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Neil Drysdale - Hall of Fame racehorse trainer

By Margaret Ransom

He has seen the sport of Thoroughbred racing change drastically in the past few decades. Here, he discusses some of the important issues facing his fellow trainers both in his home state and across the country.
In Thoroughbred racing, the name Neil Drysdale is first and foremost synonymous with the concepts of integrity, honor and patience. Secondly, and only a shade shy of those personal standards, are his accolades as being a member of the sport’s elite Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2000, and his guidance of such superstars of the game as Horse of the Year A.P. Indy, champions Princess Rooney, Hollywood Wildcat, Fusaichi Pegasus, and dozens of other standout stakes winners. He’s tightened the girths on the winners of million-dollar races in countries around the world, but has called California his home since taking out his own trainer’s license in 1975.

Drysdale, who began his own storied 32-year training career under the tutelage of the legendary Charlie Whittingham in 1970, is recognized among his peers as a true lover of horses and someone who always puts the well-being of the animal first.

You’ve been training Thoroughbreds for the better part of three decades. How do you think the game has changed most between when you started and now?

Well, off-track wagering and simulcast wagering has certainly increased. But there seems to be a change in marketing the sport correctly. It appears to me that on huge days, there’s big handle, bug crowds and the people come out. It’s what’s in between those days that seem to be the problem.
It doesn’t help that year-round racing has diluted the situation and effectively decreased the fan base. I’m not sure how best to go about reducing racing, but it is a diluted system today.

What are the biggest hurdles facing trainers today?

I don’t know whether there are significant hurdles, but I sincerely believe that synthetic surfaces are a huge leap forward. Now we just need marketing to complete the puzzle. If it’s not addressed there won’t be a whole lot of racing for trainers at all.

What do you think of the “supertrainer” concept? Can a trainer effectively maintain a stable of a couple hundred horses spread out over the U.S.?

In the old days it was impossible because you were limited by the number of stalls you received from the tracks. Now many trainers have different ways of approaching the sport and I don’t think any way is the wrong way. What I enjoy myself is having the horses with me and watching them personally, the old-fashioned way. At one stage I did have divisions and finished, I think, fourth in the country. But despite the outcome I didn’t enjoy it much.

What do you think of the current “bicarbonate” controversy and the testing procedures many states have adopted, including your home state of California?

The one major problem I see is dollars and sense. Is it necessary to test every horse in every race? The answer is no. It’s just not cost-effective the way things are done at this moment. There are more important things that money can be used for.
Obviously we all want a level-playing field and it’s my feeling that we, in this country, need to adopt international standards and we can start with no Lasix. I’ve raced in places where there’s no Lasix and it wasn’t a problem. But everything needs to be equal regardless of what’s eliminated.
And presumably the tests (for any illegal substances) would be more sophisticated which is a big issue that also needs to be addressed.

Do you believe that all racing jurisdictions in the U.S. should adopt uniform medication rules and regulations?

I don’t think it’s all that difficult, it’s just a matter of wanting to do it. So yes, I think so.

Do find steroids are acceptable therapeutic medications?

Yes, but it’s not necessary to race on them. They do have therapeutic value and do treat some horses with anemia or horses that have some weaknesses, but they’re not to be abused. And now we’re going back to international standards and uniform rules. In order to keep up in today’s climate where athletes in other sports are prohibited from using steroids, racing needs to catch up and that means also to abolish any racing on steroids.
All abolishing steroids will do is improve the sport’s perception in the public and the public’s acceptance of the game (as being fair.)

In your opinion, then, has medication clouded the public’s perception of the game?

I do believe all these medication issues and the fact they’re repeatedly brought up in the press are completely meaningless and does nothing but give racing a black eye. It all circles back around. It’s a simple concept; adopt uniform medication rules and international standards.

You’re at Hollywood Park where they’ve installed the state’s first synthetic surface, Cushion Track. Have your horses benefited from the new surface? And are new surfaces a positive step toward the long-term well-being and soundness of horse sin general?

Yes and in California it took a new racing commissioner, Richard Shapiro, to step up and say if tracks didn’t do it then they’d lose their license. I believe (synthetic surfaces) only increase and lengthen horses’ racing careers and in the long term it helps the sport. It may sound trite, but it’s about protecting the beauty and noblesse of the Thoroughbred. Because when you work with these animals every day you realize how unique the Thoroughbred racehorse, protecting them is obviously a very good thing.

Do you think the “Powers That Be” are doing enough to promote the sport and expand interest? Where do you see things in 10 years if things don’t improve? Will racing survive?

Obviously the sport is marketed much better in Australasia and Asia. There they market racing the way they market everything else – in a big way. If things aren’t improved here, the sport will be reduced to just a gambling vehicle and we’ll lose the pageantry and glory of Thoroughbred racing. I have no way of predicting the future, but if we can learn from tracks like Del Mar then that would be a good thing. That track is well-marketed and you’ve seen how it is there – it’s always packed with people. Keeneland is another one that does an exceptional job of marketing and has an excellent marketing team. The people go there as well. So something’s being done right there.
Both facilities run short meetings. Del Mar is seven weeks and Keeneland is six (three in the spring and three in the fall.) So you would think that following their example and reducing racing dates then interest in the sport could only increase.
Also the social aspects of the sport need to be reintroduced, which leads me back to the attendance problem. It’s a very social game and that needs to be promoted as well.


Do you have any advice for up-and-coming trainers? Will racing survive?

Racing has survived for more than four centuries. I believe that there will always be Thoroughbred racing in some context or another around the world. I don’t have any advice, but I will say I thoroughly enjoy what I do and I enjoy getting up in the mornings knowing that I get to do what I enjoy the most. And as long as I’m doing it I feel that I’m a very fortunate man.


The Asian Racing Conference – from a trainer’s perspective

By Howard Wright

Attending industry conferences and seminars, especially those staged overseas, as a media reporter can be hard work – honestly! – but when you come across speakers at the top of their game, who can put over concise points in layman’s language, the tedium of long days, and sometimes even longer nights, wafts away on a breeze of simple understanding.

 Derrmot Weld was invited to address the Asian Racing Conference, held in Dubai in January, in order to bring a horseman’s perspective to the session headed ‘Global series – what have we learnt and where to now?’ In ten minutes, he did far more than that. He gave an audience of 400-plus delegates – only a single handful who were or had been trainers - a master class in travelling horses around the world, and how to be successful along the way.

 No better presenter could have been found. From his base at the heart of Irish racing on The Curragh, Weld has created a unique record. He is the first overseas trainer to have annexed two Melbourne Cups, which alone would make the description fit, but he is also the only European trainer to have logged a winning run in a leg of the US Triple Crown.

What lies behind the success of this thoughtful, serious man, whose few words make more sense than some who have written whole chapters on their specialist subject? There is no single factor, he said. Rather there are nine aspects that he considers when assessing whether, and how, to travel a horse abroad. They are:

* Horse – “He has to have the ability to compete at the top level; he must be adaptable to ground and have the right temperament, and he has to be sound. It’s no good if you take an unsound horse, hoping it comes right on the day. In my experience, it rarely does.”

*Jockey – “Bring your own if he’s top class, or get the best locally.”

*Food – “Bring your own if at all possible.”

*Water – “Dehydration is the single biggest negative factor in travelling. Make sure you get it right.”

*Staff – “You need trained, experienced travellers, good work riders, and staff with the confidence and knowledge to report to you accurately.”

*Farrier – “Very important. Around the world there are some good farriers, but one false move can undo everything.”

*Veterinarian – “This is where dehydration will be reported, and he will watch all the tests and look at the blood picture. Make a mistake, and you pay for it.”

*Medication – “I agree with strict rules, but it’s important for the trainer to be aware of the rules from country to country, even from state to state in the US.”

*Quarantine – “Dubai has an excellent facility and is more straightforward than most. Australia has improved, but effectively it still takes nearly a month and could be brought forward. The US is a worry, and facilities at many tracks need to be improved.”

There, in handy-sized bites, is the check-list of a qualified equine vet who has climbed to top of the trainers’ ladder. There was, however, a bonus to the presentation, a bone of contention dug up when Weld was asked to nominate the single biggest improvement that would foster greater international competition.

“We’ve got to standardise the quarantine rules, which differ between Europe, the US, Asia and Australia,” he said. “With modern technology, it can be done, because blood testing for infectious diseases is far more efficient than in the past.”

In a moment, the theme was set, at least from the perspective of the go-ahead trainer with aspirations on the world stage.

The conference wended its fascinating way, discussing a myriad of topics of general concern to racing and betting administrators, from co-mingling bets in overseas pools and designing new racecourses, to standardising rules on stewarding and identifying the main threats to the success of horseracing in the future.

Virtually all impinged on the business of training to some degree, but none seemed to have the immediate significance of the quarantine issue, which came up again, and again.

Adrian Beaumont, director of racecourse services for the Newmarket-based International Racing Bureau, named “a shortening of the quarantine period for racing in Australia” among his three wishes to make life easier for horsemen tackling the global calendar.

Other areas came under Beaumont’s scrutiny – Dubai being one, with the impact of its Carnival on the length of time that horses are likely to be away from European stables – but Australia came in for special attention with regard to two new, high-value series, the Global Sprint and Asian Mile Challenges, which include legs in Australia.

Beaumont explained: “The quarantine rules pertaining to Australia are stricter than any other. For example, European runners have to do 14 days’ pre-export quarantine, and 14 days’ on arrival. That meant runners in the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge on 3 February would have needed to be in quarantine no later than 28 December to allow for flight schedules. Thus, unless race clubs can persuade the Australian authorities to shorten the length of the quarantine period, it is difficult for their races to come anywhere other than at the start of a series, as quarantine could conflict with previous legs.”

The consequence, Beaumont explained, was that including Australian races from January to March in a series could mean trainers in the Northern Hemisphere considering them as being at the end of a campaign for their top horses, who may have started their racing season from the previous April to June. Not ideal, was his unequivocal message.

Beaumont, whose job involves helping trainers through and over the various problems thrown up by international travelling, turned his focus on to “governmental and racetrack attempts to thwart the spread of diseases,” pointing out that one of the methods was to ban the import of horses from affected countries.

“This is certainly true of countries with African horse sickness,” he said, “and restrictions were also put in place by countries affected by swamp fever and foot and mouth, even though the latter cannot be transmitted by horses. More recently, there have been problems with West Nile virus, which had implications in 2006 for horses with a multi-country itinerary. In particular it affected horses that ran at the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky. Any horse who ran there before going on to Japan, such as Ouija Board, needed to be vaccinated twice, at an interval of three to six weeks. Similarly, horses that were due to run in Hong Kong after the Breeders’ Cup had to return to their home stables for 15 days, before a blood sample could be taken and sent to America to test for West Nile virus. Only when that was clear could they travel to Hong Kong.”

Weld’s reservations were becoming clearer by the minute. However, as any balanced reporter knows, there are two sides to a coin, and it was not long before the heads of Weld and Beaumont were being addressed by the tail-side of the argument from Dr Patricia Ellis, animal health advisor to the Australian Racing Board, a director of the racing analytical laboratory in Victoria and secretary of the international movement of horses committee, a body set up by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

A formidable array of appointments for an equine veterinarian with nearly four decades of experience, ranging from government to private sector, from racetrack to teaching. She does not mince words.

Dr Ellis, who was involved in the work that overcome obstacles enabling Weld’s pioneering Melbourne Cup winner, Vintage Crop in 1993, to set a new pattern, told delegates: “Yes, illogical, unscientific and inconsistent import conditions are causing problems that need to be resolved. But so do unrealistic expectations and perceptions.”

On the specific charges that had been thrown her country’s way, she countered: “Australia’s quarantine arrangements have attracted unfavourable criticism, but Australia is free from equine influenza, and its import controls reflect this. I make no apology for them.

“The Australian government and its racing authorities don’t want a flu outbreak that would shut down racing and other equestrian events for several months. They have understandable concerns for racing and non-racing stakeholders outside the international racecourse fence.”

On the broader issue, referring to the Dubai conference’s headline slogan, she said: “It’s time for a reality check. In the context of ‘Racing Without Borders’ what do you really mean, what do you want? As racing authorities, do you want to import foreign horses directly from their home stables without vaccinations, tests or official health certificates, and allow them to mix freely with local horses? Or do you want to ‘race across borders’ with science-based risk management, according to international standards, applied consistently, and which respects differences in country health status?”

There seemed to be only one answer from Dr Ellis’s tone, as she added: “Measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases have to be a compromise between the need to conduct a successful event, with as wide a number of competing nations as possible, and the need to provide adequate safeguards to protect the health status of the animal and human populations of the importing country. In some countries, racing is not the only game in town. The safety and status of competition horses, and the need to prevent economic loss and unfavourable reflection on a country’s health standing and veterinary services, are as important factors as caring for the indigenous racehorse population”.

“Harmonisation of international issues such as handicapping, stewards’ decisions, rules of racing and race planning are directly under the control of racing authorities,” Dr Ellis explained. “Import conditions are not. They have to be negotiated government to government. Perhaps this is why the issue of ‘quarantine’ – thought I would prefer to speak about ‘import controls’ and ‘health safeguards’ – causes such angst.”

The target for change is clear, according to Dr Ellis. “For success in expanding international borders, co-operation with government is critical.”

However, she went on to warn: “Sometimes success has a very long lead time.” And using an even more stunning one-liner, “Success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan,” as a preface, she added: “Persistent and polite requests from international trading partners engage the attention of governments, and assist local racing authorities to negotiate safe international exchanges of racehorses. The World Animal Health Organisation sets the minimum international standards for trade. If we want standardisation or harmonisation of quarantine procedures, we must engage in the development of these standards.”

Perhaps Dr Ellis should invite Dermot Weld to join her when she next tackles the World Animal Health Organisation.

Are purses restraining growth?

By Caton Bredar

In 1953, the average cost of a Cola drink at a U.S. racetrack was around ten cents; the minimum bet on a race, two dollars. In 2007 the average cost of a Cola drink at a U.S. racetrack is around a dollar seventy-five; the cost of a bet, in most places, still two dollars.

In 1953 John Ward, Sr., a respected Midwest horse trainer charged $13 a day to train a racehorse.  That thirteen bucks covered labor, feed and daily care of your horse…costs which ran Ward around $11.34 a day. 

Flash forward to 2007.  Trainers based on major racing circuits in the Midwest or East will charge between $85 and $100 a day to train your racehorse.  Even at one hundred dollars a day, most trainers say their actual costs run significantly higher.  The cost of just about everything is up, with the exception of the minimum wager.  And while wagering in the US, the vehicle which drives purses, is up over-all, purses have, with a few exceptions, remained stagnate. 

For most trainers in the United States winning may not be everything.  But it is pretty much the only thing keeping them economically viable.  And in order to survive, regardless of what level they compete at, trainers almost have to win every time.

Ward’s son, John, Jr., reached the pinnacle of American racing in 2001 with a win from John Oxley’s Monarchos in the Kentucky Derby.  Today, Ward and Oxley, one of the more dynamic stables in the Midwest and East, continue to pare down that stable, from, at one point, as many as 200 horses to the 40 they now have either in Kentucky, Florida or New York.

“It’s a purging process,” Ward explains, “We’re trying to be cost effective while not lowering the quality of the stable…or of the care they receive.”  The fifth-generation horseman says the goal is a “leaner, meaner” racing operation, where the average earnings potential of each runner is realistically taken into consideration, in relationship to the costs that runner will incur.  According to Ward, it’s a business plan most trainers have failed to develop.  And even if they have, it’s a plan very difficult to put into practice given the economics of today’s game.
“It’s tough,” he offers.  “Most trainers train below their actual costs, in the hopes of getting better horses.” 

Ward lists rises in employment taxes—major adjustments in workman’s compensation insurance post September 11th as just one cost, often absorbed by the trainer, that has gone up significantly, particularly in the last five years. Ward’s annual workman’s compensation bill runs approximately $250,000 a year.  That, for a trainer who modestly describes himself as “middle of the road”, at least as far as the size of the stable goes.   For the newly ordained “Mega Trainers” trainers like Todd Pletcher or Doug O’Neil, who deal in high numbers of horses, Ward says those costs are even greater.

Some obvious costs, according to Ward, have gone up.  Over the past two years, with rising gas prices, feed and van companies have to pass their added costs on to their customers.  While shipping is often paid directly by the owners, trainers generally pay for feed directly then recoup some of that cost through their daily rates.  With higher prices due to fuel surcharges, they recoup less.

And trainers aren’t immune to higher gas prices.  “If you spend $25 to $30 a day in gas,” Ward explains, “and you train 30 horses, that’s $1 a horse,” or one less dollar a trainer actually makes on that horse, or puts toward his out of pocket costs.

Those costs--gas bills, cell phone bills, even rental rates, both in terms of housing the human help as well as housing horses—have all gone up over the past few years and are all costs Ward considers “hidden”, and most of the time, for trainers, unrecoverable.  While labor costs (with the exception of workman’s compensation insurance) have remained fairly consistent over the past few years, it’s those “little” things that have actually driven up the costs of training.

“It’s really hard on the trainer himself, and the organization he runs,” says Ward.  “It forces him to be taking away from the available cash flow.  On the other side of it, we haven’t had purses go up to be commensurate with the costs.  Purses have been stagnate for the last five to six years.  Trainers are caught in a squeeze.”

