Charles Town completes 2025 season
Ted Black- December 14, 2025
Last Saturday evening, as spectators braced for the possibility of a winter storm expected to arrive during the final stretch of the card, Charles Town honored its leading jockey, trainer and owners, each receiving a handsome plaque commemorating their success at the Jefferson County oval.
Jockey Arnaldo Bocachica, who scored the 3,000th victory of his career earlier this year in Charles Town, claimed his eighth consecutive local riding title while posting stakes wins for trainers Anthony Farrior and Jeff Runco. Bocachica 196 wins at the meet, and his closest active competitor is JD Acosta with 64.
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“It means a lot to be back in charge of the jockey here,” Bocachica said. “It’s hard enough to win one driving title, but now this is eight consecutive titles for me. I have the opportunity to ride for Jeff [Runco] and Anthony [Farrior] and then start riding on the stakes and that makes it easier to get up in the morning. I’ve been able to win a lot of races here for a lot of good trainers and owners, and being the leading rider here still means a lot to me.”
Farrior secured his fourth consecutive title as a trainer with 130 wins during a very busy campaign and is currently fourth nationally with 238 wins.
Farrior, who still has a chance to saddle 250 winners this year, took his fourth consecutive training title and earlier this year enjoyed celebrating his first win as a breeder with the very first horse he ever bred, Edy’s Flame. Farrior would also saddle Faster Gator with a lucrative stakes score at Mahoning Valley last month and tried to downplay his recent success and current status as the circuit’s leading conditioner four years in a row.
“I have a lot of good help and really good owners,” Farrior said. “A few years ago I just wanted to be the head coach here. My whole mission was to just beat Jeff [Runco]. But now I’ve been able to run a lot of horses here and my best horse, Faster Gator, came third in the [$500,000 Robert Hilton] big stakes here. It takes good help and good riders to make you look good. With ‘Boca’ and JD [Acosta] Driving for me certainly helps.”
Longtime local riders Ronney Brown and his wife Nicole Brown had their second consecutive title as leading owners and recorded 54 victories at the meet.
Known for their previous success with two-time Cavada heroine Original Gold and more recently Full Moon Lover among many successful homebreds, the Browns relished having another chance to be in the spotlight.
“We had a really good year,” Ronney Brown said. “We’ve gotten some of our homebreds, and next year we’ll have some really good West Virginia-breds from Barbados.”
“We won so many races with so many different horses, I don’t know if there was really one highlight,” Nicole Brown said. “It was a lot of fun. We are already looking forward to next year. We had the chance to see Barbados on the farm and he is probably the nicest stallion I have ever met.”
With mandatory payouts, two transfers and the big overnight Turfway Park signal canceled by a winter storm, Charles Town saw the horizontal betting pools rise exponentially as punters chased the mandatory payouts on the closing night. On the closing night of Pick 6, which started with almost $77,000 transferred, the total pool grew to $424,310.
One race later, the late pick-5 pool opened with about $31,000 in carryover and rose to a total pool of $319,368. The first leg of the series went to 2-1 favorite Wiley Willard ahead of owner-trainer Ronney Brown with apprentice jockey Juan Belisario on board.
Trainer Jeff Runco may have ceded the conditioning title to Farrior for the fourth year in a row, but he and jockey Arnaldo Bocachica remained a formable tandem. On Saturday night, Runco gave an edge to Bocachica aboard Jeannette de Jet, and the three-year-old daughter of Tale Of Ekati rallied late from 5-1 in a two-turn allowance for state-bred fillies and mares. It was the 100th win of the year for Runco, who is now 104 wins away from reaching the 5,000 career win plateau.
Charles Town will take a short break for the remainder of 2025, with the 2026 live racing season kicking off on Friday, January 2. Charles Town will race four nights a week through March and offer a total of 165 live programs by 2026.
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