Trainer with county ties enjoying notoriety after winning special award

Last year, Troy Carter, who has horse racing trainer ties to Sequoyah County, won the Leading Trainer of the Year Award at Fair Meadows Race Track in Tulsa to become the first African American to earn such an award.

“It made me feel real good,” Carter said. “Here’s the story. We had a horse in the (2022) Speedhorse Futurity. He qualified. Two weeks later, he turned around and won the Speedhorse Futility. His name was Teller Ima Eagle.”

Ever since, he’s been getting a lot of notoriety, which also has pleased the veteran trainer.

“I’m at a loss of words,” Carter said. “It makes me feel good. Nothing like this (notoriety) has ever happened to me like this before. It makes me feel real good. People come up and talk to me about it.”

Carter was a leading trainer when Remington Park opened Sept. 1, 1988, and for the last few years has been in the same role at Fair Meadows Race Track.

Carter said he grew up in the business. “My uncle Jesse Carter was an award-winning trainer who worked for (Blue Ribbon Downs creator) Bill Hedge,” he said. “I worked around my uncle, Bill Hedge, Albert Whitmore and Sallisaw trainer) Rex Brooks — those were the main ones.”

Over the years, Carter has seen numerous changes, some for the best.

“I’ve seen some good changes, and I’ve seen some bad changes,” Carter said. “The horses are a lot faster and are bred well, but you can’t take anything away from the horses from back then because they were bred well and ran good. It’s the breeding now. I think all the changes have been for the better (of horse racing). I think it’s made horse racing better.”

However, Carter has stepped away from being a trainer, and he’s not certain when — of if — he will return to a profession he loved so well.

“I’m not a trainer right now,” Carter said. “I’m helping another trainer, Matt Whitekiller of Tahlequah. It’s hard to tell. I really don’t know (about returning to horse training). I really can’t say. I’m 60 years old. I was gone all the time and away from my family. My wife is in bad health, but she’s doing better. I’m enjoying the free time.”

There was one bit of prophetic insight Carter did give.

“I’ll probably be around it until the last breath I take,” he said about being involved in some fashion in the horse racing industry. “Some day I might train again, but right now I’m just enjoying my family — and my grandkids.”