No minor trainer change

If you did a double take when horses trained by DeShawn Minor swept the two Matron eliminations for 3-year-old colt pacers at Dover Downs Monday night, you probably weren't alone. The winning Geartogear and Rapid Dialing are both owned by David and Terry Brooks' Perfect World Enterprises, and both had the relatively-unknown Minor listed as trainer.



"I've been with (David Brooks) for over three years now," Minor told The Horseman with a laugh Tuesday morning by cell phone from his temporary stable at Chuck Crissman's farm in Delaware. "A lot of people don't know that."



A native of Highland Park, Mich., Minor is the 30-year-old younger brother of the more well-known conditioner DeWayne Minor. He had been working with his sibling until the fall of 2001 when he assumed his current duties with Brooks, based primarily at Sunshine Meadows training center in Florida.



"My main job is breaking the babies and getting them going," he said. "I'll be headed back to Florida soon to work with Paul Reid with about 50 babies down there."



Geartogear has now won four straight, all with Kevin Wallis driving. Wallis, who has quietly amassed more than 7,500 wins while competing at Hazel Park, Windsor Raceway and Pompano Park, was also in the sulky behind Rapid Dialing in the Matron elim, the result being a world record 1:49.1 victory.



"(Regular driver) Ron Pierce had somewhere else to be and I've known Kevin for a lot of years and I saw him at Woodbine one night and I asked him, ‘Hey Kev, you going to be at Windsor Saturday?'" explained Minor of the decision to use Wallis. "He asked me what I needed and I told him I had Geartogear in (an Ontario Sire Stakes elimination). Kevin knows that track and he knows good horses. I called David (Brooks) and he said he liked Kevin and thought it was a great idea.



"(Geartogear) won both (the elim and final) and set the track record. After the race I told Kevin he had done an incredible job and it was only fair to put him down for the (Ontario) Super Final. David said that was what he wanted, for Kevin to drive the horse again. He drove him in the Super Final and he drove him super.



"Kevin asked if he'd get the call for the Matron and I told him he was the number one man to get the call but I still had to confirm it with David. David said yes, he was doing an incredible job with the horse. Kevin did an incredible job with not one, but both horses (in the Matron elims)."



As for Rapid Dialing, who had just three wins in 21 starts this year coming into the Matron elim, Minor said: "It seems that the smaller track worked out to his benefit. I think Kevin really took the opportunity to try and help get him to the final. The horse really stepped up his game and got the job done for us. It was a big shock to us that he went as well as he did."

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