Trainer Chris Richard

Born: 05/17/1971 Resides: Schaumburg, Illinois  Family: Single

Richard’s stable performed in excellent fashion throughout the 2007 meeting.He wound up the third leading trainer, winning with 20 of his 62 starters.

This amounted to a 32 win percent and an in-the-money mark of 55 percent. The 24 horses he had in training at Oaklawn much of the meet accumulated $328,000 in purses.

“Our good meeting started opening day when we won the $50,000 Dixieland with Irish Dreamer,” explained Richard.  “My horses deserve the credit. They are the ones that put our good Hot Springs record together.”

Richard, 35, learned much of his craft under Tom Amoss.“I was with Tom for five years. I grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana.There have been some Richards in racing in Louisiana, but I’m the first trainer in my immediate family. I own a home in Schaumburg, Illinois now and make my racing headquarters in Chicago,” he said.

Richard got his first trainer’s license in 2005.

“I had wanted to go out on my own, but I had to wait until I felt the time was right. I owe a lot to such owners as Dr. K.K. and Vilasini Jayaraman and to Maggi Moss.

Chris first came to Oaklawn in 2006 and put together an excellent meeting. From only 21 starts,his stable won five races, added five seconds and three thirds.

“As opening day for 2007 approached, I had doubts about finishing as high as third. My horses were ready to run when the meeting opened. We have had very good luck throughout.It seems whenever I had a horse ready for its best effort, there would be a race available. A lot of things just fell in place for us,” said Richard.