A slow, steady squeeze, it would appear.  To the point about purses, an NTRA Wagering Systems Task Force report, released in 2004, titles Chapter 2 “Handle Up, Revenue and Purses Down” and goes on to state, in part, “Handle Up, Purses Down is not a new occurrence specific to 2003.  In general, purses have not grown as fast as handle for more than a decade…”

The lack of parity, between purses and handle, can be attributed, in part, to the boom in off-track wagering.  Tracks receive a significantly lower percentage of revenue toward purses, from dollars wagered off-track than they do from live, on-track wagers.  The effect on purses, and therefore, trainers, is profound.
The report goes on to say that, from 1995 to 2003, total Thoroughbred handle grew by 45 percent, while total purses paid to horsemen grew only 38 percent.  In some particular cases, the statistics are even more dramatic.  According to statistics released by the Jockey Club, in 1995, the average available money per race for 63 days of racing at Gulfstream Park in South Florida, was $27,941.  Ten years later, in 2005, for 86 days of racing, that number went up less than $2,000, to $29,561. 

Gulfstream Park may be an extreme example; many tracks, such as Keeneland, Churchill Downs, or Saratoga in New York, posted gains over the ten-year period of at least $20,000 more available in average purse money per race.  Still, over the course of ten years, that’s just a gain of $2,000 per race per year—and that’s the best-case scenario, and not the case for every category of race.

It’s actually at the lower end of the scale, that Ward, the nephew of a Hall of Famer, believes it’s possible to remain economically viable. “The guys who are making the most,” states the 61-year-old, “are the claiming horse trainers.  They don’t have the big investment in the horses, they can drop horses in for a cheaper price, they can keep churning out starts, to keep commissions coming in.”  And in theory, adds Ward, “there may be fewer expenses connected to running a claiming horse operation, because generally, although not in every case, the size of the labor force is smaller”. 
 
Purses, of course, are smaller, too, but it’s the differential, Ward claims, you have to consider.  The difference in a trainer’s ten percent commission on a win in a $15,000 claiming race at most tracks is only a few hundred dollars at the most, less than his stake for a win in a $7,500 claiming race.  A claiming trainer, therefore, has more flexibility, and stands to make almost as much for a win in either case, as opposed to a trainer of higher caliber horses running almost exclusively in allowance races or stakes.

“The quality guys, the trainers who deal primarily in better-bred, or higher priced horses…” says Ward, “The trainers who take their time, give their horses a lot of time in between races, those trainers either have gone out or are going out of business, because it’s such an investment, and they’re losing money every day.”
Regardless of locale, Ward says the economics are the same.  “In Eastern circuits, you make more money, but it costs more to operate and live there.  The squeeze is there.  Midwest, California, it’s all the same.  The same hidden, overhead costs have been driven up everywhere.”

And the same applies to the Mega-trainers.  While the trend is to blame at least a portion of the racing industry’s woes, on trainer’s who appear to have the lion’s share of the horses…and the majority of the purses, Ward doesn’t believe they are immune to the economic disasters striking so many in these difficult times.
“While Mega Trainers, to some extent, can do what claiming trainers can do,” says Ward, “but they operate on a much larger scale, which, in turn, costs a lot more.  Think what Todd Pletcher’s workman’s comp runs.  Mega trainers will feel it, too.”

Ward, like many in racing, believes casino wagering could be at least be a help to the present financial plight of the trainer, and the sport itself.  Case in point, Mountaineer Park, who was on the brink of closing in 1994, when the state passed video lottery legislation.  In 1995, according to the Jockey Club statistics, Mountaineer was down to an average $2,886 available per race.  Average daily purse distribution at Mountaineer was 22,000 dollars and at nearby Charlestown, thirty-six thousand dollars a day.  By 2005, both tracks were giving out more than $100,000 a day.  At Mountaineer, in 2005, the average daily purse was up to $15,728, and that number is sure to be even higher for 2006.  Still, Ward believes casino wagering is not necessarily a pancea.

“The slots have helped Gulfstream so far, somewhat,” he reports, “But it’s been an interesting phenomenon.  They had a tremendous opening.  Now they’re starting to lose those crowds.  More and more people are going to the dog track, or the other facilities with casinos.  So it can only help so much, unless it’s controlled completely by the tracks and there’s no competition.  It’s looking like slots and racing have to go hand in hand.”   
A few fundamental problems, according to Ward, remain and, if not addressed, may jeproadize everyone’s stake in the game…not just trainers. 

“In 1945, a coke was a nickel and the game revolved around the $2 bettor.  It’s 2007, and everything costs at least twenty times more.  But racing is still chasing that two-dollar bettor.  By today’s standards, the minimum bet should be forty dollars.”

“Racetracks are taking more and more of the things they used to give in the past.  Instead of a fifty-fifty partnership, it’s at the very best, forty-sixty.”

If it costs $50,000 a year to train an allowance horse, that horse should have to earn a minimum of $65,000 in that year to pay his way.  Even at a day rate of fifty dollars a day, for a claiming horse, a $20,000 horse according to Ward has to win around $26,000 a year.  Given the current purse structure of tracks across the nation, Ward sees the situation as bleak.

“You’re seeing people go out of business, and I think you’re going to see more and more leave, as the cost breakdowns go up every month.  If trainers don’t charge according to what it costs, they’re going to go out of business.  If money is lost, you’ll lose owners.  As there are fewer owners, you’re going to lose trainers.  It’s a free-fall inside the business over the next few years.”

“If you don’t win a five million dollar race, you’re out in the cold.  And there’s a whole lot of people who don’t even ever run in a million dollar race.  My father made a dollar fifty a horse per day in 1953.  Today, most trainers are losing twice that every day just in costs.  It all goes back to the purses.”

What’s happening at Hialeah?

By Bill Heller

There is action on Hialeah in 2007. On e-bay. You can buy a Hialeah glass graced by a pink flamingo for $6.99. Flamingos are also depicted on Hialeah Park linen offered at $7.99. Or maybe you’d prefer three Hialeah post cards for $3.99.

Just when you think the situation could not get worse for this majestic racetrack deemed a National Historic Landmark before closing in 2001, it does. Last December, Hialeah stopped booking weddings and private parties, its principal business since racing ended, and began demolishing its 60-year-old barns, which were ravaged by Hurricane Wilma 16 months earlier.

Yet John Brunetti, who has owned Hialeah Park since 1977, hasn’t completely pulled the plug. “It’s not over yet, but I’m not going to spend an inordinate amount of time on it if it doesn’t work,” Brunetti said in mid-January. “We’ll just try to keep pursuing a plan for development, mixed use, commercial and residential.”

But the flamingoes will stay, as well they should. Hialeah, the Seminole word for pretty prairie, was officially designated a sanctuary for the American flamingo by the Audubon Society as the only reproducing colony in North America. “We still have 300 or 400,” Brunetti said. “They don’t want to leave, and if we develop the property we’ll still keep a flock here to preserve the history and the wonderful memories of this great facility.”

And it was a great facility, the winter capital of racing, for decades. 
“There was nothing better than Hialeah in the winter,” Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens said. “You felt like you were in the best possible place for racing. It was a beautiful track.”

Few, if any, would argue that. The tree-lined entrance to the track; the 16th Century French Mediterranean architecture with vines of purple bougainvillea crawling on giant trellises all across the cream-colored walls; the Renaissance Revival Clubhouse; the grand staircases; two sensational fountains; the first turf course in the United States and the unique snapshot of Thoroughbreds racing against a backdrop of palm trees and flamingos combined to create a magnificent setting. “There was a great jockeys room and race secretary’s office, too,” Jerkens said. “And it was convenient. It was fun to stable there. It was fun to race there.”

Brunetti knows. “Certainly the magnificent turf course and main track we had really captivated horsemen,” he said. “The architecture, the layout of the facilities, the paddock, the box area and the expansive structures capped off by the flamingo colony made it a spectacular place to be at and to enjoy the sport of kings.”

Hialeah’s kingdom was predicated on exclusive winter or spring racing in South Florida from January through March or March through May depending on dates assigned by the Florida Legislature. When that changed in mid-2001, when the Florida Legislature decided to let Hialeah and its two nearby South Florida competitors, Gulfstream Park and Calder Race Course, set their own dates, Hialeah’s fate was sealed. Gulfstream Park and Calder both extended their meets and Hialeah was left with one single day of exclusivity for the entire year.

Hialeah could not compete with either of its two sister tracks head-to-head. “I think everyone knows we tried desperately,” Brunetti said. “There was nothing we could do about it.” Except close.

What a monumental loss. Hialeah not only was a gorgeous track to view, but one that was used by trainers for decades to unveil their most promising and precocious two-year-olds in three-furlong races as early as January. 
Seabiscuit, Round Table, Sword Dancer, Carry Back and Cicada all debuted in three-furlong baby races at Hialeah. 
Foolish Pleasure, Forego and Gold Beauty also made career debuts there in longer sprints. Seattle Slew, Conquistador Cielo and Alydar won their three-year-old debuts at Hialeah, and Kelso and Spectacular Bid won stakes there, Kelso taking the Seminole Handicap and Spectacular Bid winning the Grade 1 Flamingo Stakes by 12 lengths. Citation captured his first four starts as a three-year-old at Hialeah, an allowance race, the Seminole and Everglades Handicaps and the Flamingo Stakes, before winning the 1948 Triple Crown. He is honored at Hialeah with a statue behind the clubhouse. “That was the whole story from a historic point, what it meant for the development of horses,” Brunetti said.

Now Hialeah will develop condos, unless the possibility of adding slot machines induces a revival of Hialeah. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with slots, but we were not included because we had not run for several years,” Brunetti said. It wouldn’t have mattered. Voters in Broward County passed a referendum allowing slots at its racetrack, Gulfstream, where they are up and running this year. Voters in Dade County voted against slots for its two tracks, Calder and Hialeah.

Brunetti, though, won’t give up. “Because I love racing and I love Hialeah,” Brunetti said. “I’m not going to say it’s over until it’s over.”

It began in the early 1920s. Hialeah’s development from a swampland of 220 acres to a signature racetrack mirrored that of the City of Hialeah, which now numbers more than 220,000 citizens.Hialeah Park Racetrack was developed by James Bright, a cattleman from Missouri, and Glenn Curtiss, an aviation pioneer, in 1921. Bright and Curtiss donated the land for community use and helped acquire land and building funds for the construction of public buildings and facilities, including a racetrack. Thanks to Owen Smith, the inventor of the “Inanimate Hare Conveyor” known as the mechanical rabbit, the Miami Kennel Club opened the first greyhound pari-mutuel track in America at Hialeah in February, 1922.

Two years later, Joseph Smoot, Bright and Curtiss established the Miami Jockey Club and constructed a racetrack and grandstand adjacent to the greyhound track. Hialeah Racetrack opened on January 15th, 1925, boasting a clubhouse, administrative building, a paddock and 21 stables. Nearby, the first Miami fronton for jai alai opened. An amusement park featuring a roller coaster and a dance hall was also developed, creating a great destination for tourists. But the Great Hurricane of September, 1926, cost the racetrack complex its roller coaster, jai-alai fronton and dog kennels.

In 1930, the racetrack was purchased by Joseph Widener, who undertook a mammoth renovation. Working with architect Lester Geisler, Widener replaced the wooden grandstand and clubhouse with concrete and steel structures. The stables, paddock area, walking ring were redone, and hundreds of royal palms and coconut trees were planted. A lake was created within the track infield and hundreds of pink flamingoes were imported from Cuba. The first flock of flamingoes flew back to Cuba the very next night, but another flock was imported and their wings were clipped. They thrived at Hialeah on a diet of shrimp, rice, ground dog biscuits and carotene oil which kept their bodies pink - they are born a grayish white and turn pink as they mature.

The renovated Hialeah Racetrack re-opened on January 14th, 1932, just 19 days after Tropical Park, a renovated dog track, opened its doors.

Tropical Park competed with Hialeah head-to-head for years until after World War II when Tropical Park switched its dates to November through Hialeah’s annual opening in early January. When Calder Race Course opened in 1971, Tropical Park switched its dates to that track.

In 1933, Hialeah opened the first turf course in America. Special trains from Palm Beach brought in fans who debarked at a special station built by Seaboard Airline Railway, and Hialeah began carving its identity as “The Track That Made Miami Famous.” Its visitors included John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, General Omar Bradley, George Raft, Count Basie, Jimmy Durante and Joe Louis. James Bassett, the president and board chairman of Keeneland Race Course, called Hialeah “the jewel of Southern racing.”

Brunetti purchased Hialeah in 1977 from Eugene Mori, who had acquired the track from Widener’s family following his death in 1943. Brunetti will never forget the thrill of opening day that March 8th. “It was pandemonium, but it was so uplifting,” he said. “The excitement, the thrill, the people.”

Hialeah was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 2nd, 1979, and on January 12th, 1988, designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

But as the 1980s wove into the ‘90s, less and less people were coming to Hialeah, and Hialeah, Gulfstream and Calder engaged in what seemed to be an annual battle over dates, which were regulated by the Florida Legislature.

Hialeah couldn’t match Gulfstream Park’s figures when they raced on simultaneous dates from 1978 through 1987. In 1989, Hialeah went head-to-head for 27 days with Calder, which had a more accessible location just 10 miles from Hialeah. Hialeah averaged 2,447 fans and $208,490 in handle while Calder averaged 7,240 fans and a daily handle of $941,260.

Brunetti told reporters he was losing an estimated $68,000 a day competing with Calder.Yet Hialeah kept going. In 2000, Hialeah was allowed to hold its meeting at Gulfstream Park because of Hialeah’s poor track condition. When it was over, Gulfstream claimed Brunetti shortchanged the track.
Hialeah re-opened in 2001, and conducted racing through May 22nd, when a crowd of 3,280 watched the final day of racing there. Bugler Mike Ferrios played “Taps” to announce the arrival of horses on the track for the 10th and final race that day, captured by Cheeky Miss. “It was like going to a funeral,” Brunetti said.

Ironically, handle for the 2001 meet was a 17 percent increase from 1999, the last meet actually held at Hialeah. Track officials called the 2001 meet the best in Hialeah’s history.
Representative Rene Garcia, a Republican from Hialeah, tried unsuccessfully to pass an amendment which would have delayed the date of deregulation of the racetracks, which kicked in on July 1st, 2001. “I grew up around this track, and it not only means a lot to me, it means a lot to the people back home,” he said at the time. “This track is the gem of Dade County.”

It was until it closed. Hialeah’s ability to remain open for simulcasting was stripped because it had no live racing. Hialeah was finished. “Since that happened, everyone is saying, `What a shame,’” Brunetti said. “I keep telling people, `Where were you when we needed help?’ That goes to the horsemen, the patrons, the media. Everyone remembers how important Hialeah was.”

Jerkens does. He remembers how thrilled he was to be granted stalls for the prestigious Hialeah meet in 1952. “Most of the time before that we were stabled at Tropical Park,” he said. “Hialeah was all the big stables.”

Now Hialeah teeters on oblivion. Working in the track’s favor is that the zoning which would allow thousands of residential housing units to be built on the Hialeah site is not in place. Nor are the requisite regional approvals for large-scale retail development. And both the City of Hialeah and the state’s historic preservation boards have gone on record opposing massive retail development of the site.

So maybe there’s a faint chance of racing returning to the flamingoes.

“There’s always hope,” Brunetti said.

The Asian Racing Conference – from a trainer’s perspective

ATTENDING industry conferences and seminars, especially those staged overseas, as a media reporter can be hard work – honestly! – but when you come across speakers at the top of their game, who can put over concise points in layman’s language, the tedium of long days, and sometimes even longer nights, wafts away on a breeze of simple understanding.

Dermot Weld was invited to address the Asian Racing Conference, held in Dubai in January, in order to bring a horseman’s perspective to the session headed ‘Global series – what have we learnt and where to now?’ In ten minutes, he did far more than that. He gave an audience of 400-plus delegates – only a single handful who were or had been trainers - a master class in travelling horses around the world, and how to be successful along the way. No better presenter could have been found.

From his base at the heart of Irish racing on The Curragh, Weld has created a unique record. He is the first overseas trainer to have annexed two Melbourne Cups, which alone would make the description fit, but he is also the only European trainer to have logged a winning run in a leg of the US Triple Crown. What lies behind the success of this thoughtful, serious man, whose few words make more sense than some who have written whole chapters on their specialist subject?

There is no single factor, he said. Rather there are nine aspects that he considers when assessing whether, and how, to travel a horse abroad. They are: * Horse – “He has to have the ability to compete at the top level; he must be adaptable to ground and have the right temperament, and he has to be sound. It’s no good if you take an unsound horse, hoping it comes right on the day. In my experience, it rarely does.” *Jockey – “Bring your own if he’s top class, or get the best locally.” *Food – “Bring your own if at all possible.” *Water – “Dehydration is the single biggest negative factor in travelling. Make sure you get it right.” *Staff – “You need trained, experienced travellers, good work riders, and staff with the confidence and knowledge to report to you accurately.” *Farrier – “Very important. Around the world there are some good farriers, but one false move can undo everything.” *Veterinarian – “This is where dehydration will be reported, and he will watch all the tests and look at the blood picture. Make a mistake, and you pay for it.” *Medication – “I agree with strict rules, but it’s important for the trainer to be aware of the rules from country to country, even from state to state in the US.” *Quarantine – “Dubai has an excellent facility and is more straightforward than most. Australia has improved, but effectively it still takes nearly a month and could be brought forward. The US is a worry, and facilities at many tracks need to be improved.” There, in handy-sized bites, is the check-list of a qualified equine vet who has climbed to top of the trainers’ ladder.

There was, however, a bonus to the presentation, a bone of contention dug up when Weld was asked to nominate the single biggest improvement that would foster greater international competition. “We’ve got to standardise the quarantine rules, which differ between Europe, the US, Asia and Australia,” he said. “With modern technology, it can be done, because blood testing for infectious diseases is far more efficient than in the past.”

