Trainer Rory Huston knew that both his job and his life would be greatly impacted following the sale a year and a half ago of Overbrook Farm in Colts Neck, a place he called home for 50 years, most recently doubling as the farm manager.

He just wasn’t expecting the change to be quite this dramatic.

After years of living on the farm and working it, and sending his horses directly to race at Monmouth Park from there – often driving the horse van himself – his world has been turned upside down.

Sunday, when he sends out Forever Chocolate in the $75,000 John J. Reilly Handicap at Monmouth Park, he’s hoping to finally start getting things back on track.

“(The farm sale) changed my life a lot. It hasn’t been easy,” said Huston. “It’s more expensive going to Florida for the winter, shipping there and laying them up for a month or so. It’s been a lot more difficult and expensive.

“It’s been tough for me and my wife (Sharon). Very tough.”

Huston’s routine for as long as he can remember was living at and running the 235-acre Overbrook Farm, keeping his horses there all winter before gearing up for the Monmouth Park meet. Now his 16-horse stable is bedded down in Barn 25 on the Monmouth Park backstretch.

“It definitely feels like I not only lost a home but a family as well, without a doubt,” he said. “The Baileys (Richard Bailey owned the farm before selling) are like family to me.

“The first house I lived in on the farm was a converted chicken coop. Then when I got married we converted a bull barn into a house. Almost all of my adult life was at Overbrook Farm doing different jobs.”

The new reality has not been kind to the Monmouth Park fixture, who has consistently won his share of Jersey-bred races and state-restricted stakes for the past 16 years. He’s off to an 0-for-19 start this year, 0-for-9 during the Monmouth Park meet.

A year ago, he had a solid 10-10-9 line from 86 starters at the Jersey Shore track, with Forever Chocolate giving him a stakes win in the Jersey-restricted Friendly Lover Stakes.

The 7-year-old gelding, owned and bred by Janet Laszlo, will be making his seasonal debut after being idle more than seven months. At six furlongs, the Jersey-bred restricted John J. Reilly isn’t Forever Chocolate’s preferred distance, since almost all of his success has been going longer. Ten horses have entered the Sunday feature.

“The one post is going to hurt him,” said Huston. “I’d have like for him to be on the outside. He will definitely be coming from behind. We’re just trying to get a race into him. We know it’s going to be a tough race for him. Hopefully we can go on from this.”

Huston and his wife own a “small” farm in Williston, Fla., just north of Ocala, where he said he has three Jersey-bred yearlings, a mare and foal.

But with all Jersey-breds in his barn Monmouth is where he races.

“I went through a lot of my personal money this winter,” he said. “I have a payroll to meet and feed guys to pay and, knock on wood, I’ve been able to pay everyone on time.

“But it has not been easy at all. It’s difficult. You’re used to doing things one way for as long as you can remember and almost everything changed for me overnight.