Donnie K. Von Hemel

Von Hemel has saddled more than 70 stakes winners, with Breeders’ Cup winner Caleb’s Posse his best, and Alternation, See How She Runs, Bedanken, Bien Nicole and Clever Trevor among his other notable stars. He trains 2016 Southwest Stakes winner and Kentucky Derby contender Suddenbreakingnews. 

He is the all-time leading trainer at Remington Park, where he was inducted into the track's Hall of Fame in 1998. He made a decision to keep horses at Remington in 1988, the year it opened. That also was the year he earned his first training title at Louisiana Downs.

Von Hemel generally keeps about 60 horses in training at Oaklawn Park in the winter-spring, Arlington Park in the summer, and Remington Park in the fall. He also has kept runners at Lone Star Park. Von Hemel has won more than 2,000 career races and earned over $54 million.

He grew up on the racetrack and got his start in the business working for his father, Don, a Midwestern trainer and member of the Nebraska Racing Hall of Fame.