In a moment, the theme was set, at least from the perspective of the go-ahead trainer with aspirations on the world stage. The conference wended its fascinating way, discussing a myriad of topics of general concern to racing and betting administrators, from co-mingling bets in overseas pools and designing new racecourses, to standardising rules on stewarding and identifying the main threats to the success of horseracing in the future. Virtually all impinged on the business of training to some degree, but none seemed to have the immediate significance of the quarantine issue, which came up again, and again. Adrian Beaumont, director of racecourse services for the Newmarket-based International Racing Bureau, named “a shortening of the quarantine period for racing in Australia” among his three wishes to make life easier for horsemen tackling the global calendar. Other areas came under Beaumont’s scrutiny – Dubai being one, with the impact of its Carnival on the length of time that horses are likely to be away from European stables – but Australia came in for special attention with regard to two new, high-value series, the Global Sprint and Asian Mile Challenges, which include legs in Australia. Beaumont explained: “The quarantine rules pertaining to Australia are stricter than any other. For example, European runners have to do 14 days’ pre-export quarantine, and 14 days’ on arrival. That meant runners in the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge on 3 February would have needed to be in quarantine no later than 28 December to allow for flight schedules. Thus, unless race clubs can persuade the Australian authorities to shorten the length of the quarantine period, it is difficult for their races to come anywhere other than at the start of a series, as quarantine could conflict with previous legs.”

The consequence, Beaumont explained, was that including Australian races from January to March in a series could mean trainers in the Northern Hemisphere considering them as being at the end of a campaign for their top horses, who may have started their racing season from the previous April to June. Not ideal, was his unequivocal message. Beaumont, whose job involves helping trainers through and over the various problems thrown up by international travelling, turned his focus on to “governmental and racetrack attempts to thwart the spread of diseases,” pointing out that one of the methods was to ban the import of horses from affected countries. “This is certainly true of countries with African horse sickness,” he said, “and restrictions were also put in place by countries affected by swamp fever and foot and mouth, even though the latter cannot be transmitted by horses.

More recently, there have been problems with West Nile virus, which had implications in 2006 for horses with a multi-country itinerary. In particular it affected horses that ran at the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky. Any horse who ran there before going on to Japan, such as Ouija Board, needed to be vaccinated twice, at an interval of three to six weeks. Similarly, horses that were due to run in Hong Kong after the Breeders’ Cup had to return to their home stables for 15 days, before a blood sample could be taken and sent to America to test for West Nile virus. Only when that was clear could they travel to Hong Kong.” Weld’s reservations were becoming clearer by the minute.

However, as any balanced reporter knows, there are two sides to a coin, and it was not long before the heads of Weld and Beaumont were being addressed by the tail-side of the argument from Dr Patricia Ellis, animal health advisor to the Australian Racing Board, a director of the racing analytical laboratory in Victoria and secretary of the international movement of horses committee, a body set up by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

A formidable array of appointments for an equine veterinarian with nearly four decades of experience, ranging from government to private sector, from racetrack to teaching. She does not mince words. Dr Ellis, who was involved in the work that overcome obstacles enabling Weld’s pioneering Melbourne Cup winner, Vintage Crop in 1993, to set a new pattern, told delegates: “Yes, illogical, unscientific and inconsistent import conditions are causing problems that need to be resolved. But so do unrealistic expectations and perceptions.” On the specific charges that had been thrown her country’s way, she countered: “Australia’s quarantine arrangements have attracted unfavourable criticism, but Australia is free from equine influenza, and its import controls reflect this.

I make no apology for them. “The Australian government and its racing authorities don’t want a flu outbreak that would shut down racing and other equestrian events for several months. They have understandable concerns for racing and non-racing stakeholders outside the international racecourse fence.” On the broader issue, referring to the Dubai conference’s headline slogan, she said: “It’s time for a reality check. In the context of ‘Racing Without Borders’ what do you really mean, what do you want? As racing authorities, do you want to import foreign horses directly from their home stables without vaccinations, tests or official health certificates, and allow them to mix freely with local horses? Or do you want to ‘race across borders’ with science-based risk management, according to international standards, applied consistently, and which respects differences in country health status?”

There seemed to be only one answer from Dr Ellis’s tone, as she added: “Measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases have to be a compromise between the need to conduct a successful event, with as wide a number of competing nations as possible, and the need to provide adequate safeguards to protect the health status of the animal and human populations of the importing country.

In some countries, racing is not the only game in town. The safety and status of competition horses, and the need to prevent economic loss and unfavourable reflection on a country’s health standing and veterinary services, are as important factors as caring for the indigenous racehorse population”. “Harmonisation of international issues such as handicapping, stewards’ decisions, rules of racing and race planning are directly under the control of racing authorities,” Dr Ellis explained. “Import conditions are not. They have to be negotiated government to government. Perhaps this is why the issue of ‘quarantine’ – thought I would prefer to speak about ‘import controls’ and ‘health safeguards’ – causes such angst.” The target for change is clear, according to Dr Ellis. “For success in expanding international borders, co-operation with government is critical.” However, she went on to warn: “Sometimes success has a very long lead time.” And using an even more stunning one-liner, “Success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan,” as a preface, she added: “Persistent and polite requests from international trading partners engage the attention of governments, and assist local racing authorities to negotiate safe international exchanges of racehorses.

The World Animal Health Organisation sets the minimum international standards for trade. If we want standardisation or harmonisation of quarantine procedures, we must engage in the development of these standards.” Perhaps Dr Ellis should invite Dermot Weld to join her when she next tackles the World Animal Health Organisation.

Shockwave Therapy - uncovering new treatments

Doctors originally used shockwave therapy more than 20 years ago to disintegrate kidney stones in their patients, then learned that the therapy can also treat tendonitis, tennis elbow, heel spurs and other ailments. Equine researchers are still uncovering everything shockwave therapy can do for horses after it was initially and successfully used in Germany in 1996 to treat lameness. Shockwaves are high-pressure, low-frequency sound waves generated by a device outside the body and focused on a specific body site. When the shockwaves meet tissue interfaces of different densities, the energy contained in the shockwaves is released and interacts with the tissue, triggering natural repair mechanisms and stimulating bone formation and blood flow.

The shockwaves can lessen or eliminate pain and accelerate healing. New York trainer Rick Schosberg has a unique perspective on shockwave therapy. He’s used it on himself and his horses. “I’ve used it for myself for tennis elbow; it helped my elbow for 90 days,” Schosberg said. “With my horses I’ve used it a couple times on injuries and it did okay for minor injuries, soft tissue and saucer fractures. It probably knocked a third off the healing time but it’s expensive. You use it for at least three treatments over a month and a half, usually every two or three weeks. As long as it‘s not abused it’s okay. You can‘t run a horse within 10 days after you use it and you have to report it every time you use it (in New York) because it has an analgesic effect.” Shockwave therapy’s impact on horse racing could not have happened if it wasn’t developed for human patients first. And that happened by accident. During experiments with high-velocity projectiles, which were being used to smash ceramic plates, an employee at a company in Germany touched the plate at the very moment the projectile hit the plate. He felt something in his body akin to an electric shock, though measurements showed that there was no electricity present. That prompted German scientists to begin researching the possible effects of shockwaves on humans in the late 1960s. The first successful disintegration of a kidney stone in a patient by shockwaves was done in 1971. Fourteen years later, experiments were conducted regarding the effect of shockwaves on bones, leading to experiments on other parts of the human anatomy.

Today, shockwaves are the first choice of treatment for kidney and ureteral stones and has morphed into treatment for other medical conditions. Will equine medicine’s use of shockwaves follow a similar pattern? The first equine disease to be treated with shockwaves was proximal suspensory desmitis, an injury to the suspensory ligament which is a major cause of lameness. A year later, shockwaves were used on a horse with Navicular Syndrome, an ailment affecting the small navicular bone in a horse’s foot and the connecting ligament. The first use of shockwaves in the United States happened in 1998 with a horse with a distal hock joint and navicular pain. All the results were encouraging. “When we first started using it, it worked okay on lameness,” Iowa State University’s Dr. Scott McClure, DVM, a leading researcher of equine shockwave therapy, said. “At this point in time, it’s been well documented for tendon and ligaments.

A lot of people think it works for stress fractures. I think there are some joint applications which we’re learning more about. Soft tissue, too. It’s been shown to increase permeability of cell walls.” He believes that increased cell wall permeability could lead to drugs which are more effective attacking tumors. “There’s potential for a lot of applications,” McClure said. “I clearly don’t think we understand all of its uses.” There are two types of equine shockwave therapy: extracorporeal generated outside the body and focused on a specific area of a horse’s body, and radial pressure waves when an applicator is pressed on the horse’s body. “The two of them get lumped together, but they shouldn’t be,” McClure said. “They’re very different. Radial pressure waves have lower pressure and more shallow penetration.” According to Dr. Stephen Adams of Purdue University‘s Veterinary Teaching Hospital in a 2002 article, studies have shown that shockwave therapy is effective treating suspensory ligament disease, bowed tendons, ringbone, bone spavin, splints, fractured splint bones, sore backs, navicular syndrome and fractures not healing properly. “Initial studies show that about 75 percent of horses treated for these conditions show marked improvement following shockwave therapy,” Adams wrote, while noting that many conditions require a second treatment to produce optimum results. “Advantages of this treatment are that no drugs are used, and horses with chronic conditions such as bone spavin, chronic suspensory ligament disease and navicular syndrome can continue to exercise.

Frequently, improvement in lameness is achieved in horses where conventional treatments have failed. Shockwave therapy is used as an adjunct treatment for fresh injuries such as recent bowed tendons with the goal of reducing convalescent time and improving the outcome.” On its website, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital suggests using shockwave therapy on horses suffering from: suspensory ligament injury, tissue calcification, fractures or joint ankyloses, fatigue injury to bone, back pain, navicular disease and bone exostosis.

McClure documented the effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on horses with unilateral forelimb lameness in a study he co-authored with Jessica Dahlberg, Richard Evans and Eric Reinertson which was published in the July 1st, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The study focused on five geldings and four fillies and mares with lameness.

Treatment by ESWT resulted “in a period of acute improvement in lameness severity that typically persists for two days. Thus, in horses undergoing ESWT, exercise should be controlled for a minimum of two days after treatment to prevent further injury.” The reason is that ESWT has an undeniable analgesic effect. “This has raised concerns that use of ESWT to treat musculoskeletal injuries in horses may, because of the analgesic effects, result in overuse of the injured limb, causing further injury to the affected part and posing a risk to treated horses and their riders,” the study said. “For this reason, racing jurisdictions in the United States and the Federation Equestre International have adopted regulations that require a 5-to-7 day period after treatment before the horse is allowed to perform.”

Regardless, the horseracing industry, one never known to embrace change and new products, has quickly come on board in using this non-invasive treatment on their horses. “Over the last five years, it’s dramatically increased,” McClure said. “The market is starting to saturate. There’s a lot of equipment out there. In 1988, I had the second machine in the country. I think the owners and trainers have taken the bit and run with it. They’ve been very aggressive with that.” Trainer Sanna Hendricks used shockwave therapy on her multiple stakes winning steeplechaser Praise the Prince after he suffered a soft tissue injury below the pastern while winning the 2003 Grade 1 New York Turf Writers’ Cup at Saratoga Race Course. “We used shockwave therapy on him, and he responded to it,” Hendricks said in an August 30th, 2004 story in the Blood-Horse. “I took the conservative approach with him. I gave him plenty of time to rest and recover and didn’t bring him back to training until February 5th with an eye on these races at Saratoga.” Praise the Prince not only made it back to the races at Saratoga, he won the 2004 Grade 2 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase there as a nine-year-old. If that isn’t an endorsement for shockwave therapy, what is? But shockwaves should not be construed as a panacea.

Complications can occur with incorrect use, and McClure wrote, “The release of kinetic energy at interfaces of different acoustic impedances is crucial in planning ESWT. Shock waves must never be focused on gas-filled cavities like the lung or intestine.” Meanwhile, he’s back at work, doing new studies to see just what else shockwave therapy may help.

Guillaume Macaire - champion jumps trainer in France for many years

Guillaume Macaire is the current champion jumps trainer in France, a title he has held since 2003. He is based in the Charente Maritime region of France at La Palmyre racecourse. In 2006 he ran 231 different horses and regularly campaigns horses across Europe.

In 2006 he wrote a regular column in Paris-Turf in which he provided insight into his runners, discussed current issues in the racing world and would provide his opinion on sensitive subjects.

Guillaume, tell us how you came into racing?

I was born in Compiègne in 1956, I frequented the racecourse at an early age. My family wasn’t involved in racing but when I went, I fell in love with it. The pictorial, timeless side of Compiègne’s racecourse certainly had a big impression on me. After a short career as an amateur rider, I started training a few horses in Compiègne, exercising my horses on the forest’s sand gallops. I then moved in Maisons-Laffitte for 2 years, then fate drove me to the south-west of France, where races were well-attended,  I went to La Roche Chalais (Dordogne), I won races regularly, improved my results every year and discovered La Palmyre where I moved to12 years ago.

What are the advantages of training at Royan-la-Palmyre?

The variety of the region attracted me, as well as the track on the racecourse, there’s the nearness of the sea with big beaches, a pine forest and its paths in sand.
When I arrived, the racecourse’s sand track wasn’t really exploited; some trainers had worked on it, one of them Martial Boisseuil (well-known in Arabian racing) had had a certain amount of success from 1975 to 1990 without however leaving the borders of the Southwest of France. The facility has several jump tracks, hurdles, steeple-chase fences and cross-country jumps, and now English fences and hurdles, also the addition of sand in order to have a testing gallop reminds me of the English up-hill gallops. Here, horses must maintain their rhythm and use their back. This allows me to work in good conditions and to make really good jumpers.
I’ve trained in different places and always used the same basics, I adapt to the facilities offered by each place. Here, in La Palmyre, I use the quality of the sand as natural ground and make the best of it. But what is positive here would not be anywhere else, all the methods are good but it’s necessary to adapt oneself. Good horses make the difference.

Could you explain to me your training methods, what do you consider very important?

All the horses intended to work here are pre-selected on their pedigree, on their appearance and on their movement, as only these criteria will allow them to improve their technique in order to be more fluent and more successful. Due to this selection I quickly have an opinion about each horse, if it has “attached legs and a welded kidney” it’s not worth working any more.
I’m talking here about the horses I choose, those for which I assure an “after-sale service”; there are exceptions, other horses I wouldn’t have chosen are brought to me and they are still able to win races. According to the proverb “the good horses make the good trainers”.
I like some of my horses to come to training several times and go back to the fields to recover or simply to grow if needed. They arrive for the first time in the winter as 2 or 3 year olds. Before that, they are broken in and pre-trained by people I know, who know the way I want my horses to be worked. I like to do interval training, as I mostly train jumpers, it allows to build the horse’s fitness without killing it (it’s used a lot with humans anyway); I put bandages on all of them, they help the horse’s back to carry a rider in the right way and they help for the animal’s submission and relaxation.  In their first month of training, I school them 3 or 4 times a week in a closed arena with 4 hurdles and deep sand. Indeed my inspirational mentor Baron Finot, (a leading jumping trainer in the 1880’s) whose methods I adopted and adapted to our time and whom rich painting (gouaches and watercolours) I admire had said: “the good jumpers are those who are used to jumping when they’re young”.

The arena is compulsory to me, I say it’s like a pianist is nothing without his scales, he has to practice, so the jumping technique is the main point for a jumper’s career and we have to practice. Then, depending on the horse’s behaviour and its physical ability to bear the training it will either run in the spring of its 3rd year or it will go back to the field to take advantage of the spring grass and will return in the autumn stronger.

Just as each person is unique amongst the universe’s inhabitants, my jumpers are individuals. I train each one of them regarding how it responds in order to get a certain standard, the horse’s quality will do the rest. My work is to form them as studious pupils. The trainer’s art is to find good horses and to find quickly enough if they’re worth it or not. 
Feeding is of prime importance in a racehorse’s life; it’s important to respect nature. For this I have all my horses on shavings and the racks are always full of hay (from the area of Crau) which avoids them to be bored in their stable and is a great help for proper digestion. They also eat oats and in the morning and bran mash in the evening (they have it even when they’re away racing, as I own several pressure-cookers).
Another essential thing to me is the horse walker, it replaces the lunging work that was formerly used a lot when people had time. I was the first trainer in France to buy one. It is surely not an economy of staff, but allows the horse to work muscularly and mentally freely without a direct constraint from the rider’s weight and hand.
The walker is used daily for different purposes, a horse that needs to let off steam before concentrating on the work for the track, a horse with a back problem or a horse that needs to recover after the races.
 I use a scale, horses are regularly weighed, especially before and after a race in order to know their exact condition. The optimum weight is a precious indicator of the state and health of the horse.
The work list is my puzzle for every day, adapting every horse with his/her rider then adapt them to each string according to the work required. I have as well to adapt to the new horses, their progress whilst keeping their objectives in mind.
No one can imagine how much the quality of a regular and constant work made in the morning is related - and improves - the final result.

Tell me about your staff?

My team consists of about 30 people; it’s a pyramid system whereby each person has their place and their function from the bottom to the top. In the summer we attract English, Irish and now Swiss riders who combine their holiday with a French racing experience. Noel Williams, Alan King’s assistant, spent some time with us last year and seemed pleased by what he discovered here and by the French racing customs, it complemented what he already knew. It is interesting for everybody to exchange different points of view as each country has its own habits.

You like to run horses in England, why?

I consider the level of competition is very high in Great-Britain, our best horses are sold and cross the channel when they’ve shown really good things there. There’s a conquering side in winning races abroad! It is the circumstances that brought me to England with Jair du Cochet, who won a Group 1 race (the Welsh Finale Junior Hurdle at Chepstow) first time out there. He didn’t pass the vet twice, so, pricked in my pride I wanted to show he was a good horse in order to prove my honesty. He adapted very well in England and ran only there, with a certain success. It is impossible for a horse to run everywhere all year through - except for The Fellow who was an extraterrestrial as he had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple Chase de Paris. I take an outstanding pleasure running in England as this for me is the homeland of the jumping races, a consecration for every trainer to win over there. But I want to go there only with a first class chance or if an English owner of mine wants to see his horse run over there. If I have good entries for a horse who knows Auteuil I’ll stick there.

