Brandon Bragg Adds Youth To Owner Ranks At Cal Expo

Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - by Mark Ratzky, Publicity -- Cal Expo

At the age of 17, Brandon Bragg has to be one of the youngest, not to mention enthusiastic, harness horse owners at Cal Expo and in the country.  The Sacramento native currently has three horses in partnership with KC Carvalho, who happens to be his boss at work, and also owns the trotter Irish Whiskey, who prevailed last weekend. 

“I started coming to the track with KC about three years ago, when I went to work with him,” Brandon related.  “To be honest, at first I didn’t have much interest, but then I saved up some money to buy in for 10 percent on a horse and I really started to like it.”

Brandon made his first trip to the winner’s circle as an owner when Double Dakota got the job done as a 1-9 favorite.

“He won even though he had a broken head pole that night,” Bragg explained.  “It was then that I realized winning a race as an owner is the ultimate high.”

Brandon, who lives less than 15 minutes from Cal Expo, is getting plenty of hands-on experience thanks to Tim Brown, who trains his horses.

“Tim is teaching me about the training side.  I spend Wednesdays at the track and love being around the horses and learning about the game.”

The aforementioned Irish Whiskey is a 10-year-old trotting son of Meadowbranch Irish who has been a local mainstay for many seasons and is closing in on the $150,000 earnings plateau for Bragg and trainer Brown.

"I’d always wanted a trotter, and I bought him about two weeks after the meet started back up,” his owner explained.  “He’s an old trotter with a little bit of class, and every week he tries his hardest in the stretch. He’s one of my favorites.”