Oliver's travels | Trainer Magazine | European Trainer Article Index

Apr 27

Apr 27 Oliver's travels

I TOUCHED down in Dallas at 7.30am on an ancient American Airlines jet from Louisville, Kentucky. Most of the in-flight staff must have been on the maiden voyage! We’d just been treated to some of the best racing in the world over the two days of the Breeders’ Cup and were still on quite a buzz from the entertainment of Churchill Downs and backing St Nicholas Abbey. Suddenly I realised that Texas really is uncharted territory on my radar. I was greeted outside the airport by Fasig-Tipton’s local manager Tim Boyce, who has an accent that you only hear in cowboy movies. It’s so different from the gentle drawl of the Kentuckians, particularly those Southern women. It took ten minutes of him not understanding me and me not understanding him, but that bit of practice put me in good stead for what was about to hit me. Driving out of the airport is a maze of highways heading to towns that were probably home to Billy the Kid and Jesse James. There was an endless string of 18- wheelers, trucks and truckers whizzing by at 60 miles per hour with their windows open, blaring western music, all wearing their Stetsons very proudly. Here we were in the concrete jungle of Dallas, which is the ninth largest city in America, we finally pulled up at Lone Star Park, which took me completely by surprise. It looks like a mini Meydan, and just as luxurious. Tim took me to the track and set me up with Mr John Bassett, a roping champion who was good enough to be on the senior pro tour. Imagining that he commanded respect, I addressed him as “Sir.” He gave me a look that ‘The Duke’ – that would be John Wayne – would have been proud of and said, “You call me John.” This rather daunting guy, wearing his Wranglers jeans and worn-out boots that had not seen a lick of polish in their lifetime, told me I was expected to learn something about quarter horses. He was breaking in a horse with elastics that came from the surcingle. The idea behind this method is that if the horse pulled against it his mouth would be sensitive and start hurting and the horse would eventually stop fighting. John then put the more pressure more on the right side and the horse would again fight but then eventually he started turning right around the box on his own and then the same was done on the left. The horse would be taught for just 20 minutes on each side. John boasted that it took him two days from bitting to riding, which was quite hard to swallow. He claims he could revolutionise the breaking in yards, in England and the owners would not get ripped off . John took me into his ‘office’, which was more like a cross between a horsebox and a spacecraft. It was the biggest truck I had ever I wanted any snuff, but I quietly refused. Trying to understand his words through a mouthful of this stuff made life even harder, but I listened intently. He said everything I do now with these young horses will always be in pairs. Horses are herd animals so it made some sense to me. We then went into an indoor school and John asked a boy, of not more than 17, if the quarter horses were ready to go to the track. The two horses with us in the school had been changing leads and doing figures of eight for a week and they were ready to be ponied onto the track. He told me that they would do easy canters for 90 days and one or two blowouts. It was mandatory to do a blow out in front of course clocker Gary Reckner before a race. These horses, from what I could see, did not need too much exercise because of the way they were built. John says: “Fitness stays with quarter horses because of the skeletal structure, conformation and muscular strength and the short distance they have to run. “A quarter runs aerobically which means they can do it on one breath. You get lactic acid as a by-product of anaerobic exercise so they tie up easier. “If they have wind problems it does not matter so much. Wind problems like soft palate dislocation or ventricle paralysis are far less significant in quarter horses. thoroughbreds need to have a more efficient airway; it’s more important to be wind-fit than a quarter horse. The bottom line is that you don’t have to train quarter horses as hard as thoroughbreds. “Did you know that Bobby Baffert is my best friend?” he says. “I taught Bobby how to “The bottom line is that you don’t have to train quarter horses as hard as thoroughbreds” John Bassett rope when we grew up together. He was terrible at that. Then he rode for me as a jockey.” John burst into laughter as he tells me, “Bobby couldn’t ride a hog in a phone booth.” “Do you know the only way we could remain friends?” he asks. Before I had a chance to reply he explains, “I