What are your hopes for 2007?

I hope we can continue where 2006 left off and to find more time for my favourite hobby – painting horses. 

Bendik Bø - the Swedish trainer and inventor

When he rode his first race, the horse was a year older than him. They did not win. ”I never was a very talented jockey”, he says. He has many other talents though. The Norwegian Bendik Bø (39) is a successful racehorse trainer and inventor, based in Sweden. 

He was never afraid to try his hand at new tasks. He was shoeing his first pony when he was only 14 years old. ”I had been watching the farrier at work and helping a bit”, he remembers, ”one day he did not turn up – so I did it myself, secretly of course, but it was fine.” Some thirteen years later he was a full time farrier himself. ”I had around 200 horses on my list”, he recalls, ”just shuttling between the stables on a three wheel moped. My business was going well, one year my turnover was 1.7 million kronor. It was hard work, but the fine whisky was too easy to come by. Drink nearly ruined my life”. 

 
”So, five years ago I sought professional help, got rid of the drink, began developing my main invention, and went into training”. He now handles one of the biggest strings in Scandinavian racing, training nearly 80 horses at Täby Galopp. At the beginning of last year, he had eight.
 
Bendik Bø’s main invention – it is not the only one – is a vibrating floor for horseboxes, to give the horse massage from the ground. He first got the idea when working for a trainer in Italy in 1992. They had the very useful sprinter Prairie on the team. ”Though he had tendon problems”, Bø recalls, ”and the vets told us his career was over. I felt we could give him a chance, and even had a bet with one of the vets that we would get him back on the track and win a certain amount of prize money with him. We did get him back on the track, and he won five races for us in Sweden the following season. We then took him to Italy, but his problems came back. After some improvement, we could train him though, and entered him in a Listed race in Milan. I was driving the horsebox, doing a trip of 350 kilometres. It was an old horsebox, very stiff, and not a very smooth drive at all. We could feel a lot of vibration on our way to Milan. On arrival, I noticed that the horse was moving, and clearly feeling, so much better than I had ever seen him. He won the race, running 1200 metres in 1:07.and beating a good ex-English horse called Reference Light, who was second in a Group Two the same year.”  
 
”When driving back from winning that Listed event, I remember thinking how convinced I was that the ”vibrating” box ride had something to do with Prairie’s performance that day. And I said to myself, ’I must find a way to get this box into the stable...” he says. Prairie, who had been a champion in Sweden, also ran fourth to Special Power in the Premio Certosa (Gp 3) at San Siro. Bø won the bet with the vet.
 
The idea of a vibrating floor was to be experimented with, and pondered on, for nine years before Bø and members of his family back home in Norway started working seriously on the project five years ago. ”During those years, my life took some twist and turns”, he explains openly, ”I was heading in the wrong direction. I always wanted to return to a life working closely with horses. Alcohol is a very, very dangerous friend, however, and could easily have ended all my ambitions. Admitting himself to a clinic in Norway for seven weeks, he came out a tea-total, and very determined young man. ”Some may have said I was not going to get away from the drink”, he says, ”but I did, and I decided to put my life to better use. The same year we decided to give the vibrating floor a real crack too. My house was tidy and it was time get the drawing board out.”  
 
From starting out as an amateur rider, to be just a run of the mill jockey, then an inventor and very good trainer, Bø strikes us as a man whose strong will has pushed him through storms where many would have turned back and gone back to more conventional life than working with racehorses in Scandinavia. After all, making a decent living from thoroughbreds in Norway, is not much easier than making a living from skiing in England. That was also why he turned his back on the sport when he was 16 years old. He was young but had been involved for years and already saw how tough it would be, financially, to make it.
 
A career in the saddle was always going to be a ride against all odds. Bø is 1.78m tall, and his lowest riding weight was 57 kilograms. ”You just can’t live like that for very long”, he says, ”and after riding about 20 races, and no winners, I left the sport and took an agricultural education instead. When that was completed I was riding out from time to time, and did some farrier work to make extra money – but eventually I left racing to work on a cow farm in Norway. It lasted just a couple of years. I was soon drawn back to the horses, and to racing”.  
 
His ticket back into horseracing came when he was offered an apprenticeship with trainer Trond Hansen, one of the leading trainers in Norway - now based in Germany. ”It was a good time to join his yard”, he says, ”as we had some classy horses, like Salient, who had been bought out of Dick Hern’s team for 110,000 guineas – then a record price - at the 1985 Tattersalls Horses in Training Sales in Newmarket. He was previously owned by the Queen, by the way, and was a top horse in Scandinavia. We also had a 2000 Guineas winner and a champion sprinter the same year.”  The inspiration was back, although it meant riding out in 20 degrees below at wintertime, hardly eating at all, and sometimes travelling about ten hours by horsebox to race meetings in Sweden and Denmark. ”My interest was back, though my race riding was still not going all that well...”
 
A winner, at long last
 
Some two years later, a Swedish jockey, of the opposite sex, persuaded Bø to come with her to work at Täby Galopp outside the Swedish capital Stockholm, where racing is considerably bigger than in Norway. ”At long last”, he recalls, ”soon after moving, I rode my first winner. I was 20 years old, my stubborness got be to the winners’ circle – but it had taken some time!” 
 
A few more winners followed, and Bø also began riding over jumps. Working for Olle Stenstrøm, who trained quite a few good hurdlers and chasers, the young Norwegian was now partnering winners on a more regular basis. He moved on to work for Claes Bjørling, who took horses from Sweden to Italy. Bjørling also bought horses out of sellers in England and campaigned them successfully in Italy. Bø rode at many of the Italian courses. He enjoyed success at Capannelle, Pisa and Treviso, and also rode at Cagnes-sur-Mer in France. 
 
”One of our best jumpers was a horse called Obeliski”, Bø tells us, ”Mr Bjørling got him out of a claiming chase at Southwell, when his official hurdle rating in England was just 128. I rode him to be fifth in the Italian Champion Hurdle. I remember being very proud of having beaten the high class English hurdler Staunch Friend and Steve Smith Eccles in the race. Not bad you know, on a cheap claimer. My boss also claimed a horse called Bighayir, who had won ten races for Martin Pipe, but he did not jump well enough when we took him to Cagnes-sur-Mer.”  
 
The French course does, like Bendik’s boyhood city, sit by the seaside. Though that is the only thing Cagnes-sur-Mer and the city Larvik in Norway has in common. 
 
Bø grew up in Larvik. He is by no means the only man with a thinking cap fostered in the small seaside city. Larvik’s most famous son is Thor Heyerdahl, the anthropologist who sailed the raft ”Kon-Tiki”, made of Balsa wood, from Peru across the Pacific Ocean to Tamoto Islands, to prove that ancient Peruvians could have reached Polynesia in this manner. In 1947, Heyerdahl and his five companions made the 8000-kilometre crossing in the primitive vessel, taking 101 days.
 
Growing up in Norway, let alone Larvik, without knowledge of Heyerdahl’s name and work is virtually impossible – but Bendik was not interested in anthropology. He liked horses better. He turned up at Hovland Ridestall, the local riding school, when he was ”seven or eight years old”. He had no money in his pocket for riding lessons of course, so instead he struck up a deal with the owner of the place. Bendik mucked out boxes without being paid, and was given sporadic riding lessons in return. After a few years of this, he and his schoolmates were given responsibilities in the stable, owned by Knut Rimstad, who combined running a riding school with racing a small string of his own horses at Øvrevoll racecourse outside Oslo. The boys also travelled with the horses to the races. ”Some of Rimstad’s racehorses were even used for lessons at the riding school”, Bendik recalls. 
 
The ambition was clear enough; to become a jockey. And the teenage boy was never short on imagination. When a replacement rider was needed for a horse in an amateur race that very evening, at short notice, he got his friend Roy Arne Kvisla out of the classroom at school. Kvisla, who is now a trainer in Lambourn, had never ridden in a race but he was old enough to do so. Bendik was not, so he knocked on his mate’s classroom door. It was a daring move, as behind that door they were having an important test in chemistry. Bendik told the teacher that Roy’s mother was ill, and that he had better come along with him. The teacher agreed. The boys headed off to the stables, from there to the races at Øvrevoll, where Kvisla rode the horse – and won the race. Fortunately, the teacher never bothered with the racing results when browsing the morning papers!
 
Bø himself rode his first race at 15, the minimum age for race riding, partnering a veteran called Federation. The horse was a year older than the rider. ”We finished fifth”, Bø tells us, ”I kept on riding, and over the years I have partnered over 80 winners on the flat and over jumps. But to be honest, I never was very good as a jockey”. 
 
He rode his last race in 1994, when experiencing a bad fall on a hurdler that broke both front legs during a race – on the flat. ”I just heard a solid bang when we went down”, Bendik recalls, ”I took a heavy, heavy fall and that was it. No more race riding for me. I decided to quit while still in one piece.” His riding career, which had began on a 16-year-old plodder at Øvrevoll when he was 15, thus ended with an incredible and nasty fall on a jumper at Täby Galopp when he was 27.
 
To this day, Øvrevoll is the only thoroughbred venue in Norway. Harness racing is dominant, and the country has no more than 380 active thoroughbreds. This season, Bendik Bø has taken over the stable of retiring Michael Kahn, many times champion trainer in Sweden. This move puts him in charge of close to 80 horses, more than a fifth of the racehorse population in his native Norway. And he is still mucking out boxes – ”we’ve got to work”, he smiles. 
 
There is an active exchange of horses, trainers, jockeys and staff in general, between the Scandinavian racing communities. In particular between Norway and Sweden, and Bø has been back and forth between the Oslo region and the Stockholm region a few times. In 1986, when he travelled east to pursue his career in the saddle, it led to a life as a farrier, making good money, but also to a lifestyle that led to too much partying and drinking. The tall, slim and happy Norwegian was never violent when drunk, just having a good time and often playing his violin to entertain the party. 15 years later he was heading back home, to get rid of ”a dangerous friend” as he calls it, to cure his alcoholism. ”I woke up one morning feeling really fed up with my life”, he reflects, ”it was time to take a turn”. 
 
Harness racing
 
After travelling back to Norway to sort out his problems with drinking, which his motivation helped him do in less than two months, Bendik took out a license to train horses there. He was based back in his hometown Larvik, training a small string. ”I wanted to work on the vibrating floor and do more research with active horses”, he says, ”and with other family members I set up the company Vitafloor. My idea was to get horses with problems, treat them, use the floor to give them effective massage, and train them for racing. In order to get enough such horses, and get enough experience with racing horses that had been using the floor, I had to turn to trotting. With only five to six thoroughbreds, I had over 20 trotters in my stable. I had trotters racing at all the big tracks in Norway. It all went relatively well and we even shipped a horse to win a valuable race in Sweden. I am convinced that my years working with trotters is very valuable today.” 
 
Bø trained thoroughbreds side by side with warm blooded trotters, and trotters of Nordic race, often described as ”cold blood horses”. He says that getting as much experience as possible, with a variety of individuals, is how to become a good horseman. As long as you pay attention of course. After five years in Norway, he moved back to Sweden for the 2006 season, to train at Täby Galopp. His initial team there was even smaller. ”I took over from Roy Arne Kvisla as he left for England”, he explains, and I had eight horses to train.” At the turn of the year he had 42. He saddled 26 winners from 118 runners, for a healthy 22% strike rate.
 
It helped him tremendously of course, that he revitalised the 10-year-old sprinter Waquaas to such an extent that the gelding won three races on the bounce early in the season, including a pair of Listed contests; the Taby Vårsprint and the Norsk Jockeyclub Sprint. Bø was off to a good start on his return to Sweden. 
 
Today, he is in charge of the biggest string in the land. There is no spare time, ”We employ ten full time, plus use some freelance work riders”, he explains, ”but I work seven days a week myself, as does my partner Mette Kjelsli. What spare time I get is often dedicated to my inventions. But you know, I can also think through those ideas when on an eight-hour drive to the Danish or Norwegian Derby meeting!” 
 
”We race year round here”, he explains, ”on turf and dirt, and I divide my horses in two groups, the best horses are active through the spring, summer and early autumn, while the lesser lights will be racing mainly at wintertime. Taby Galopp owns a farm close to the track, where I rent some boxes. This is where we send the horses for breaks, though some also go back to their owners’ farms for rests”, he says. His string consists approximately of 60 per cent imports, mainly bought in England, and 40 per cent Scandinavian breds.
 
Simple solution the beginning
 
Returning to the inventions, Bø tells the fascinating story about how he took the first small steps towards what today is the highly sophisticated Vitafloor. 
 
”I took a big board, attached an engine under the board, placed the whole thing of four blocks of wood shavings, and switched the engine on”, he tells us, ”I tried walking on it, lying on it and feeling the massaging effect. This was just my first prototype of course, but other jockeys used this vibrating board too, just to get a relaxing massage after riding. It was obvious that it would not be quite that simple but at least I had discovered that my theory was working, to a certain extent. So, I kept on thinking about solutions for many years.” Today, Bø has sold the Vitafloor to various trainers, both of thoroughbreds and harness horses, and veterinarian clinics in Scandinavia, and recently his company exported the first floor to Dubai.  
 
Bø has also invented elastic reins. ”When the horse breaks into a gallop”, he explains, ”he will always stretch his neck out, and pull for a bit more rein. No rider has a hand quick enough to accomodate the horse during these few strides, to give the horse a smooth communication through the reins. I had noticed how, at the start of many a race, horses and riders were not in full harmony and perfect rhythm – they were not working as a team, and the horse was often tugging sharply against the bit when trying to find his balance. Therefore I made elastic reins. It is very simple, the rein runs in an s-shape, with elastic bands attached straight across. This means that the horse gets a bit more leeway and freedom when gaining his balance as he picks up speed – but when he pulls harder, the reins go to full stretch and take over. The elastic band is only a matter of a four to five centimetres but that is enough to make quite a difference.”
 
He has sold ”a couple of hundred” of these reins, ”I produce them myself”, Bø says. And when he got his first cat, he soon became fed up cleaning the cat case, so he invented a cat case that could be cleaned in 15 seconds. ”I have patented that too”, he explains, ”but it has never been commercially marketed. I am working on more important prototypes for the equestrian industry right now, the cat case was just for fun, really”. 
 
At a track like Täby Galopp everyone knows everyone. ”There are about 20 trainers based here”, Bø tells us, ”and the number of horses stabled at the track is always around 400. The country has about 1400 racehorses. Swedish racing has been struggling, that is no big secret, but there is a positive will to move forward here, and people work well together”, he says. 
 
On the racetrack committee
 
The racecourse management has formed a track committee, with meetings every two weeks. Bø is a member of this committee and he explains; 
 
”I represent the trainers, there is also a jockey on the committee, as well as the general manager, the head groundsman and a veterinarian present. We meet for lunch twice a month, exchange ideas and discuss how best to improve the racecourse – both for training and racing. I enjoy this, we are all learning and it is important to take part”. 
 
Racing takes place on an American style track at Täby, with a turf and dirt course, where they manage to keep racing going in the winter, by adding salt to the dirt track and by harrowing the track 24 hours a day through the winter months. The dirt track is 1742 metres, while the turf course is 1595 metres round. There is also an inner, figure of eight, steeplechase course.
 
”This may not be Newmarket or Chantilly”, Bendik says, ”but the training facilities are good, and remarkably consistent. I rarely feel the need to go to inspect the track in the morning before working my horses. And you know, small as this team is, we have a hard working and dedicated group of people here. But it’s also costly to keep racing going 12 months a year. I know one of the guys working night shifts on the harrowing, and he just told me that he burns around 500 litres of diesel every night. That’s a lot of money you know!” Racing goes ahead in freezing temperatures, as low as 10 to 15 degrees Celcius below zero, when riding weights are put up by a couple of kilograms to allow more clothing for the riders. 
 
When asked about racing horses on dirt and turf, Bø is quick to point out that ”you get surprises all the time, but there are dirt type runners and there are turf type runners. I do not think any horse can be equally effective on both surfaces. I prefer turf, but when I have a horse winning a nice race on dirt, I love the sand”, he smiles, ”and without it – where would we be?” 
 
He took two runners to Lingfield Park in England last November, when his domestic Listed winner Maybach finished tenth in the Churchill Stakes. ”It was an experiment”, he reflects, ”but Maybach ran better than his finishing position may suggest, beaten just 6 lengths behind Nayyir, when carrying just two pounds less. After all, Nayyir used to be a Group One horse. My other horse, the Argentinean bred King Nov, was unplaced in a competitive sprint handicap. We felt that he was given a tough weight bgut he was not disgraced, and I went home believing that we can take horses to England and win. I was very impressed by the Polytrack, it is far less demanding than our conventional dirt track. We will be back but, mind you, taking these two horses from Stockholm to Lingfield did cost 70.000 kronor all told (approximately £5000)”.  
 
When Maybach won the Listed Nicke Memorial at Täby two months earlier, the reward was nearly £11,000, which is half of what Nayyir earned in the Churchill Stakes but more than the runner-up’s share in the Lingfield contest. And for the Nicke Memorial, Maybach was simply walked for about three minutes from his trainer’s stable to the paddock. 
 
”The best races in Scandinavia have good purses”, Bendik explains, ”so it makes little sense for us to ship our best horses abroad during periods when we have opportunities for them at home.”
 
As an example, the Stockholm Cup International and Täby Open Sprint – both Group Three status – were both worth €88,398 to the winner last year. On the same Sunday, Longchamp staged their ”Arc” trails, including the Group Two events Prix Niel and Prix Foy, both worth only €68,400 to the winner. 
 

Still, Bendik Bø hopes to be able to campaign more horses internationally, from his base at Täby Galopp. ”We have the knowledge, we have the horses, and we have the ambition, also among the owners, to do just that”, he says, ”and I certainly have the will”.  We knew that. 

