Page 28 - July 2017

Breeders/owners Mark and Peggy Brown have parlayed a lifetime of dedication to
reach the million-dollar races.
When Mark Brown and Peggy Duffin got JOINING FORCES license the year I graduated from high married in American Falls, Idaho, in 1976, Mark and Peggy met in their early 20’s, rac- school.”
by Diane Rice
they saw reaching the ranks of million-dollar ing and rodeoing.
race qualifiers as just a distant dream. Yet here “I was living in Ogden, Utah, and Peggy had they are, four decades of dedication later, hav- come down with her folks to a chariot race I
When Mark and Peggy got married, they trained for Peggy’s dad and in 1980 they collectively won the State and World Chariot Racing championships. Since then, they’ve been active in the Eastern Idaho Horseman’s Association, being inducted into that orga- nization’s Hall of Fame a couple years ago. “We’ve done everything together,” Mark says.
PURSUING THEIR PASSION
The Browns raise and race homegrown horses with homegrown manpower. Mark— also a John Deere dealership sales man- ager—and Peggy do the bulk of the work themselves, with help from their daughter, Misty Remer.
ing qualified for the Los Alamitos $2 Million Futurity in 2016 with Kissed By An Eagle, and the Ed Burke $1 Million Futurity held June 18, 2017, with Kissed By An Eagle’s half-brother Jess My Kiss.
“To be able to qualify for that type of race
is really, really difficult,” says their longtime trainer and friend Brenda Schvaneveldt Figueroa of Cypress, California.
“They’re a small breeder but they’ve got these really great horses,” adds Brenda of the Browns, who still live in American Falls. “They work really hard at it and love the business. They’ve been smart with who they’ve bred their mares to and they’ve stuck with it. They’re com- peting against other owners who have barns full of horses and they have three in training right now; they’ve got these great runners and it’s a huge accomplishment—it’s so exciting!”
“It was an ongoing process. I got my trainer’s license the year I graduated from high school,” said Peggy
was involved in,” says Mark. “After that, we just started running into each other.”
Mark’s parents were never really involved with horses; he got his start through his grand- father and his uncle, who had a ranch in Ogden. “I broke my first arm at age 8 when I fell off a horse,” he jokes.
His interest evolved as he helped with ranch work, then got involved in rodeoing and in cutter and chariot racing. He jockeyed some on Utah tracks and then worked into breeding.
Peggy’s dad chariot raced and had race- horses. “I grew up showing in
4-H and AQHA horse shows,
and from there I worked at
the racetracks, outriding and such,” adds Peggy, a former rodeo queen and barrel racer.
“It was an ongoing process. I got my trainer’s
26 SPEEDHORSE, July 2017
Mark Brown at the 2011 Los Alamitos Equine Sale