had to fire the sonofabitch.” My amusement at his remarks was cut short by another stream of spit going into the Coke bottle! With Baffert having been one of the most successful quarter horse trainers in the country, John really believes that gave him a huge advantage over the rest of the thoroughbred trainers. “Baffert is a real horseman, from roping to wrangling, and it has given him a big leg up with all the thoroughbred techniques,” John opines. “He’s streets ahead of the rest of his competition – just him and another quarter horse legend, Wayne Lukas.” Considering they are two of the most successful trainers in North America, it was hard to argue with his logic. He strongly believes that there are a lot of trainers who can read a condition book really well and can work the system. But he also believes you really need horsemanship built into you from an early age. He then raises his voice a notch or two and preaches, “There are a lot of people that can talk the talk, but not walk the walk.” This is a theory I have yet to test. “Did you know that a cow gets off the ground with their arse first and a horse with their front legs first? Ninety percent of thoroughbred trainers wouldn’t even know that,” says John dismissively. Of course, having gone to Cirencester, I knew! Her name was First Place Queen. She came dead last in the All American Futurity in I wanted any snuff, but I quietly refused. Trying to understand his words through a mouthful of this stuff made life even harder, but I listened intently. He said everything I do now with these young horses will always be in pairs. Horses are herd animals so it made some sense to me. We then went into an indoor school and John asked a boy, of not more than 17, if the quarter horses were ready to go to the track. The two horses with us in the school had been changing leads and doing figures of eight for a week and they were ready to be ponied onto the track. He told me that they would do easy canters for 90 days and one or two blowouts. It was mandatory to do a blow out in front of course clocker Gary Reckner before a race. These horses, from what I could see, did not need too much exercise because of the way they were built. John says: “Fitness stays with quarter horses because of the skeletal structure, conformation and muscular strength and the short distance they have to run. “A quarter runs aerobically which means they can do it on one breath. You get lactic acid as a by-product of anaerobic exercise so they tie up easier. “If they have wind problems it does not matter so much. Wind problems like soft palate dislocation or ventricle paralysis are far less significant in quarter horses. thoroughbreds need to have a more efficient airway; it’s more important to be wind-fit than a quarter horse. The bottom line is that you don’t have to train quarter horses as hard as thoroughbreds. “Did you know that Bobby Baffert is my best friend?” he says. “I taught Bobby how to “The bottom line is that you don’t have to train quarter horses as hard as thoroughbreds” John Bassett rope when we grew up together. He was terrible at that. Then he rode for me as a jockey.” John burst into laughter as he tells me, “Bobby couldn’t ride a hog in a phone booth.” “Do you know the only way we could remain friends?” he asks. Before I had a chance to reply he explains, “I had to fire the sonofabitch.” My amusement at his remarks was cut short by another stream of spit going into the Coke bottle! With Baffert having been one of the most successful quarter horse trainers in the country, John really believes that gave him a huge advantage over the rest of the thoroughbred trainers. “Baffert is a real horseman, from roping to wrangling, and it has given him a big leg up with all the thoroughbred techniques,” John opines. “He’s streets ahead of the rest of his competition – just him and another quarter horse legend, Wayne Lukas.” Considering they are two of the most successful trainers in North America, it was hard to argue with his logic. He strongly believes that there are a lot of trainers who can read a condition book really well and can work the system. But he also believes you really need horsemanship built into you from an early age. He then raises his voice a notch or two and preaches, “There are a lot of people that can talk the talk, but not walk the walk.” This is a theory I have yet to test. “Did you know that a cow gets off the ground with their arse first and a horse with their front legs first? Ninety percent of thoroughbred trainers wouldn’t even know that,” says John dismissively. Of course, having gone to Cirencester, I knew! Her name was First Place Queen. She came dead last in the All American Futurity in Ruidoso, New Mexico, where she