Feeding during early training - how to minimise problems

Most of the current crop of 2yo’s will now have been broken and are in the early stages of training proper in readiness for the forthcoming flat racing season. This period brings with it numerous problems for trainers and their staff, such as horses with high muscle enzymes, episodes of tying up, respiratory infections, various lamenesses and other skeletal problems or simply over exuberance.

Whilst such issues have many contributory factors, a good basal diet, with carefully selected extras can help to minimise some of these niggling problems. Overfed horses can become fat or too excitable During breaking, and pre- and early training the emphasis from a nutritional perspective should be on adequate but not excessive energy intake, whilst ensuring that a balanced diet is provided in terms of vitamins, minerals and quality protein. An overfed horse becomes either fat and so difficult to slim down for racing, or badly behaved and excitable, and thus more prone to injure itself or its rider. To avoid excitability, good quality hay or haylage fed in increased amounts will not only help to reduce the reliance on concentrate feeds, but may also reduce ulceration, especially in horses in their first season of race training. There are several concentrate feeds manufactured specifically for horses in early training or during a ‘lay off’ period. These are generally lower in energy than racing feeds, but still ensure an adequate intake of quality protein for young horses and provide a more concentrated source of vitamins and minerals, given that the intake of feed can be quite low at this time. Sometimes a more economical alternative to these tailored feeds would be a good quality low energy mix or cube, manufactured for the mainstream horse market.

However, reassurance should always be sought from the manufacturer concerned on the suitability of the main ingredients, including the protein and fibre sources and vitamin and mineral level for a horse in pre or early training. An further advantage of these two concentrate feed types for this stage of training, is that the energy provided is derived largely from digestible fibre and sometimes oil, with less emphasis on cereal starch. This is potentially beneficial for behaviour, and also for horses with a predisposition for tying-up or ‘set fast’. Not every raised muscle enzyme is a ‘set fast’ Raised blood levels of the muscle enzymes AST (aspartate aminotransferase) and CPK or CK (creatine kinase) are common place during early training. These enzymes are present at much higher levels in muscle cells than other tissues and therefore their leakage into the blood is considered indicative of muscle damage. The complication is that although muscle damage can result from an ongoing metabolic issue such as tying up, it may also occur as the result of transient over exertion. High AST and CK’s in blood are not always an indication of a horse having tied up and some horses that exhibit these blood results in the early stages of training will often work through it as training progresses.

Care should obviously be taken with horses, who show clinical signs of having tied up on one or more occasion. For such horses, diagnosis early in the season is beneficial, as their diets can be scrutinised more closely and key changes implemented that can in many instances reduce the severity or frequency of such attacks. These horses will often benefit from being fed a basal ration that is very low in starch (typically less than 15%) and so equally will need to be high in digestible fibre and oil to ensure adequate energy intake during training. Current research into tying up cannot yet explain why this dietary change helps, but widespread experience suggests that in many instances it does. Stephanie Valberg from the University of Minnesota suggests that it may be due to an effect on stress and the change in diet results in these horses becoming less ‘anxious’. However, trainers have in the past highlighted practical problems with this approach.

Some have reported that long-term palatability may be a problem with this type of diet, as horses seem to instinctively like the sweet, cereal rich coarse mixes and cubes, typical of traditional racing feeds. Measures that can be taken to avoid such problems include: 1. Identify problem horses as early as possible and adjust their ration to prevent them becoming accustomed to traditional racing feeds. 2. Feed 4 or 5 smaller meals per day rather than 3 larger ones. 3. Mixes are often more palatable than cubes 4. Some unmolassed sugar beet can improve palatability Most racing diets need supplementing with salt Electrolyte provision, including sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and magnesium is an important dietary aspect to evaluate for all horses in the yard, not just those that tie up.

Racing diets generally meet and exceed the requirements of potassium and chloride, which are two of three the main electrolytes lost in sweat. The third, sodium, is in my experience never present in sufficient quantities in proprietary feeds for horses doing more than light work. This may be largely due to manufacturing constraints. However, sodium is easily supplemented by adding ordinary table salt daily to feeds (typically between 25-75g per day depending on work load). Whilst calcium and magnesium intake is usually adequate, the calcium to phosphorus ratio of the diet may not be optimal, especially if feeds are top dressed with oats.

It should also be recognised that, there exists quite marked differences between horses in their ability to absorb electrolytes and for this reason a creatinine clearance test can be useful in the further investigation of problem horses. This test (which involves taking paired blood and urine samples for analysis of the major electrolytes) helps the vet and nutritionist to take account of individual variation in electrolyte absorption and excretion and to modify the diet accordingly. Vitamin E intake can be low in some pre-training diets Vitamin E and selenium content of the diet should also be studied carefully. Racehorses that repeatedly tie up are not necessarily deficient in these two micronutrients, but may have a higher requirement due to increased free radical production. In my experience, selenium is usually present at appropriate levels in most racing rations, however the level of vitamin E provided can often be lacking.

A higher daily intake of 1600-2400iu per day for a typical horse in training has been recommended in the scientific press. The range in vitamin E content of racing feeds is quite wide, typically between 250iu to nearly 500iu per kilogram of feed. So a horse in full work may receive anything between 1500 to 3000iu per day, excluding forage and supplements. However, many trainers rely on the use of non-specialist low energy feeds during early training and these are obviously fed at a much lower level of intake compared to racing feeds for horses in full work. This could therefore result in vitamin E intake during this period being nearer to 1000iu per day. Poor hoof condition is a common gripe for trainers and farriers Poor hoof condition is another common problem that develops in early training and which can often deteriorate as training progresses.

Whilst there are many conformational and biomechanical factors that contribute to poor hoof condition in Thoroughbreds, nutrition is an area that should not be ignored. It is true to say that most of the relevant nutrients such as quality protein, calcium, zinc, methionine and fatty acids are supplied in a typical racing diet. However, the micronutrient that has received most attention in the scientific literature with respect to improving hoof horn quality is biotin. Biotin, a B-group vitamin, is generally provided at a level of intake in most racing feeds that easily meets a horse’s basal requirement. However, the daily intake reported to improve horn quality is typically 10-20 times higher than this.

Biotin has been reported to improve hoof horn quality when fed daily at levels between 10 and 20mg per day. Patience however, is required with biotin supplementation, as benefits are unlikely to become apparent for 6-9 months. But remember that biotin is worth feeding for 12 months of the year – as the horn grown in the early winter will be raced on in the spring and summer. Getting the basics right for respiratory health Development of respiratory disease during early training is also a commonly encountered problem. I always compare a yearling’s first venture into a training or pre training yard to a toddler starting nursery for the first time, which can often involve consecutive colds and associated bugs for the first year or more.

Indeed, the adaptive part the mammalian immune system is strengthened through exposure to different infectious challenges. It is not surprising therefore, that avoiding some form of respiratory disease during pre or early training is an uphill struggle. Numerous nutrients that may support the immune system have been investigated by scientists in man and other species, such as glutamine, antioxidants including vitamin C and E, probiotics, prebiotics, omega 3 fatty acids, adaptogenic herbs, whey protein and others.

The vitamin C level in the fluid surrounding the lungs is reportedly decreased in horses suffering with Recurrent Airway Obstruction and other types of airway inflammation (e.g. bacterial infection), and some vitamin C supplementation can be warranted where a problem is identified. Glutamine is a major fuel source for cells of the immune system and whilst the merits of supplementation in horses have not been proven, a fairly recent study indicated that horses infected with the equine influenza virus exhibited a significant decline in blood glutamine 41 days after exposure. There may well be other nutrients amongst those cited above that could prove useful, however there are few if any products (or ingredients) that have extensive and unequivocal scientific evidence to support claims that they ‘enhance or boost’ the equine immune system. Before turning to nutraceuticals for all the answers, some fundamentals can be addressed.

Good clean bedding is essential, as are well-ventilated stables and clean forage. Whilst American hay has a good reputation for being clean, with very low mould and yeast counts on analysis, many trainers prefer to use English hay for early training and some will use it through the season. Unfortunately, our variable climate means that producing consistently clean hay can be difficult. Whilst haylage is a viable alternative to hay, as the process of fermentation keeps the level of mould and yeast to a minimum, it is not infallible and haylage that has been produced badly, or which has become contaminated is a serious issue.

I would recommend that before committing to a batch of hay or haylage, some basic analysis of moulds and yeasts is money well spent to ensure that potential respiratory challenges from forage are minimised. Total mould and yeast analysis cfu/g from forage sampled from racing stables Total Moulds Total yeasts Thermophilic spores Hay – English Timothy 270 150,000 150,000 150,000 <10 Haylage – English Rye 10 <10 30 * No visible spoilage was seen in any of these forage samples Retention of calcium is reduced in early training Finally a discussion of the problems of pre and early training would not be complete without reference to bone. Many of the problems encountered at this time relate to changes in bone strength and density during training. When a racehorse enters training for the first time their cannon bones have been shown to go through an initial period of demineralisation, which reaches its greatest severity at about 60 days into training (US based study). Remineralisation then occurs as training progresses.

The initial demineralisation phase results partly as part of the remodelling process but also as a result of a change in the nature of the diet (less forage and more cereal), as the horse moves from stud to training or pre training yard. Current thinking follows that adequate calcium content in the diet is especially important during the initial demineralisation phase, as the horse’s ability to retain calcium in the body seems to be reduced. Attention to the calcium to phosphorus ratio of the diet is also vital, especially if top-dressing with cereals. The dietary magnesium content should also be evaluated in this respect as it is sometimes overlooked. Silicon supplementation shows some evidence of efficacy in reducing some injuries in racehorses but its powder form as sodium zeolite has limited its use. A liquid form is now available and although promising, as the intake per day is very low, it does not as yet have a scientifically proven track record.

TRM Trainer of the Quarter - Alduino and Guiseppe Botti

The TRM Trainer of the Quarter goes to Alduino and Guiseppe Botti either separately or as in recent years in partnership  have dominated the trainers' list in Italy for more than a quarter of a century.

Editorial Writer (European Trainer - Issue 17 / Spring 2007)

The European gambling scene – which way for horseracing?

The war is over: so said France Galop director general Louis Romanet a year ago, after he had put his name to a ground-breaking deal with British bookmakers Ladbrokes. For the first time, live pictures of all French races – Flat, jumps and trotting – were being made available to show in UK betting shops, via a new broadcasting service known as Ladbrokes Xtra. A unique, dedicated channel, Xtra is now in all Ladbrokes’ 2,140 shops in Britain and Ireland, and is there to provide extra – hence the name – opportunities for punters, over and above the traditional daily mix of horse and greyhound racing, virtual reality racing and numbers’ betting. Xtra needed product to make up its programme, and French racing was an obvious target, provided the old enmity between the parties could be overcome. The French racing and betting authorities have generally abhorred fixed-odds bookmakers for a century, ever since their like were driven out of the country by legislation that strengthened the national pool-betting monopoly. For their turn, Ladbrokes, which has a well established business in neighbouring Belgium, had engaged in court battles against the French for at least the past 20 years, seeking to break the mould so that it could take its product into fresh areas. Suddenly, peace had broken out between the two old adversaries. More specifically, pragmatism had prevailed. Ladbrokes needed betting opportunities to fill the gaps in its new service, and the French had them in abundance, even if the idea of putting money on the outcome of a trotting race still seemed slightly alien to UK viewers. On the other side of the counter, the French could see an opportunity to enhance its betting take, because as well as allowing for the delivery of live pictures, the deal enabled Ladbrokes to put bets straight into the PMU pools, for a fee, of course, which generally works out at three per cent of turnover to the host provider. One year on, the two sides are more than happy with the arrangement. Ladbrokes has a guaranteed product to put before its customers, and the French PMU has another source of income, as well as a useful driver for increased pools. Romanet says: “The arrangement is progressing well, better than we expected, and we have very good relations with Ladbrokes, which will grow. The more people that are part of the pool, the more interesting it becomes. “French racing is benefiting, and it is good for Ladbrokes, because with pool betting the bookmaker doesn’t mind which horse wins.This is a proper deal, worked out between the racing authority and the bookmaker on proper terms, which is very different from what other betting operators, such as the exchanges, have suggested. They came to us and said they would give us 0.25 per cent of turnover. We said No. We are not beggars.” So there we have it; the new enemy is revealed. The betting exchanges, with their low-margin operation that cuts into the traditional market, have taken the place of the British bookmaker as the bad guys. But the exchanges are not the only target, and nor is France – the Ladbrokes deal aside – the only European country taking a stand, though its policy towards private betting and gambling operators is considered among the most restrictive in Europe. The real storm has been whipped up by the pervasive phenomenon of the internet, which has turned the European gambling scene into a maelstrom. On one side are the state-controlled monopolies, generally making their money from lotteries and hanging on to their status for dear life under national law. On the other is the European Commission, steeling itself to intervene under EU legislation. And in the middle are the private betting operators, prodding governments into short-term legal action with the long-term aim of getting to the European Court of Justice, where they anticipate a wider, more liberal ruling. For betting operators, it may prove to be a case of taking two or more steps back before they can make a half-step forward, but if the mood among European Commissioners is any guide, they will get there, some day. In September, the internal market minister Charlie McCreevy took to nine – Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy and Sweden - the number of national governments against which the EC is opening infringement proceedings for restricting the provision of sports betting (including horseracing) and gambling services. The EC is following the line that under EU law countries can curb private gambling operators but only on grounds that are “non-discriminatory, proportionate and consistent”. A country cannot justify restrictions simply to protect its gambling or lottery monopoly, it says. Fellow commissioner Malcolm Harbour, who represents Britain, adds: “Member states cannot, on the one hand, incite and encourage people to participate in national lotteries, while at the same time invoking customer protection as a reason to suppress sports (and horserace) betting.” The testing ground for these views is being laid out even as some national governments continue to bear down on unwelcome betting operators, and as is the way with such issues, the workings of the law will grind away slowly, and expensively. Meanwhile, and perhaps ironically, two countries on McCreevy’s hit list – Germany and Italy – are moving towards deregulating their betting landscape from inside. Spain, too, is gently opening its arms to fresh possibilities, and emerging areas of eastern Europe will not be far behind. Major British-based bookmakers have worked out the angles, and, inevitably in view of their vast experience at putting on a fixed-odds show for their customers, they have made strategic alliances or are looking for individual representation. Stanley International, based in Liverpool, has been operating through agents in Italy for around five years. Its legal challenges have been an irritant for much of that time, but they have produced important legal decisions. Now Stanley is looking to advance through being awarded some of the 17,000 licences – 7,000 for sports betting shops and 10,000 for horserace betting – that are being opened up to commercial competition in Italy. In September, Ladbrokes paid €1.3m for a joint venture with local betting company Pianeta Scommesse and is promising to spend €100m over the next five years on a betting-shop project. “There is clearly unsatisfied demand in Italy,” says Ladbrokes chief executive Chris Bell. Gala Coral already operates in Italy through Eurobet and is bidding to expand, while William Hill can hardly afford to be left out, though its main thrust into Europe will be through Spain, which is moving towards a degree of sports-betting deregulation, and then Greece once it treads softly into liberalisation. Spain, which has new legislation on the stocks in three of the country’s 17 autonomous regions, is also the target for Betbull, a polyglot of an organisation, since it grew out of Austria, is based in Gibraltar and run by Simon Bold, who first made his name as a bookmaker in Liverpool. Bold says: “The Spanish retail market is immense, and will embrace the concept of sports betting in comfortable outlets that combine high-level technology with leisure and catering facilities”. So, where does all this to-and-fro activity leave horseracing? That’s the million-euro question for authorities running the business and individuals practicising within the pursuit, who see their rewards diminishing and wonder if, or how, they can hang on to the tail feathers of the golden goose of betting. Steve Fisher, British co-founder and director of Stan James Bookmakers, is as close as anyone to the central attractions. He was among the first to spot the potential of online betting, and has known days when his firm will offer nearly 400 separate markets on a multitude of sports, but he also supports horseracing to the hilt, including sponsoring both the Guineas on the Flat and the King George VI Chase over jumps. “Aside from lotteries, the gambling market in Europe is dominated by gaming – casinos and slot machines – and fixed odds can never compete for profitably per square metre,” he explains. “Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy may be the dominant horseracing countries, but betting has to compete strongly with other sports, and horseracing is a minority activity even in such as Germany and Italy. Spain is a worry for any operator because it does not have a history of betting. Its gambling is based on lotteries, numbers, bingo and slot machines, so expansion will not happen overnight. In central and eastern Europe they predominantly bet on football and other sports, from basketball and cycling to darts and ice hockey, so these are also markets that do not instantly lend themselves to horserace betting. The point about sports betting is that most European countries bet on events in other countries, as well as their own. Taking horseracing into another country is not easy. It would be no good the UK, or anyone else for that matter, simply saying, ‘Here is our wonderful horseracing, you must have it.’ To betting people in most other countries it’s just another horserace, and there is a huge barrier if the commentary is in a foreign language and the odds are not up to date.” Gloomy for horseracing, or what? Fisher sees the picture as it is. “I have a betting shop in Moscow, using the latest Finsoft software to provide a Russian translation, and we show virtual horse and greyhound racing every five minutes,” he says. “No live racing, because I cannot get the pictures. But even if I could get live racing, I’m not sure how much interest there would be. If I was marketing a betting product to eastern Europe, for example, I would have more success with a virtual greyhound race than a live horse race. It’s easier for customers to understand. Of course, I want to be enterprising, and am keen to promote horseracing. But you would need a lot of co-operation from everybody, and that includes pricing. Horseracing should not think there is lots of money to be made out of its product, because that is not the case. And that’s not pessimism. It’s realism.”

