Preakness: Crupper seeks Von Hemel family's 1st Triple Crown win

Robert Zoellner’s 3-year-old colt Crupper can become the first Triple Crown race winner for one of the Midwest’s most respected horse-racing families in Saturday’s Preakness 2026 at Laurel Park.

Donnie K. Von Hemel, Crupper’s trainer, is in Oklahoma’s horse racing Hall of Fame. His brother, Kelly, is in Iowa racing’s Hall of Fame. Ditto their dad, Don Von Hemel, in Nebraska. Among them, they’ve won 6,494 races and $136.7 million in purses in a combined 149 years of training Thoroughbreds.

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“They were always just ‘that guy,’ just great horsemen,” said Zoellner, who has had Donnie K. Von Hemel as his trainer for 20 years. “… Just a Hall of Fame family.”

The Bathhouse Row winner will be Van Hemel’s second Preakness starter, following Our Gatsby , who was seventh in 1995. He also had two Kentucky Derby starters, Clever Trevor, 13th in 1989, and Arkansas Derby runner-up Suddenbreakingnews, a fast-closing fifth in 2016, a head and a nose behind 2017 horse of the year Gun Runner. Suddenbreakingnews is Von Hemel’s only Belmont Stakes starter, checking in ninth.

No other Von Hemel has been in a Triple Crown race.

“It would mean a lot,” Van Hemel, 64, said of a family member winning a Triple Crown race. “Racing has been great to our family. If it doesn’t happen, it’s not a problem. But it would be a thrill. My father is going to be 92 in about a week.”

He paused, clearly thinking about what it would mean to his dad, adding, “It gets emotional.”

Donnie K., as he’s known on the track to distinguish him from the man they call Don Von, began training in 1984 and has won 2,280 races and $66 million in purses. He might be best-known for training 2011 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Caleb’s Posse. That horse also won Saratoga’s King’s Bishop (G1), now the Allen Jerkens, in 2010 and ended his career in 2012 with a neck defeat in the Met Mile (G1) to Preakness winner Shackleford.

The other five millionaires Von Hemel has trained include the popular Grade 1 winner Clever Trevor, who became the trainer’s first graded-stakes winner and finished second to Easy Goer in the Travers (G1). Von Hemel's other graded-stakes winners include Crupper’s dam, She’s All In. 

Don Von Hemel began training in 1956, retiring in 2023. He won 2,568 races and more than $33.7 million in purses while training largely during an era where purses were a fraction of what they are today, without the plethora of graded stakes. Among his best horses was the South Dakota-bred Win Stat, a multiple graded-stakes winner whose 22 victories over eight racing seasons included setting a world record for a mile and 70 yards (1:38.40) at Oaklawn on March 7, 1984. His owners included the late country music icon Toby Keith.

Donnie K. worked for Don Von from a young age.

“There were no walking wheels,” the younger Von Hemel recalled. “They just had what we called a tow-ring between the barns. You’d be on the pony and walking a horse on each side. I was pretty young when I was doing that. Probably when I was 10 or 12 I started hot-walking in the barn. Then 13-14, I groomed a few horses. Just from there you took more responsibility and then more responsibility. Probably high school and college, more assistant trainer-type duties.”

Von Hemel graduated from Fort Hays State University in Kansas with an accounting degree, but the lure of the racetrack was too much. Plus, you’d have a hard time finding a better professor or classroom than Don Von and his barn.

“The main thing is, just being in his barn, and learning from him and the people in his barn — whether exercise riders, assistant trainers, grooms or hotwalkers,” Von Hemel said. “There were always good people around. Just pay attention and you were going to learn something from them.”

Kelly Von Hemel’s first full year of training was 1986. Among his 1,646 wins and $37 million purse earnings are those by Miss Macy Sue, winner of Churchill Downs’s Winning Colors (G3). But her real fame is as the mom of super-sire Not This Time and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Liam’s Map.

Speaking of mothers on the heels of Mother's Day, Don Von and Donnie K. had Mariah’s Storm in their individual stables at different times. The elder Von Hemel won two graded stakes with Mariah’s Storm, and his son won four, including defeating future Hall of Famer Serena’s Song in the Turfway Park Breeders’ Cup Stakes (G2) in 1995. Even going 10 for 16, Mariah’s Storm’s seminal mark on the horse industry came as the dam of the great racehorse and stallion Giant’s Causeway.

“You look at some of these pedigrees, they’re on both sides,” Donnie K. said.

Accomplished on the track, the Von Hemels long have been involved in leadership roles off the track as well. Don Von spent more than 40 years on the Arkansas HBPA board representing owners and trainers at Oaklawn Park. Kelly is a mainstay on the Iowa HBPA board. Now based in Kentucky much of the year, Donnie K. spent around 25 years on the Oklahoma HBPA board, including six as president. He left the board to serve as a member of the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission for six years. He’s been on Oaklawn’s track committee for the last decade.

“The Von Hemel family represents the very best of Thoroughbred racing and the horsemen and women who dedicate their lives to this industry,” said Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association. “From Don Von Hemel’s remarkable foundation of horsemanship and integrity to the continued success and leadership of Donnie and Kelly, the Von Hemel name has become synonymous with class, hard work and an unwavering commitment to the industry. They have been respected advocates for horsemen, trusted voices within the HBPA, and examples of what this industry is built upon: family, grit and care for the horse.

“To now see Donnie with an opportunity to compete for their first Triple Crown victory in the Preakness with Crupper makes this moment especially meaningful. It would be a fitting lifetime achievement award for the entire Von Hemel family if Crupper wins the Preakness Stakes.”