Catholic trainer pursues elusive Kentucky Derby bid

Danele Durham lives in Texas but trained this winter at Oaklawn in Hot Springs

Published: May 13, 2013

By Mary Rampellini
Special to Arkansas Catholic

Coady Photography

Thoroughbred horse trainer Danele Durham. The Catholic Texan spent the winter in Hot Springs training a stable of a dozen horses at Oaklawn Park.

Coady Photography

Thoroughbred horse trainer Danele Durham. The Catholic Texan spent the winter in Hot Springs training a stable of a dozen horses at Oaklawn Park.

HOT SPRINGS — When the horse Texas Bling won a $300,000 race at odds of 128-1 last December, it put lifelong Catholic Danele Durham on the path to her lifelong dream — the Kentucky Derby.

Durham was one race from getting a shot at the Run for the Roses. Unfortunately Texas Bling finished eighth in the $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs April 13 and didn’t qualify for the Kentucky Derby May 4.

Durham, who trains a stable of 12 horses at Oaklawn, is a Texas resident who belongs to St. John the Apostle Parish in North Richland Hills. But this winter while racing in Arkansas, she attended St. John the Baptist in Hot Springs.

Texas Bling emerged as the best horse Durham has ever trained, and during the Oaklawn meet he has backed up his improbable win in the Springboard Mile last December at Remington Park in Oklahoma City. In his first start of the year, Texas Bling missed by a diminishing neck in the $150,000 Smarty Jones, run at Oaklawn in January. In March, he was a fourth in the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel Stakes, which is the track’s final prep for the Arkansas Derby.

“It’s really exciting,” said Durham, a 51-year-old native of San Antonio. “Ever since I was a little girl, every time I watched the Derby I secretly prayed a man would win it because I wanted to be the first woman (trainer) to win the Derby.

“I’ll be trying until I’m 90!”

Durham launched her training career in the late 1980s but left the sport in 1993 to raise her children. Jackson, 19, is an engineering major at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, while her daughters, Katherine, 14, and Caroline, 12, are in middle school.

Durham resumed training a stable of horses in 2007 and has raced primarily in Texas. But she ventured to deeper waters this year with the move to Oaklawn, which operates one of the leading meets in North America. She held her own in her initial season in Arkansas, with a stable that won four races and earned more than $150,000 for her clients through March 29.

“I just feel like God has a big plan for everything,” Durham said. “These horses are running so well for me… I couldn’t plan this. There’s better trainers, better horses. Sometimes, I think God says, ‘OK, this is your time. It’s going to be the time of your life.’

“No matter what the outcome, win or lose, this has been the most fun year of my life.”

Durham said her Catholic faith has long helped her deal with the ups and downs of racing. It’s a sport where horses lose more often than they win, and one in which injuries can derail the best laid plans at the worst possible junctures.

“Every time something good happens, the first thing I do is say, ‘Thank you, Jesus,’” she said. “Nothing comes without his help. And, as Jesus suffered, when it’s your turn to suffer, you know you’re always going to come out of it. I don’t feel like any kind of suffering is forever. No down is forever.”

Durham added she feels at home in her career as a trainer, a sharp contrast in lifestyle to one of her previous professional endeavors, which was developing real estate.

“The people that work around horses obviously don’t do it for money,” she said of the many grooms who work for minimum wage. “They do it for the love of the animal.

“I feel so close to God, with the horses and the people. I feel like when I’m working with the animals I’m as close as can be to God. There’s an innocence, a basics of life, that God created creatures great and small.”

Texas Bling was not a favorite in the Arkansas Derby, but got a bit of attention for the fact that Calvin Borel, a three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, signed on to ride the horse.

“His work the other day, I got goose bumps. I feel like God gave me a good one,” Durham said.