Nutritional Support for bone - maintaining a strong skeleton

The expression ‘no foot no horse’ should perhaps be extended to cover all the bones of the skeleton, for as far as racehorses are concerned, without strength and durability in this area a trainer’s job is fraught with difficulties. The number of training days lost to lameness in a season is testament to this. A racehorse’s diet should help to maintain the skeletal system during rigorous training. This task is no doubt easier when the skeletal foundations have been firmly laid in utero and during the rapid growing phase.

The formation of cartilage and its subsequent conversion to bone ‘proper’ is one of the key processes to highlight. Long bones develop in the foetus from early bone templates that are composed entirely of cartilage. Conversion of cartilage to bone occurs initially within a central area of ossification (bone formation) within the long bones, known as the diaphysis and then also at each end of the bone (epiphysis). There are various abnormalities that can occur during the development of bones and joints that may involve problems during the localised conversion of cartilage to bone, or with bone lengthening, or changes within the bone after it has formed, once a horse has commenced training. Nutrition is only one of many factors involved in DOD Osteochondrosis (OCD) involves disruption to the normal conversion of cartilage to bone within the areas of ossification. For many years, researchers viewed nutrition as the key to OCD, however, it is now recognised that genetic predisposition, body size and mechanical stress, as well as trauma are all additional factors that must be considered.

Whilst diets that simply oversupply energy have been demonstrated to increase the incidence of OCD, the previously hypothesised causal link with excessive protein intake has not been proven. This suggests that the source of the energy in feed is an important issue. Recent research supports this, as it has been reported that diets with a high glycemic nature, i.e. those with a high starch and sugar content (typical of the more traditional stud and youngstock rations), appear to be more likely to trigger OCD. However, one would suspect that this would be more apparent in genetically susceptible animals. Many mineral imbalances in the diet have also been implicated as causative factors in OCD, but few have any strong evidence to support their role. For example, OCD lesions have been reproduced experimentally in foals maintained on a very high phosphorus intake.

This type of diet could arise inadvertently by feeding straight cereals such as oats, without a suitable balancer or complementary feed such as alfalfa to redress the low calcium to phosphorus ratio in the grain. Less extreme versions of this diet could occur through excessive top dressing of ‘balanced’ coarse mix or cubes with additional cereals such as oats or barley, as is common practice in many yards. A low copper intake, especially during the last trimester of pregnancy, has also been implicated in OCD. Copper has received particular focus due to its functional role in the activity of a key enzyme involved in formation of the collagen cross-links. However, other trace minerals including manganese and zinc may be equally important during this key stage in a foal’s development in utero, as they are necessary co-factors for important enzymes involved in regulating cartilage metabolism. Blood tests that challenge the premise that horses are unaffected by molybdenum levels in grazing In grazing youngsters, a secondary copper deficiency can be caused by excessive molybdenum levels in pasture. In cattle, bacteria in the rumen form complexes between molybdenum and sulphur.

These thiomolybdate complexes will bind copper within the gut and when absorbed will then search out further copper to bind, either circulating in the blood or in association with copper dependent enzymes. This can severely impair the activity of some key enzymes involved in growth processes and cartilage turnover. However, as a horses gut is somewhat different from a cow’s, in that the hindgut (the equivalent of the rumen) is positioned after the small intestine and not before, there is theoretically less opportunity for these thiomolybdates to be absorbed and ‘cause trouble’. At least this is what has been largely accepted from previous studies in horses that focussed on plasma copper levels and copper absorption. However, new blood tests that can be used to measure the activities of key copper dependent enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), in conjunction with traditional measurements of plasma copper status and the presence of thiomolybdate complexes suggest that this may not always be the case.

Dr Stewart Telfer of Telsol Ltd, routinely carries out such tests in cattle and has to date analysed about 100 samples in horses suspected of having an issue with molybdenum interactions. He says, “From our work, it is clear that horses do suffer from molybdenum (thiomolybdate) toxicity. The interactions between copper, iron, molybdenum and sulphur will take place in the horse’s gut and in certain situations, not always linked to a high molybdenum intake, will result in the horse suffering from molybdenum (thiomolybdate) toxicity. Dr Telfer however, acknowledges that only relatively small numbers of samples in horses have been tested and the laboratory does not currently have a definitive reference range for horses. Calcium and phosphorus may be mobilized from bone to compensate for ‘acidic diets’ When yearlings first move into training yards, they usually experience a significant change in their diet that has consequences for bone metabolism during this period in their lives when some continued growth occurs and the skeletal system is put under considerable strain. In general terms, a ‘stud diet’ has what’s called a high dietary anion to cation ratio (DCAB).

This is largely due to the high inclusion of ingredients like soya and forages. A ‘full race training diet’ on the other hand tends to have a much lower DCAB (is more acidic) due to the reduction in forage intake and higher inclusion of cereals such as oats. The significance of a low DCAB is that it reduces the efficiency of calcium absorption and retention within the body and may contribute to the reduction in bone density seen in horses in early training. This surely is an argument for limiting the intake of cereals and maximising forage intake during the early stages of training when a high cereal intake is largely unnecessary. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the horse's body, with the majority being present in the skeletal system. Phosphorus is also found in large amounts in bone in close association with calcium.

A racehorse’s diet should provide an adequate intake of both minerals but also needs to provide a balanced calcium to phosphorus ratio of near to 2:1. Although exercise demands a slight increase in calcium intake above the requirements for maintenance, this is usually satisfied by the generalised increase in feed intake. However, the efficiency with which individual horses absorb calcium varies and should certainly be investigated when a calcium-related issue arises. This can be achieved by examining an individual horse’s calcium and phosphorus status, by looking at the diet and also within the body using a creatinine clearance test. Topdressing – a national pastime When using straight feeds, or when topdressing ‘straights’ onto a ‘balanced’ racing mix or cubes, be aware that certain types of feed are much higher in calcium relative to phosphorus and vice versa (see table). Alfalfa, with its high calcium to phosphorus ratio, makes an ideal partner for cereals, which are low in calcium relative to phosphorus. Conversely, the traditional combination of oats and bran is not ideal, as it combines two feeds, which are low in calcium.

Remember that you can use a supplement or feed balancer to carefully correct any deficiencies or imbalances when feeding straights. Equally excessive addition of oats to a balanced mix or cube can decrease the calcium to phosphorus ratio sufficiently to cause problems. Most commercial mixes or cubes have sufficiently high calcium to phosphorus ratios to practically be able to withstand the addition of 1-2kg of oats daily, however any increase beyond this is unwise without further corrective measures. Feeds High in Calcium &Low in Phosphorus Feeds Low in Calcium & High Phosphorus Alfalfa Oats Sugar Beet Barley Seaweed Maize Wheat Bran Horses have a complex regulatory system, involving certain hormones, for ensuring that the proportion of calcium in the body, relative to that of phosphorus, remains stable and that the level of active or ‘ionised’ calcium in the blood remains within tight limits. If for one reason or another the level of calcium relative to phosphorus in the blood drops, a number of safety systems will be triggered to redress the balance. Bone acts as a reservoir of both calcium and phosphorus, which can be drawn on when necessary. The body's balance of calcium and phosphorus is continually 'corrected' by either conservation or loss of calcium or phosphorus in the urine, via the kidneys or through the skeletal system. Sustained calcium and phosphorus imbalance can, however, contribute to developmental orthopaedic diseases (DOD) in young horses, or lameness and sometimes bone fractures in mature horses. Research shows silicon is a trace mineral worth a second look.

Moving on to a less well-recognised trace mineral as far as bone is concerned, there has been some interesting research carried out into the effects of supplemental silicon in the racehorse’s diet. Silicon is a natural constituent of plants and provides structure and rigidity to some of their cell walls. It therefore forms a natural part of the horse’s diet, however, the availability in horse feed is apparently limited. Silicon plays a role in the development of new bone and is also important for the calcification process. It is therefore a relevant micronutrient for horses in training, as bone is dynamic and is constantly undergoing change, in response to forces placed upon it during the training process.

Research carried out by Dr Brian Nielsen at Michigan State University in the early nineties reported a dramatic decrease in injury rates in quarter horses fed a bioavaiable form of silicon as sodium zeolite A. This program of research has also established that the silicon is available to foals via the milk of supplemented mares. However, thus far the group have not uncovered the mechanism by which the beneficial effects of silicon are brought about. However, the form in which sodium zeolite A is fed (a chalk like powder) and the level of intake used in these studies (about 200g per day for a 500kg horse) makes it impractical to use as a feed supplement unless it can be incorporated within a feed pellet. In conclusion, attention to those factors within the diet that support bone turnover is likely to contribute to a reduction in injuries observed, however, the implementation of appropriate training techniques and use of suitable training surfaces also has a huge impact on the durability of horses in training in comparative terms.

Johnny Jones - we profile the legendary Kentucky horseman

When John T.L. Jones Jr. props his cowboy boots up on his desk, he leaves behind the mud accumulated from 72 years of being the Jones to keep up with. Unlike the speedy Quarter Horses that jump-started his livelihood by making a mad dash to the finish line, Jones’ ascent in the racing industry has taken him several circuits around the racecourse.

Jones spent nearly 30 years at the helm of Walmac International, presiding over the successful stallion careers of dual Arc winner Alleged and the great sire Nureyev before selling the farm to his son Johnny III and business partner Bobby Trussell. Retirement was short-lived as Jones soon fell back on his roots to train a small string of horses. In between running a couple of two-year-olds at the fall meet at Keeneland, he took some time to sit down and think back on his years in the business.

When you sold Walmac in 2004, you could have chosen to do anything, or nothing for that matter. What influenced your decision to train again?

My good friend R.D. Hubbard said to go buy some yearlings and I wanted to supervise them through at least their first year to know kind of what I got. I haven’t really supervised that kind of thing for 35 years. But I enjoy it. I guess I just have an addiction to horses. I like them! To be honest with you I don’t know how long I’m going to train.

Your father was in the insurance business. Did he want you to follow in his footsteps?

Not particularly. We’d had horses since I was a boy, I mean, as far back as I can remember. He got interested in Quarter Horses and registered his first horse in 1945, so I just grew up with it. He was a businessman, but still we always had a farm and had horses and so I had an interest. Then when I went to college, I played golf and got away a little bit from the horses because I was gone all the time. When my dad passed away in 1958 he had probably 25 or 30 head of Quarter Horses. So basically I started devoting all my time to horses right after my father died.

So how does one begin the journey from humble origins with Quarter Horses in Quanah, Texas to syndicate manager for some of the world’s most valuable Thoroughbred stallions?

I ended up joint venturing a deal on my farm in 1965 and when my partner got into a financial bind that carried me with him I lost everything I had. When you wake up one day with four children and no money, you’d better get your ass to work. I went to the track and started training for Walter Merrick in 1966.

Had you had any introduction, formal or otherwise, to training?

No.

So from the first day you started training horses you just went on instinct?

Well, Mr. Merrick was a legendary horseman but he never had much input. What he basically told me is that little things win races. In other words, that everybody knows to feed them, everybody knows to gallop them, everybody knows to work them, the details are what make the difference between the people that win and the others. Most of what I learned was trial and error. So I won races all the time, everywhere I went. First started off with match racing, and we won most of them.

Where was that, at bush league tracks?

You’d pull up in a trailer and a guy would say, what have you got and how far do you want to go? You’d bet $500 or $1000. I started doing that every weekend instead of playing golf.

I got into it because a cowboy was badgering me one time so I went down by the wheat field and grated off about 3/8’s of a mile, just turned around and let the horse run. We got to hauling down there to those little old straightaway tracks. Most of them were bred to run; well the horse I started out with was out of a half-Thoroughbred mare. Originally he was meant to be a parade horse for a friend of mine’s boy. That was in 1962 or ’63, first time that he’d ever been on an official – by that I mean pari-mutuel – track. His name was Gold Nugget Sims. The first time I’d ever been to an official track and he ran second and I was thrilled. I went and got them to give me a picture of him being second.

It was about a $300 purse. I was in the paddock that night and it was hotter than Hades up in Oklahoma, 240 miles from where I lived. So I was in the paddock and I was nervous and I’d never been in a paddock before like that. The paddock judge came out and said, “Rain’s over!” I said, huh? It was so hot and not a cloud in the sky... He said, “Reins over!” and I went oh! and threw the reins over the horse’s head.

I think you’ve learned a lot since then!

I’ve learned most of it by trial and error. Still making errors!

At this point your main focus was on Quarter Horses. Did you win any major races?

The biggest Quarter Horse race I won was the Kansas Futurity in 1967 with Jet Smooth for Mr. Merrick. I did train some cheaper, New Mexico Thoroughbreds for him, too.

How and when did you transition to Thoroughbreds?

I went to work for a fellow named Marvin Warner in Cincinnati. He gave me the freedom and the financial backing to do what I thought was the best in the horse business. In 10 years he never bought a horse and he never sold a horse. Now, had I not been producing, had I not been making money, I’d have been back in Texas chopping cotton. But he enabled me to accomplish something or use my knowledge to accomplish something where 99% of owners like that that don’t know anything about the business start thinking they know and it’s all an odds game anyway. He enjoyed the game, he enjoyed going to the races and never injected what he thought about the horses. I had pretty much a free rein and we were fortunate enough to do well. It just gives you an edge, it just gives you the advantage of over a period of time being right more times than you’re wrong. ‘Cause in the horse business you’re going to be wrong a lot of times. So, that’s really where I was lucky with Mr. Warner because he just gave me a free rein. He looked at the balance sheet and as long as that was good he allowed me to go to Europe, he allowed me to go anywhere I wanted to go. Not many people have that opportunity.

Training horses at River Downs in Ohio in the late 1970’s, you were in a good spot to observe the fledgling career of Steve Cauthen.

[Steve’s father] Tex was our horseshoer. I wasn’t paying much attention and I’d already made a deal with a jock at River Downs to ride our horses when Steve started riding and I couldn’t really get out of that commitment because I wanted to do what I’d said I’d do. I rode Steve some when he first started out. But then when he went to New York we’d sent horses to Chuck Taliaferro [for Marvin Warner] and since his family knew Chuck – we were all kind of family – well Steve went up and stayed with Chuck when he got really rolling.

Why did you leave training?

I figured out if I was ever going to be a factor in the industry it was going to be through stallions but I didn’t have any money; I had to get into something where I could use other people’s money. A man told me a long time ago that in the stallion business, people are calling you – you’re not having to call them. In other words, you can gather a lot of information in all facets of the industry by just picking people’s brain when they call asking about a stallion or something. I knew where I wanted to be but I didn’t know exactly how to get there. I thought with some of the older, established farms, I thought at that time there was a little spot for a younger farm. Brereton Jones had just got started and most of the other farms around here had just one stallion, except for Claiborne, Spendthrift and Gainesway. In all honesty, I’ve known a lot of people in my life that worked very hard and were good horsemen but never did have the break.

What is the most difficult part of being a trainer?

Training horses is somewhat of a mundane life. In other words, as Walter Merrick taught me, the little things win races. For example, there will be a few seconds, a few minutes of highs…the majority of what a trainer goes through are negatives. He’s got a horse that’s coming up a little off, or not doing what he expects of him, or enters it in a race but only one horse can win.

That’s probably less true of trainers at the top level with a barn full of stakes-quality horses. There is quite a dichotomy between the Todd Pletchers and everyone else.

For some of these fellows it’s somewhat of a system to run a business rather than training and teaching the individual horse. The horse adapts to a system and if he doesn’t they really don’t have time for him, especially when they’ve got horses at five different locations. That’s also different from the way I came up. Thirty, forty horses was the most anybody had. Most owners had their own personal trainer; the Whitneys had their trainer, Spendthrift had their trainer, Claiborne had their trainer. Very few have that now; they’ve either got their horses scattered or they’ve got them in a huge stable with somebody.

We’re talking about a very small minority of the trainers. But even in Europe, I think, most of the bigger stables are still geared towards the personal aspect and trainers are able to feel their horses’ legs every night and know about every little niggling problem as it happens.

With major trainers in America today, probably a lot of them know exactly what is going on but they have to hear it from somebody else. Their system is excellent, but the owners don’t have the personal touch. It used to be a much more social atmosphere, a personal atmosphere rather than all business. They have a very, very good system but they can’t possibly be as involved like the trainers of the old days. You used to see pictures of old Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons sitting on a stool running cold water on a horse’s legs. You don’t see much of that with your high-profile trainers anymore.

Sure you do, right after their horse has won the Kentucky Derby! But that makes for a great photo op.

That’s it.

What differences have you noticed between the horse of today and his ancestors?

The horses are much more fragile than they were 30 years ago. Horses that had stamina were more acceptable in American racing until the advent of the two-year-old sales. A huge part of our market is to pinhook into the two-year-old sales so that requires speed. With so many buyers looking for speed people are breeding for it. The faster horses run the more liable they are to break down so I think that probably we’re breeding less sound horses. Not many people want to buy a horse and wait for him to make his first start at three; they want it now.

Of course I have to ask, what do you think of the Polytrack?

Polytrack, well, nobody knows for sure but I do know one thing, it’s much easier on horses. I think it will probably in a number of years have an effect on how we breed horses. They say that grass horses like the Polytrack. I think to a certain extent – obviously there’s no absolute to this business – I do think it will give horses with stamina more opportunities and it’s safer for the horses. Everybody likes it. I give Rogers Beasley a lot of credit for pushing them [to install the Polytrack at Keeneland]. First of all, it’s safer. It’s just safer. Plus, you don’t have the days when your racetrack’s a soupy mess.

Is there anything you don’t like about artificial surfaces?

One thing I do think is that all the tracks going to that surface should use the same material. Not with any prejudices to any manufacturer but just to make everything the same. I haven’t experienced any of the others so I can’t say accurately but I would say it would have been better if they had been all the same. And they may be all so similar that it doesn’t make any difference.

And its overall effect?

