Page 68 - Speedhorse June 2019

MARTHA
CLAUSSEN
You Know You’re There
How do you know you’ve attained success in the horse racing industry? Have you
purchased your first-ever race horse after months or years of planning? Have you paid a certain self-determined (spendy!) dollar amount at a big yearling sale for a youngster destined for
the track? Have you purchased an established runner? Has a horse you rode, trained, bred or owned won a race? Or better yet, a stakes race? From various perspectives, all of these
might be considered indicators of racing success. Yet, there’s another event that’s considered by many as the bellwether of success in racing.
“I remember going to the races once when we first started running and looking at Martha Claussen in the winner’s circle interviewing connections,” says owner Rogelio Marquez, Jr. of Rosenberg, Texas. “I thought, One day I’m going to get interviewed by her! It took about a year to win a race and actually get that interview.
“Having Martha come up to you in the winner’s circle and congratulate you and give you an interview is such a special experience,” he adds. “You know you’ve
done something right in Quarter Horse racing when that happens!”
by Diane Rice
Her Passion Takes Root
Martha Claussen was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Her parents had no interest in horses, nor did her sister or two brothers. But the seeds of Martha’s horse passion were planted at an early age and that passion continues to burn.
Her introduction to horses and riding came at the summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains that she attended for eight weeks
at age nine. “They had sailing and archery and crafts and camping, but the only thing I was hooked on from day one was riding horses,” she says. “Every day, day in and day out, I just wanted to go to the stables and ride. The camp director would say, ‘Don’t you want to try something different?’ and I’d say, ‘No.’
“One time, they made me do sailing and I found it very boring,” Martha adds. “I didn’t like archery and I had no aptitude for crafts. But there was nothing about the horses that I didn’t like, whether it was mucking stalls, feeding them, grooming them — even their smell and the smell of grass on their muzzles. I remember it like it was yesterday!”
She continued riding for the next decade at the Saddle and Bridle Club near her home,