bled without showing any previous signs. She was then shipped 16 hours to Los Alamitos in Los Angeles, California, where the assistant reported that she had a temperature of 104 and was very dehydrated. It turned out that she had to be kept in her box for three weeks, with a lung infection. Then when her temperature came back down she was walked around the barn and was taken to graze, but her temperature flew back up to 102 so she was then box rested for another three weeks. Having told the owners that her temperature was back to normal, they decided to run her in the trial; “I had nothing to lose,” Bassett tells me. She came fourth, beaten half a length, but it qualified her for the Golden State Million (S450,000 to the winner). She was left alone and was hand-walked for four days. Then she was sent to the track for a slow canter. First Placed Queen was ready to face the music. Bassett looks me in the eye and says, “She kicked their ass.” This was a clear indication that these horses are totally different animals to the thoroughbred, fitness- wise! Bassett asks me about Lasix, knowing full well what my answer would be! I told him it was a banned substance in England, that we were not allowed to use any performance enhancing drugs, and he simply replies, “Why should we let a horse bleed and then heal him up to get him back? Surely it’s fairer and kinder on the animals to protect them from bleeding from an early age.” He then began to tell me that a big cause of bleeding is environmental, especially with the altitude at Ruidoso, which is 6,000 feet above sea level. Bassett thinks every horse should have an equal opportunity. I asked him if he had trouble keeping the horses sound. He replies, “These horses are inbred that they might be getting faster but they’re also less sound.” He goes on to tell me about steroids, which are a total mystery to me, but he carries on anyway. He says, “Clenbuterol [it’s a steroid to make horses breathe better] in the horse industry is a real problem,” to which I asked why. “It’s a steroid, and some trainers are importing it from Mexico where it’s a 100 times stronger which gives us using the legal stuff no chance. They end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It can really move a horse up and the authorities need to get a serious handle on it.” Having had a great day with my new idol John Bassett, I was sent on my way to find a man called Sleepy. Sleepy lives about an hour from Lone Star. His ranch consists of a small, round, training track, two barns and a bungalow. Driving down his dirt road, past his bungalow, we left a thick cloud of dust behind our truck. It hadn’t rained in these parts of Texas for months. People have sold their cattle because they can’t afford to feed them hay. There was no grass, nothing green, to be seen for miles. There was a rather large man leaning against the barn door. He had the standard white Stetson and was displaying a lot of silver on his buckle, one of many he had won in quarter horse competitions. He was around six feet tall, quite rounded, with a very friendly face! “Good morning, sir,” I said as I got out of the truck, trying to show him I was an Englishman with good manners. His reply was a laconic “howdy.” He was much quieter than Bassett so this learning experience looked like it might be more testing for me. Sleepy’s real name is Dwayne Gilbreath. My first question to this tubby and silent Texan was how he had acquired the nickname Sleepy. He told me he used to hold horses for the blacksmith, who always berated him to wake up and stop sleeping on the job. This was a very relaxed and affable cowboy and my comfort zone with him eased immediately. I learned that Sleepy had won this year’s All American Grade 1 Futurity, a race over 440 yards for two-year-old quarter horses with a total purse of $2,400,000, with a horse called Ochoa. The owner was legendary horseman Johnny Jones, much more a Texan cowboy than a Kentucky hardboot. Johnny ran Walmac Farm on Paris Pike in Lexington for years, developing major sires like Nureyev, Miswaki, and Alleged. He hails from a tiny town in west Texas called Quanah. Sleepy shows me the diminutive Ochoa, who is around 15 hands! Apparently that was the average for a quarter horse. “Son,” he says, “quarter horses are bred to run from 220 yards to 440 yards and occasionally 870 yards. “They have to have the attributes to move quickly, explosively and with immediate effect. They are a lot stronger and their muscles need to contract a lot quicker so they need the density that is very recognisable to the eye as you can see on Ochoa.” Sleepy points at the various different muscle points that looked, well, like a typical sprinter that we get at home – stocky and