It’s much easier on a horse. A horse has got to be a little fitter, there’s going to be a little more emphasis on recognizing stamina in pedigrees. Five furlong horses that could go 6 furlongs or even a mile and a sixteenth are not going to do that on these surfaces. I think you’ll see horses lasting longer, I think you’ll see fuller fields. Fuller fields mean more pari-mutuel wagering so I think it’s all positive. If horses last longer owners have more chances to recoup money and to make money and it’s positive all the way down the line.

Another positive of the artificial surfaces is that horses are getting a hold of it leaving the gate. I think a lot of horses hurt themselves when they stumble or the ground breaks out from under them leaving the gate, bam! and they’re hitting it wrong and then they run around there and break down. I just think a lot of injuries are caused at the starting gate and with the new surfaces they get a hold of it, they don’t slip, and they go.

The recent Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit held at Keeneland included a presentation made by Wayne McIlwraith, D.V.M., in which he said that most breakdowns are due to pre-existing stress fractures or other such conditions. Would you like to see routine MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds become mandatory?

I guess you could regulate yourself clear out of business.

But if you’re saving your horse you’re keeping yourself in business.

Well but it’s going to come down to an opinion. It’s just like the vets vetting these horses that have a little chip here or a stress fracture or something that they’re not particularly sore on, but it’s there. One vet says don’t run it, the next vet says it’s okay to run. If you want to just have a nightmare, try to do something like that.

What is your stance on the ever-controversial drug and medication policy in the U.S.?

Overall I think racing is good. I think we’ve gone overboard in not allowing some analgesic-type drugs to be used on horses. I imagine the people who are saying that horses should run on oats and hay are taking eight pills a day for themselves to get through the day. I don’t think it’s fair; analgesics are just comfort-type drugs. They’re athletes, just like baseball players or football players, and narcotics and steroids are not good but I think drugs like Lasix and Banamine and stuff like that are fine. It’s like someone getting up in the morning and taking an Advil for their headache. I don’t think they’ll ever solve the problem. We’ve got too many jurisdictions and everybody wants to be the hero. By the time they figure out what one guy’s using he’s going to come up with another [drug], and it’s almost impossible; they may know something’s in a test but they can’t tell you what it is.

How would you deal with this issue?

There are two things that could probably stop a huge part of it. Number one, the jurisdiction should know what’s in the truck of a veterinarian pulling in on the backside. No point in having certain drugs in your truck, or they could have a dispensary for specific drugs that could be signed out. I also think – I know it’d be expensive – but if they think people are doing something illegal – they take your picture most anywhere now, anytime you go to the bank to cash a check you get your picture taken, or go to the convenience store, everybody’s getting their picture taken. So, if they really want to do something about it they should just put some monitors in the barn. Then they’ll know who’s in the barn at all times.

But you can’t see what they’re giving them.

If you know what’s in their truck, you’d know that they don’t have any business with certain drugs. I just think you’ve got to try to stay away from anything that is going to endanger a horse’s health but analgesic medications, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Let’s hear your thoughts on another sensitive subject, the horse slaughter ban bill awaiting Senate approval.

I think it is going to be a major problem in the logistics of it if they go ahead and pass this horse slaughter ban. There’s nobody that loves horses better than I love horses. And if I want to take care of my horse, turn him out and retire him and let him die of old age, that’s my business. If I want to support an organization that does that, that’s my business. I shouldn’t try to legislate what somebody else does with their property. Not just the Thoroughbred industry – there’s millions of horses. I don’t know what they think that they’re going to do with all of them because it’s just going to compound. That’d be like turning them out on the roadside only to get killed by people running over them. Which is worse, letting a horse go to slaughter or letting him starve to death? That has to do with the difference between being emotional and being realistic.

Either way, people are looking for absolution instead of taking responsibility. Slaughtering the horses just makes room for more and it creates a snowball effect. Stasis will only make things worse because people will feel encouraged to continue to breed as though there is no moral dilemma.

The government cannot take responsibility for what we do. We have to be responsible for our own morality and what we do with things. We can’t have the government telling us every move, whether it’s moral or immoral or what it is. I could argue both sides of the coin. It’s pretty silly to a certain extent to spend all that money they’re raising to save retired horses when the same guy walks down the backstretch and sees little kids in the tack rooms with no money and does very little for them.

John Gaines credited you with breaking down the dissension that threatened to keep the Breeders’ Cup from becoming a reality. Are you satisfied with how it has matured in these 23 years?

Give him credit, I thought Mr. Gaines was very innovative. And I think that once we got it organized and were able to appease the different factions, I think [the Breeders’ Cup has] been a tremendous success. If you went through the list of buyers at the Keeneland Summer Sale in like 1970, none of them were from Europe but I suspected that the game was going to get global in the early Seventies with global transportation and ease of getting horses over here. You could fly one over here from England about as quick as you can fly it to California – definitely faster than you can van it out there. So I thought it was going to be a global thing and I thought that it would put the spotlight on a special day, at least have another venue that the public could attach itself to rather than just the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont if you happen to have something that might win the Triple Crown.

What improvements would you suggest?

We probably need to take a step further, which I think we’re doing, by creating venues leading to the Breeders’ Cup. It could be a venue in England or Ireland or France or anywhere. I don’t think you can really create any public excitement without events. People always follow crowds. People aren’t going to NASCAR just to see cars running around, they’re waiting on a wreck and to people-watch. The biggest thing about the Derby is, number one, it’s the Derby. Number two, people go to people-watch 150,000 people. People like crowds.

You don’t think that these additional venues will detract from the Breeders’ Cup?

No no no. Not if you start soon enough, it’s just like football and baseball and basketball, they all have playoffs.

Do you think you have any Breeders’ Cup-caliber horses in your barn?

I’ve got two or three of them working like they’re nice horses. A Chester House colt looks like a good one, the same for a Holy Bull colt and a Cat Thief colt who rapped a tendon – it’s minor but I’m giving him some time – I think he might be a good colt. The rest of them I think might be just ordinary.

How many horses do you have in training?

We’ve got about fifteen, all 2-year-olds.

Did you buy any yearlings at the sales this year?

No, but I’ve got three I bred that will go into training.

You’ve had a winner from only a handful of starters, but it didn’t run in your name! How did that happen?

I wasn’t licensed in Ohio so I just let my assistant trainer Ricky Castilleja get his license and he was down as the trainer. I had a filly run third at Saratoga but I’d sent her to Patrick Biancone for the meet and I’ve since sent her to Mike Doyle at Woodbine because she’s a Canadian-bred. I don’t care whether it’s in my name or somebody else’s. I was in San Antonio all winter every day just about and then Keeneland in April, and went to Turfway after that. I’ve got an excellent assistant, and I talk to him twice a day.

Will you continue to train for the foreseeable future?

If I don’t have three or four nice horses by the end of Churchill I’ll probably send them to another trainer.

And then what? Play golf? Go to Barbados?

I’ll just spend more time at my ranch in Oklahoma. I like the cattle. I’ve enjoyed this and I have no complaints. It’s just that I’ve been doing it for forty-something years.

You can only get so far even by being in the right place at the right time, so how do you explain your success?

In a nutshell, I’ve been lucky. But I was paying attention.

TRM Trainer of the Quarter - Brian Meehan

The TRM Trainer of the Quarter goes to Brian Meehan. For the second time in 2006, a horse from the Brian Meehan stable gave his trainer a success on one of the sports elite days, when Red Rocks landed the John Deere Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs on November 4th.

Editorial Writer (European Trainer - Issue 16 / Winter 2006)

Tom Tate - we profile the Yorkshire trainer

"I am a developer of horses, and all my horses are for sale”. These words, by Tom Tate, soon give you a balanced view of the Yorkshire trainer when you first meet him. Tate, who has 36 boxes at his two farms in Tadcaster, may come across as a very careful, conservative man. But he is also a gambler.

”It is not always economically wise”, he says, “but, yes, I own a few horses myself. I often buy yearlings hoping to pass them on to my clients or sell them on to others when they have raced a bit”. Tate is not a ‘factory type’ of trainer but improving the product, increasing the value of horseflesh, is very much a part of his job. And racing them on anything but turf to achieve the goals, is seldom, very seldom, an option.

A former amateur jumps rider for 22 years, who partnered some of Tony Dickinson’s best chasers, such as Silver Buck, Badsworth Boy and Bregawn, switched his business interests from cars to horses. Originally from Leeds, Tate tells us how he, like so many in this sport, had a very early start to what was to become a career and a lifestyle. “I was competing at pony shows from about eight”, he explains, “and I was a competitive show jumping rider as a teenager, but moved my attention to racing as soon as I could. Which was a bit late, as I wanted to get my business going first”.

Tate set up as a trainer in 1969, first as a permit holder, training only his own horses. Married to Michael Dickinson’s sister Hazel in 1972, he soon became involved in better horses and his family is horse people through ad through. “My sister Frances Walwyn is a keen endurance rider”, he says, “I don’t know why, but she enjoys that, and has won abroad. We are an equestrian family”. Tate’s two sons, Richard, a business man, and James, a veterinarian working for Mark Johnston, are both amateur steeplechase riders.

The Yorkshire man, who sent out the 7-year-old Welsh Emperor to win the Hungerford Stakes (G2) at Newbury and go very close to winning the Prix de la Foret (G1) at Longchamp this year, has what he calls “a small, but very specialist operation. We have excellent facilities, with two miles of grass gallops, an indoor riding school and an all-weather gallop. ”

“I have everything I need”, he says.

With his background as a jumps rider, Tate first trained hurdlers and chasers. “I still prefer jumping”, he says, “it is more of a sport, but we now have nearly 80 per cent flat horses. Flat racing is the reality of the business, jump racing is not as economically viable.”

Tate never considered turning professional in the saddle. “I was having my businesses at the time, in the motor retailing trade, and never thought about becoming a jockey. Nowadays, however, horses are my business.”

The team is relatively small but may expand. “My maximum number of horses is now 36”, Tate says, “but I have started thinking about having more boxes built. Since I have gone flat racing it has all changed, it is a different job, really, as there is more turnover. We have gradually edged towards the flat. The jumping is closer to my heart but it does not compare with the flat from the business aspect. We also always get some jumping horses from the flat team because I buy big, strong horses – some of them are too slow for the flat!”

Tate has no particular geographical preference when it comes to buying horses; “I go to all the major sales”, he explains, “I buy yearlings mainly. I also like the German horses, and have bought around twenty or thirty horses at the Baden-Baden sales over the past three to four years. The best one is a horse called Gardasee, who is quite a good hurdler”. The 4-year-old Gardasee, a son of Dashing Blade, finished fourth in the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle (LR) at the Cheltenham Festival this spring.

“There are some nice horses from Germany, they are tough, solid horses from good family and they stay well. France have a big staying breed as well, people should not be surprised when the English buy all their jumps horses. I am a big fan of French bred horses too. Normally I buy at Deauville, although I got involved with the AQPS people down in the middle of France, and got very impressed by their approach. This is the organisation for non-thoroughbred horses, but they are thoroughbreds really - in a separate stud book. They are a fine type of horses, and often cheaper. French horses are cheaper flat and jumps, it is only the upper international end of the market which has a different value.”

The 36 horses trained at Castle Farm stables are mainly racing for private owners, “most of my owners are millionaires”, Tate says with a smile, “as I stand here today I have four or five good owners and I have managed to get them all a Group class horse or a winner at a big meeting. We have not gone into the racing club or syndicate market. It all began with jumping of course, Lo Stregone, one of my best chasers, was among the favourites for the 1997 Grand National, won 13 races. We also had a Tingle Creek winner, called Ask Tom, another I bought as a young horse. My objective is to find a young horse with a future, and be working long term. To be able to do that, you must have a very good relationship with the owners. As sometimes you do not hit it very sharp. My owners are also close friend.”

My father in law, Tony Dickinson, was a very good judge of a horse, and he was who I learnt from first. It is very hard to explain what you are looking for in a horse, or what you like. I have never used a bloodstock agent, by the way, always bought my horses based on my judgement.  Sometimes I buy horses with a fault that I think, or at least hope, the horse will be able to live with. There are very few perfect specimens. You need a certain financial strength in this business, but time and time again we have seen that finding a top horse has little to do with money.

“Welsh Emperor is the best horse I have trained, since switching to the flat six years ago. Before him, Another Bottle would probably be the best.”

Welsh Emperor, who was an 8,500 guineas yearling, has won 10 of his 48 races to date. Another Bottle, a top end handicapper, won five races.

Tate feels that the training of flat horses is totally different to training jumpers. “Jumpers are a much bigger beast, and financially it is quite an act of faith o own a jumper, as it takes longer before you get an idea of the horse’s ability, and even longer before you get some results. With flat horses, you get an idea when they are yearlings, and you can get a result for a client within months. It is much more decisive, whereas jumping is still a little bit of a labour of love.”

All Tate’s horses go out for at least an hour to an hour and a half for their daily training, flat horses and jumpers. They also spend much time out in small fields or paddocks. One can’t do that daily with every horse but Tate says he will do it if I can. Welsh Emperor, for instance, spends most of his mornings outside. Such luxuries are seldom possible for trainer with 100 horses or more. The expansion here will not go further than to around a team of 50 horses, which Tate feels is a manageable number.

“This year I buy 15 yearlings”, he says, “but 20 would be a good number. I am interested in quality, not quantity, and I am interested in good value - and getting Group horses”.

Tate’s ambition is to “up the quality while we also up the quantity a bit” and get even better horses. When talking about the sport in general, he soon comments on the current situation with more poor quality horses in training. “Racing has multiplied”, he says, “giving us more moderate horses, and I do not think that is a good trend”.

Does he race his horses on the all-weather tracks?

“Well, reluctantly. I have done it but I do not like it. Nobody goes! And what suits the horse best is good grass courses. Some horses stand it better than others, but if you keep turning them out on these artificial surfaces, they do suffer from strains on their joints.”

Tate is comparing all-weather racing to racing exclusively on turf, and is adamant that turf is much better. When we move on to talking about the North American circuit, he says: “I only know dirt racing through my brother in law Michael Dickinson, who tells me that the attrition rate out there is diabolical. Of course, they will improve the situation by racing on artificial surfaces, because it is better than dirt. But you cannot beat good turf courses. In these islands, we can grow good turf, which is not possible everywhere in the world, and it would be a big, big sin if we all go to all-weather racing. It would be a lazy man’s way, really, and no cheaper, because they do wear out and need replacing. You can’t kid yourself, but obviously there is a place for it. Some horses are very well suited by all-weather tracks, but there needs to be a good, sensible balance between turf and all-weather fixtures.”

The Yorkshire trainer feels that the importance of “keeping the sport enjoyable“.

“It is a great spectacle, and that is how it should be sold to the public, he says. “It is a red-blooded sport, it is a great day out, but racing is also a traditional sport. It wants to be a fun day, with horses at the centre of it. It lifts our lives out of the ordinary, it is a theatre thing, really, and people identify with that. One of my sayings is that everybody is a king for a day with a good horse. The owner, the trainer, the jockey, and the groom – even you, if you backed him!”

Tate is northern regional chairman of the National Trainers’ Federation. On the day after we visit Castle Farm Stables, the yard has one runner at Nottingham and one at Huntingdon. Both will run without Tate present, as he has a federation meeting. “It takes up quite a bit of time, really”, he smiles, “and this is a job nobody wants!”

So, why did the Tadcaster trainer take it? “Because it is important, and the sport is bigger than me. Also, I felt that, with many years of experience, I had something to offer. Someone was needed when I went into this role and I have been involved in racing all my life. I have enjoyed it, I am enjoying it, and I want to give something back”.

Next year, Tate will be the president of the National Trainers Federation, and he is very passionate about the work trainers are doing. “It it at a developmental stage”, he explains, “and unless we do a proper job, racing is in danger. Our sport is at the mercy of commercial forces. This will not necessarily produce good results for the thoroughbred. There seems to be a lack of understanding of the sport, at the BHB / BHA. Take an example, we are now experiencing a severe lack of two-mile chases in the program book. So, I have to make a lot of phone calls, take everyone’s view, get them across, explain the situation, and try my best to improve it. Yes, it does take up a lot of time.”

Any spare time for this trainer is spent on skiing trips in the winter, “normally to Zermatt”, and he is also a hunting man, “I nowadays particularly like grouse shooting when I get the opprtunity”, he explains, “ I do not get a lot of spare time but I enjoy doing what I do.” Well, a day at Castle Farm Stables, after spending a day with Tate’s small, very relaxed team, one can tell. Everyone, be it on four or two legs, is enjoying the daily routines – often a key to success.

Holiday Wishes

The New Year Brings New Benefits to California’s Trainers and Their Employees.

This edition brings news of two Christmas bonuses for trainers in California. The first is an accident and disability policy that will be provided without cost to trainers who are in the CHSA Workers’ Compensation Program. Trainers who are injured at the workplace are not covered by workers’ compensation because employers are routinely excluded from such coverage. Fortunately, because of the financial success of our program, we are about to announce a policy that will provide accident and disability coverage for trainers. This coverage will be at no cost to participants and will provide up to $500,000 in medical benefits and $200 in weekly wage loss indemnity for up to two years. It is anticipated that additional coverage will be available for a very small premium. We are hoping to announce the rollout of the program by January 1, 2008.

The second bonus is another increase in the amount contributed from each ADW wager to the CTT Backstretch Pension fund. The Plan was originally funded through a transfer of 1% of the purse pool. When the original ADW bill was passed in 2002, that amount was increased by an additional takeout from the ADW wagers. In 2006, that additional contribution equaled approximately $110,000 for the CTT Pension Fund. In the most recent version of ADW legislation, the Jockey Guild and the CTT were able to negotiate an additional .00295 percent of ADW bets that will be shared by the CTT Pension Fund, the CTHF, and the Jockey’s newly created pension fund. It is estimated that this could bring an additional $500,000 or more in revenue to the CTT Pension Fund annually. In summary, the CTT pension fund should now receive total contributions of approximately $2,300,000 per year. This fund, which benefits trainers and backstretch workers, is paid for in its entirety by the racing industry, and we continue to owe a debt of gratitude to all the racing associations and organizations that make this possible and that worked to attain the increased funding.
 
