Madison Global Scores Big with Big Ranger

By Wes Mayberry

When it came time to buy a new group of yearlings in 2024, the Madison Global ownership group placed its trust in trainer and driver Ronnie Gillespie to identify some intriguing options. Little did they know that Gillespie’s intuition would lead them to Big Ranger and an Ohio Triple Crown in 2025.

“Ronnie is the one who gets the credit for picking out Big Ranger,” says Anthony Miller, the corresponding officer for Madison Global. “We pretty much gave him free range to buy what he wanted.”

Given that freedom, Gillespie went to work trying to find horses that seemed to have potential for future success on the racetrack. Early on, he liked Big Ranger’s size — “For a yearling, he was very big,” he said — and athleticism.

“When I watched his video, he saw a shadow or something, and he jumped to the side and never missed a trot,” Gillespie says. “That sold me on him right then.”

Based in Dundee, Ohio, Madison Global — consisting of Miller along with partners Wes Beachy, Reuben Hershberger, and Benjamin Shrock — didn’t quite know what to expect from their new colt after purchasing him at the Ohio Selected Jug Sale for $25,000.

“To be honest, our main goal was to recoup the money that we had put into the yearling,” Miller says. “It’s not like we bought Big Ranger and thought we had the best horse ever.”

But they continued trusting Gillespie’s instincts when it came to gauging Big Ranger’s potential.

“It wasn’t until we got closer to qualifying time that Ronnie started to feel really high on him and thought we had something really special,” Miller says.

Big Ranger has certainly been special. The freshman colt trotter by In Range out of Big Blue Bird won all seven starts this season while compiling $370,610 in earnings and becoming an Ohio Triple Crown winner. After winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown in the Ohio State Fair Stake and Ohio Breeders Championship, he completed the quest with a victory in the Ohio Sires Stakes Scarlet Championship for 2-year-old colt trotters at Hollywood Gaming Dayton Raceway on Sept. 27.

“I was at a loss for words, and my knees were weak at the Sires Stakes finals,” Beachy says. “Seeing Big Ranger go undefeated in my first season is incredible. I thank Anthony and Reuben for opening this group up for me to be a part of it. But Ronnie gets all the credit — without him, this would not have happened.”

Origins

Miller has been interested in horses since he was young and started owning racehorses in his early 20s. He focused mainly on older horses at first but started buying babies about five or six years ago. Miller and Hershberger teamed to own some horses prior to the formation of Madison Global in 2024 and established a relationship with Gillespie to train Tommy Count and Sweet Harmony. They started Madison Global with the purpose of buying yearlings that they hoped would develop into successful racehorses. Beachy, of Sugarcreek, Ohio, joined the group this year, seeing it as a great entry point into ownership.

“Anthony and Reuben have done very well for themselves and have a good eye for horses, and it was just something that I figured I’d have to try at some point,” he says. “It just so happened that I picked a lucky year to join in.”

Recognizing Gillespie’s talent, the new group continued to utilize him as a trainer and driver.

“I think a lot of Ronnie. He’s always been very honest with us, and I think he has a natural talent to pick out a good horse, and he’s able to personalize his training to what the horse needs,” Miller says. “He’s a really good trainer, especially for younger horses.”

With Big Ranger in his stable, Gillespie began conditioning the new colt and quickly recognized several positive attributes that went on to carry him to an undefeated season.

“He has a very good attitude and doesn’t let anything upset him, and you can drive him any kind of way. He’s really relaxed and responds strictly off of me,” Gillespie says. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse when you get one that’s so relaxed and responds off of you — that’s what makes him so special.”

A Special Season

Big Ranger’s freshman season began with a win in a qualifier at Eldorado Scioto Downs on June 16. Gillespie says the owners turned down an offer of $170,000 for the colt at that time simply based on his confidence that a special season was in store.

“They said, ‘Ronnie, if you believe in him and have confidence in him, we’re going to follow your lead,’” Gillespie says. “I told them, ‘I like the colt, and I think I can go all the way with him,’ and they stood behind me.”

Next up was the $150,000 Next Generation at Scioto, which turned out to be somewhat of a last-minute development.

“We were scrambling to get a slot for the Next Generation race because that wasn’t even on our radar going into the year,” Beachy says. “Anthony and I were on the phone trying to see what was available and thankfully got a spot clinched.”

Big Ranger won that race by more than three lengths in a stakes-record 1:54, foreshadowing the success that was to come. However, the perfect season wasn’t without some adversity. After posting a win in the first leg of the OSS on July 12, he was scratched from his start in the second leg on July 23 due to an abscess. At that point, Gillespie set his sights squarely on winning the Ohio Triple Crown with Big Ranger.

In his next time on the track, Big Ranger achieved the first step in that goal, winning the Ohio State Fair Stake at Scioto in 1:56, handing Gillespie his 1,000th career driving victory. He went on to record victories in the fourth and fifth legs of the OSS before securing a win in the Ohio Breeders Championship at Delaware by over six lengths in 1:56.2 to give himself a shot at the elusive Triple Crown.

Big Ranger was one of four horses seeking to claim the 2025 Triple Crown during the $300,000 OSS Scarlet Championships at Dayton. By the end of the night, he was the only one to achieve the feat. With Gillespie in the sulky, as he had been all season long, Big Ranger led wire to wire en route to winning by more than eight lengths in 1:53.4. That marked a lifetime best and set new track and stakes records in Gillespie’s first OSS championship as a trainer.

“I’m a little emotional because I beat the odds as a trainer and driver,” Gillespie said in a post-race interview. “To have a horse that good at the beginning of the season and maintain him to the end of the season takes a lot of work.”

That hard work didn’t go unnoticed.

“From early on, Ronnie was shooting to win the Triple Crown with Big Ranger, so it was special to me for him to stick to the plan and get it done,” Miller says.

Beachy agreed.

“Big Ranger had an abscess and was scratched at Northfield, and Ronnie did such a good job of bringing him back. It added to how special it was to see him get back to being his normal self,” Beachy says. “Ronnie has earned his way into the spotlight. He’s a very humble person who works his tail off getting these horses to the point that they are, and he’s doing it with a lot less than a lot of people. I can’t mention enough the appreciation and respect that I have for Ronnie and what he has done.”

The respect is mutual.

“I always wanted to be a driver and knew that I had the talent. I was just hoping that someone gave me the opportunity to have a bigger stable so I wouldn’t have to train the horses,” Gillespie says. “But a lot of people told me, ‘You’re going to have to come out of your own stable if you want to win the big races.’ So for Anthony and them to have the confidence in me to train Big Ranger means a lot.”

Big Ranger scored several impressive wins this season, but that OSS Championship was the most memorable for Gillespie, as his family and friends made the drive from his native Mississippi to be in attendance.

“My family and friends drove nine to 10 hours up to watch and support me, which was really special,” he says. “They had never done that before, so that meant a lot to me.”

So, what’s next for Big Ranger?

“He’ll definitely race in Ohio again, but we also want to give him a chance to perform on a bigger stage, so we’re going to stake him to some Grand Circuit events next year,” Miller says. “You don’t know if he’s going to come back as a 3-year-old and continue to be at the top of his game, but we at least want to give him the opportunity.”

For now, Miller, Beachy, Gillespie, and the rest of Big Ranger’s connections are just happy to be along for what has already been a very successful ride.

“I’ve been around horses long enough to know that there’s not always a storybook ending, so to be a part of this with Big Ranger has been a humbling experience,” Miller says. “He might be a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”