short-coupled. I then asked him about the classics. He says, “Classic distances are between 350, 400 and 440 yards.” I asked him if the most important races were at three. “No,” he replies, “It’s exactly the opposite. We have a real problem here that the real money races are the Futurity races at two. They are worth around a million.” I butted in and ask him “what distance?” he replies “400 yards.” He carries on. “The Derby at three is run over at 440 yds and is worth around 300 grand.” In his classic cowboy tones he says, “Well, that’s where the real money is. Sometimes they go on to make three-year-olds like the thoroughbreds and occasionally you get the later-maturing horses where you have no choice to make them three-year-olds.” It was Sleepy’s opinion that trainers of both quarter horses and thoroughbreds overtrain their horses. “Horses generally do not need as much work as people think. There is a real shortage of horsemen in racing – although they get results which few of us can explain.” Sleepy welcomes me into his house, where his wife, Joanie, in her best impression of an English accent, asks me, “Would you like a cuppa tea?” I politely accepted, as it was a rarity in this area! I asked Sleepy about the history of quarter horse racing. “When quarter horse racing first started, it was the poor man’s answer to thoroughbred racing. The owners were cattle farmers and shop-keepers.” He then went on to tell me that training fees in the 60s were $7 a day. Times have changed for the better and now horses could make anything up to $650,000. Sleepy won’t persevere with a horse that doesn’t make that grade. He gets out of the slow ones and encourages owners to step up and restock, “after all the money was to be made in the black-type races.” After spending this time with Sleepy, I found he is a man of few words. The ones he shared with me made a lot of sense. He kindly invited me to dine with him at the races at Lone Star for the Derby and Futurity on the following Saturday night. I met up with Sleepy in the fourth floor panoramic restaurant, where he and Joanie greet me very warmly. There was a buzz in the air and the three tiers of tables reminded me a bit of Kempton Park. There was a buffet and we all helped ourselves. There was so much food it’s easy to see why America is the ultimate “Overweight Nation of the World”! We were joined by Sleepy’s long-time owner Wilbur Smith, who told me that “people have a lot of success but no one has more fun than we do with Sleepy. He’s not flashy; he works hard and does not drink. Sleepy has always been a quiet man and he lets his horses do the talking.” “Each to their own,” I thought to myself. I later learned that Bob Baffert had passed him down two good horses and Lukas had owned a couple with him. To me that says a lot for Sleepy’s ability. Sleepy only had runners in two races, in race nine and ten on a ten-race card! The penultimate race was the Derby and the last, the Futurity. Having grazed over the buffet for most of the evening, the Derby arrived before I even knew it. I was invited down to the paddock, a small ring that is lit up like a medical operating theatre. The place was filled with cowboys and enough jeans and hats to stock Wal-Mart. Sleepy saddles his horse for the Derby. Going down to the start, I could see him wandering anonymously among the crowd, pondering the questions of life in his typical laid-back manner. The bell went, the gate explodes open, and we all held our breath for just 20 seconds. That was long enough for Sleepy to win the Derby with Cold Cash! His wife Joanie jumped around like she was on a trampoline and Sleepy just stood there like a punching bag, taking the congratulations and the credit very humbly. He came fourth in the Futurity with The Long Knife, losing the whole race by a margin of less than a length! On my last night in Texas, I took my very kind landlords, Lori and Bruce McCarty, out for a 20-ounce rib eye at the famous Del Frisco’s Steakhouse in Fort Worth, the cowboy capital of this wonderful state. Our nightcap slipped down at Billybob’s, the unchallenged biggest bar in the world. Lori introduced me to the Texas two-step, and her delicate toes were introduced to my new cowboy boots. We drank Budweiser so cold it hurt your sinuses as it went down. Later, I was lulled to sleep by a country and western tune that Bruce was playing down the corridor from my bedroom. The next evening I boarded my flight to return from my once- in-a-lifetime adventure. Twelve hours later I bellied up to the bar at The Pheasant for a warm pint of bitter.

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Oliver Cole (European Trainer - issue 37 - Spring 2012)

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