Jeff Runco Celebrates 4,000th Victory

With Vua Saigon's win in the fifth race on the Dec. 9 Laurel Park card, trainer Jeff Runco joined an exclusive club as he becomes just the twelfth conditioner in the history of North American Thoroughbred racing to reach the 4,000 win plateau.  

The 58-year-old Runco joins the likes of Dale Baird, Steve Asmussen, Jerry Hollendorfer, Jack Van Berg, King Leatherbury, Scott Lake, Bill Mott, D. Wayne Lukas, Richard Hazelton, Todd Pletcher and Chris Englehart in the elite fraternity and stands with Asmussen, Hollendorfer, Lake, Pletcher and Englehart as one of only six conditioners in history with 4,000 wins and a winning percentage of 20% or higher.

 After a career as a jockey, Runco sent out his first winner more than 30 years ago as Fantastic Power broke his trainer's maiden on July 12, 1985.  His first career wasn't without its oddities though in that it not only came in a dead heat but that the winning rider was also Runco's now wife, Susan.

Soon thereafter, the Columbus, Ohio born conditioner would become a fixture on top of the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races trainer standings and 2017 will mark the twelfth straight year Runco has lead the track's standings in both wins and earnings.

"It's been a great run and a team effort between my clients, employees and wife who have been the biggest contributors over the years in helping us get to this milestone," said Runco. "Susan (Runco) is just a huge part of our success.  With all she handles at our farm and on the breeding end of things, this couldn't have happened without her."

In his career, Runco has campaigned 60 stakes winner, including 18 victories in the West Virginia Breeders' Classics, with total earnings of more than $48 million. All told, 3,369 of Runco's winners have come at Charles Town.

The horse Runco is best known for training on a national scale is Researcher, who won back-to-back editions of the Charles Town Classic Stakes when beating the likes of Commentator and Mast Track among others in 2009 and then repeating the feat one year later in 2010. Researcher also provided him with the lone graded stakes win in his career when he captured the Queen's County Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack in 2008.

"We've had really good horses over the years like Researcher and some homebreds that have won West Virginia Breeders Classics races and other stakes," Runco said. "Researcher and Slip the Cable are probably my two biggest highlights though. Researcher was just a tremendous horse and the kind of horse that's hard to come by and Slip the Cable was the best horse we bred."