns fan.
“I love the Browns,” he said. “At a young age, it was either the Bengals or the Browns and I gravitated to the Browns . . . unfortunately. It’s painful. I tell my kids not to lie to themselves, but every preseason I lie to myself that the Browns are going to win the Super Bowl.”
While he’s not holding his breath, or sitting by the phone waiting for offers, Morgan enjoyed doing a Carpool Karaoke video in 2019 with the USTA’S Wendy Ross. They drove around Grove City belting out rock music.
“I’m available for hire, for weddings or anything like that,” he said.
Later this year, Morgan will put a significant lifetime mark on his birthday cake – 60 candles.
“That’s a lifetime mark I don’t want to talk about it.”
He doesn’t have to. All those wins and all those Scioto Downs titles speak loudly enough for the kid from Grove City.
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