The message to trainers is, in order to qualify for maximum benefits at retirement, remember to sign up between February 2 and April 15 of each year. Also, encourage your eligible employees to sign up.
 
 It seems a New Year is not complete without a wish list, so here goes ours:
 
Lighter exercise riders
 
Heavier bettors
 
Old racing facilities that don’t close
 
New racing facilities that attract more fans
 
Faster training surfaces
Slower training surfaces
 
Whatever surfaces Bobby Frankel recommends
 
More protection for innocent trainers by the long-awaited final passage of the RMTC penalty guidelines that incorporate “mitigating circumstances” into the trainer-insurer rule
 
Legislators who are sympathetic to the needs of racing
 
A fair share of Advanced Deposit Wagering for purses
 
Stalls at the track where you wish to train
 
A never-ending supply of experienced grooms and hotwalkers
 
Condition books filled with the races you need at distances you need
 
A real cure for bowed tendons
 
A reasonably priced ulcer medication
 
Barns that don’t leak
 
Rail trips
 
More Gregson Foundation Scholarship applicants from Northern California
 
Increased California Thoroughbred Trainers Backstretch Pension Plan benefits
 
More television announcers like TVG’s Frank Lyons
 
AND a happy, healthy, and prosperous Holiday Season and New Year for all.

Edward I. Halpern, CTT Exec - ( 01 December 2007 - Issue Number: 6 )

Flunixin and Clenbuterol - changes in the CHRB rules

Two important amendments to CHRB rule 1844 became effective on October 20, 2007. The flunixin regulatory threshold was raised to 50ng/ml in blood form the previous 20ng/ml. This should have little impact in the day-to-day operation of most stables.

 A standard 500mg (10cc) IV dose at 24 hours seldom exceeds 20ng/ml in the average horse. The 50ng/ml level was established from administration studies with flunixin administered to 28 horses; all but a handful were thoroughbreds in race training at the track. The laboratory analysis was done by Dr. Scott D. Stanley at UC Davis and Dr. Rick Sams at Ohio State University. The results were statistically analyzed, and a flunixin level above 40ng/ml can be shown to be so improbable as to be unrealistic. The regulatory level was rounded up to 50ng/ml for California for simplicity and to add an additional margin of safety.
 
The second amendment to rule 1844 involves clenbuterol. The rule change gives the CHRB the ability to regulate clenbuterol in the blood as well as urine. The new regulation adds a 25 picograms/ml in blood threshold to the 5ng/ml threshold in urine. If either exceeds the threshold limit, there is a violation. This can have an impact on any trainer administering clenbuterol within 72 hours of race time. Administration of clenbuterol up to 72 hours at 5cc twice a day to the average-sized horse will not result in a violation in blood. We estimate between one-third to one-half of horses are at risk of exceeding 25 picograms/ml in blood from an administration at 48 hours and nearly 100% within 48 hours will results in a violation.  This is very different from the current clenbuterol level of 5ng/ml in urine, where a single dose within 48 hours could pass the post-race urine. That will no longer be the case.
 
Cobra Venom
 
All trainers should be familiar with CHRB rule 1867. The rule has been on the books for over 10 years and addresses prohibited practices. The rule specifically bans the possession of snake venom at CHRB facilities. The Kentucky equivalent to our rule was the basis for Patrick Biancone’s recent suspension. Biancone was suspended even though the cobra venom was found in a container marked as belonging to Biancone’s veterinarian, Dr. Stewart. Dr. Stewart’s container with the cobra venom was stored in a refrigerator in a tack room assigned to Biancone’s Kentucky stable. Biancone denied knowledge of the cobra venom, but was held responsible as it was found in his barn. Cobra venom has been used in the past by a number of trainers and veterinarians. Regardless, and so there is no question, California will be just as aggressive as Kentucky  in prosecuting any licensee found in possession of cobra venom or any other prohibited drug under rule 1867.  In addition to snake venom, erythropoietin (EPO) and darbepoietin (darb-EPO) are specifically identified in the rule.
 
In a somewhat related matter, the same Dr. Stewart from the Biancone cobra venom situation has a case pending in California for improper labeling of medications and practicing veterinary medicine at a CHRB facility without a CHRB license. This involves medication allegedly sent to California by Dr. Stewart related to Biancone’s salmeterol positive from January. Mr. Biancone was fined $10,000 and given a 15-day, stayed suspension, even though salmeterol is a Class III violation. Neither salmeterol administration nor salmeterol dispensing had been reported to the CHRB by his California veterinarians. Dr. Stewart is currently under suspension in California; his California case will be heard after the resolution of his Kentucky problems.
 
Law Change for Hearings of Class I, II, & III Violations
 
Governor Schwarzenegger has signed AB1616, which will change the way Class I, II, & III violations are adjudicated; the law is effective in January, 2008. The new law puts the hearing process back in the hands of the CHRB. For the last 8 years, a licensee could elect to go directly to the Office of Administrative Hearing (OAH) and bypass the CHRB with Class I, II, & III violations. OAH, especially in Southern California, often has a large backlog of cases and setting hearing dates has been problematic. Several CHRB cases have taken a year to get to hearing from the date of the violation. Both the CHRB and the licensee were forced into an expensive and slow process where no one benefits but the attorneys. Under 1616, there is an option of the hearing going before the stewards or an independent hearing officer. The CHRB envisions the hearings to take place at or near our racetracks to facilitate the process.  The goal is for the hearings to be scheduled, heard, and resolved much more quickly than is currently accomplished through OAH. 
 
Split Sample Procedures
 
A number of trainers have lost their opportunity to have their split samples tested under rule 1859.25 by not adhering to the deadlines expressly specified within the rule. Trainers need to take the deadlines in rule 1859.25 seriously if they intend to pursue a split sample analysis. There are two deadlines that must be met: The first is notifying the CHRB whether or not the owner or trainer wants a split sample analyzed. This must be done within 72 hours of the owner or trainer being notified of an adverse finding in the official sample. This is best done by notifying the Split Sample Custodian at the CHRB’s Sacramento office. That telephone number is 916-263-6050; the fax number is 916-263-6051. The notification needs to be accompanied by form CHRB-56 (Request to Release Evidence) and a check for $35 for handling and shipping expenses. The second deadline is completing arrangements with the split sample laboratory. There are nine (9) CHRB approved split sample laboratories. After the CHRB receives notification, the owner or trainer has five (5) days to finalize all arrangements with their chosen split sample laboratory. Each lab has somewhat different requirements to complete the process. This includes payment and any paperwork required by the laboratory. This is the licensee’s responsibility; it is not the CHRB’s.
 
The calculation of the deadlines gives the trainer more than adequate time to complete the process. The 72-hour (3-day) deadline to notify the CHRB of your decision to have a split sample analyzed begins the first working day after the licensee has been notified of the adverse finding and ends at the close of business on the third working day. For example, if you are notified on a Wednesday, the following Thursday, Friday, and Monday will constitute the 72 hours. If the CHRB has not been notified at the end of the workday on Monday, the licensee has missed the deadline. Similarly, with the above example and assuming the CHRB was notified on the Monday, the owner or trainer would have until the end of the following Monday to complete all arrangements with the chosen split sample laboratory. In the above example, the trainer would have 12 calendar days. This is more than enough time with any serious effort to meet the regulatory deadlines of 1859.25.
 
The Split Sample Custodian is willing to answer questions, but will not make the arrangements for you. The list of the nine (9) CHRB approved split sample laboratories is available through the Split Sample Custodian or the CHRB investigator handling the case. Keep in mind, most split sample labs are in earlier time zones than California. In addition, even though a lab is on the approved split sample laboratory list, it does not mean the laboratory can or will accept your sample. All racing laboratories experience workload constraints from time to time. This is especially true in the summer. In addition, the CHRB split sample laboratory contract requires that the lab can only accept a sample if they have the procedures and capability to confirm the target drug or medication at or below the level reported by the CHRB’s official laboratory. If they do not have that capability, they must decline the sample.
 
 
One other issue causes some confusion. The split sample is the property of the CHRB; it is not the property of the owner or trainer. In addition, the CHRB is the recipient of all reports generated by the split sample laboratory on any sample sent from the CHRB. Who pays for the analysis does not alter this. The owner or trainer requesting the split sample analysis will receive copies of all documents generated by the split sample lab. Nothing is hidden. Please be aware some labs will have additional charges for any report or documentation beyond the standard one- or two-page report confirming or not confirming the finding. The cost for any additional documentation or paperwork is the responsibility of the licensee. There may be additional charges for quantitative testing; quantitative testing provides drug levels. Depending on the drug, some quantitative testing is not important for the CHRB to proceed with a case, but may be important as a mitigating factor for the licensee during the subsequent hearing. All this needs to be finalized before the sample is shipped.
 
The CHRB does not consider an adverse finding by the official lab to constitute a positive until it is confirmed by the split sample lab. The exception is when a split sample is not requested or denied for not meeting rule 1859.25 deadlines or other requirements. Only then does the CHRB declare a positive and file a complaint.

Rick M. Arthur, DVM
 (01 December 2007 - Issue Number: 6)

Kenny McPeek on his love of pedigrees and importing horses from South America

By Caton Bredar

Kenny McPeek sounds just slightly frustrated.  At his home in Louisville, with an on-line copy of “Turf Brasil” on his lap-top, a file folder chock full of pedigree information and news clips on his desk, the Kentuckian is trying to find a buyer for a Brazilian filly he’s had his eye on for a while.

“She’s a 2-year-old champion.  She’s got a great pedigree.  For five hundred thousand, someone needs to buy this filly.”
Chances are, someone will, and it wouldn’t be shocking if that someone turned out to be McPeek.  While the trainer made his mark domestically with Thoroughbreds like Tejano Run, Take Charge Lady, and Belmont Stakes winner Sarava before he ever made his first intercontinental journey, McPeek has, for the past six years, carved out a niche traveling back and forth to South America, purchasing proven, grade I winners then importing them back to the U.S. with more than moderate success.
A case in point, Hard Buck, winner of the 2002 Gulfstream Park Handicap, was the first Brazilian champion according to McPeek, to capture a grade I event in his North American debut.   He was part of the first package of horses McPeek selected and brought back to race in the States.  They haven’t all turned out as fortuitously, he is quick himself to point out.  The mistake, the trainer believes, was in not buying high enough…not having a good enough horse to start with.  For the most part, he now shies away from the lesser or mediocre and tries to learn from his mistakes.  It would seem to be a mantra for the horseman who grew bored just a year ago, and retired from training, then “un-retired” this spring, after less than a year away from the game.
 With a recently purchased, state of the art training facility in Lexington, and a new, more global outlook on the sport, the man who self-admittedly has tried “just about everything” over the years to win races, is once again trying something entirely new.  In the process of re-inventing his training methods, he appears to be re-inventing himself as well.
A self-professed “hard-boot” born and bred in Bluegrass Country, McPeek is a somewhat unlikely student of the sport.  He claims to have been first attracted to racing through pedigrees, as a child delving into bloodlines, a passion that he holds true to, even today.  Mention a horse of yesteryear such as Tom Fool, and his eyes light up.  “The sire of Buckpasser,” he responds. 
Try a more recent runner closer to home.  “Tejano Run…a double shot of Man O War.  You knew, by virtue of that pedigree, what he was made like.  From there, it was just a matter of testing his talent.”
An avid reader, McPeek seems as enamored with the historical relevance of the topic of breeding, as he is the role it plays in the horses he trains.
“It’s such an interesting topic,” he says.  “The influences, the information, the statistics are all recorded.  For generations, records have been kept.  You can take any horse, look at the pedigree, see how many foals have been born, how many were bay or chestnut, how many ran long or short, on dirt or turf.  It’s a complete analysis of the breed.”
“It comes into play with any horse I ever buy,” he reveals.  “How he’s bred.  How he’s made.  And of course, you use pedigree in training, too.  Whether the horse is really made to be a particular type of horse, distance not sprint--how to run and when.  The bloodlines give you an idea of the long-term picture, rather than the short term.”
“Any trainer that doesn’t know about bloodlines,” the often outspoken trainer remarks,” doesn’t know about horses.”
McPeek lists Federico Tesio’s “Breeding the Race Horse”, first published in 1958 as mandatory reading for every Thoroughbred trainer.  “Speed in the Thoroughbred” also makes the McPeek top ten list.
“If you read that, you understand that horses were bred to cross deserts,” he offers.  “Long distances, as a breed, they’re not meant for speed so much as stamina.  So the key becomes to harness the speed and develop the stamina.”
“Take Charge Lady, for example, was too fast for her own good,” he continues, speaking of the grade I, 2002 Ashland Stakes winner.  “She was meant to run long but was so quick early.  I only ran her short the first time I ran her.”
“It might have ruined her,” he says, admitting, “I’ll go so far as to say that sometimes I will rush a horse to go long.  They’ll stay sounder that way.  I believe it makes them last longer.  If I do something well, that’s what it is, I think.  By getting them to run long, I allow their careers to extend.”
In an effort to extend the stable, McPeek ventured out internationally in 2002.  After rejecting several years of invitations, the now-44-year-old decided to take a trip to Brazil. 
“Up until then, I hadn’t found it was a necessity,” he explains.  “But there was an opening in the stable for more quality, older horses.  I asked my hosts to show me the best horses, and I would tell them what I was interested in.”
After looking at approximately 30 grade I or grade II proven stakes winners, McPeek found several he was attracted to by virtue of past performance, pedigree and type.  It’s a formula he still adheres to.
“It’s pretty much the way they’re made,” he says.  “A good horse is made a certain way.  I’m looking for a certain conformation type.  And I’m basically looking for long distance, turf horses.”
A college graduate with a degree in business administration, McPeek, not surprisingly, is also looking for the right price.  He says value, particularly in Brazil, is prevalent.
“Better than fifty cents on the dollar,” McPeek claims.  “There’s more value due to logistics.  Very few good horses are at the racetrack.  They’re spread out, they train at training centers four to six thousand feet above sea level.  From the airport, you drive two hours into the mountains and then cover the whole coastline.  It’ll whip you,” he admits.  “But the market is really pretty closed.”
Which makes it a buyers market, as far as McPeek’s concerned, and he’s taking full advantage.  “It would be next to impossible to get a grade I horse in the United States for half a million dollars,” he explains.  “For me, it’s a matter of budget and clientele.  But good horses are good horses.  It’s no different than doing a deal here at home.”
But there are a few differences, not the least of which was language.  “When you don’t speak the language, and you don’t know the place, it’s difficult,” he observes.  He tackled Portuguese with the same pragmatic approach with which he appears to approach most things.  “I took eight lessons on a CD and then made a commitment to write down every new word I heard,” McPeek explains.  “Then, if I didn’t understand something, I’d ask a friend.” 
He’s since expanded that network of friends to include several South American bloodstock advisors and agents, who watch races and look for horses on a year-round basis.  McPeek lists Alberto Figueiredo, a veterinarian and racing manager out of Sao Paolo as a key contact, and insists on having all prospective purchases examined in Brazil by U.S.-trained veterinarians, with X-rays digitally sent to Dr. Larry Bramlage for the final okay.
“This is a network I’ve had to build socially as well as professionally,” McPeek says.  “But these are people I completely trust.  The people of Brazil are a warm people—some of the nicest people I’ve ever been around.  They are passionate about racing, and if they’re your friend, they’re your friend for life.”
As for the horses themselves, the transition from South America to North is comparatively simple, according to McPeek.  After a nine-hour flight from Sao Paolo to Miami, the horses move into seven days of quarantine.
“That’s actually more difficult than shipping,” McPeek says.  “You don’t have any control, and you don’t have the same facilities as a top stable.  The flight is relatively easy, but in quarantine, a lot of them lose weight.”
McPeek relies on the transportation company, IRT, for the transport arrangements, claiming “they do a fantastic job.”  From there, the horses generally go to a farm in Ocala to recuperate for at least a couple weeks.
“The theory is six months to fully acclimate,” McPeek says.  “Hard Buck was the exception.  He acclimated quickly.  After five months, he ran and won five in a row.  But generally, it’s at least six months.  It’s particularly difficult on fillies.  And the more time they have, the better they do.”
And possibly the better the trainer will do, as well.  It was time, McPeek appeared to need himself last year, when he decided to leave the training profession despite more than 750 career winners and earnings in excess of $28 million.  After putting together a stable of close to 150 horses, with runners across the Midwest and East, McPeek claims to have grown weary—almost bored—with the day to day grind.
“There were lots of reasons that I quit, professionally and personally,” he says.  “After twenty years without missing a beat, I was tired.  I had too many horses in too many places.  It was something I had never envisioned.  I told my wife Sue, I had created Godzilla, and now I had to figure out how to feed him.”
But the monster wouldn’t rest for long. 
McPeek made the decision to retire in April, 2005 and spent several months traveling and focusing on his wife of ten years, Sue, and his 5-year-old daughter Jenna.  He continued his work as a bloodstock agent, and made several trips overseas, including to Australia.  For several months, it was enough.
“As an agent, I did well and stayed busy,” he says.  “But in December, it seemed slow.  By January, it was too slow.  February it was slow.  There hadn’t been a horse in Brazil that had caught my eye in about nine months.  I had purchased around six million dollars worth of horses for clients, but I didn’t feel the same satisfaction.  By late February, I put in for stalls at Keeneland.”
By April, McPeek was back at it, but with a different perspective.
“I don’t want to get too big, and I don’t want to be too stretched out.  I don’t want to be stabled in New York or Chicago,” he says.  “I want it a Kentucky thing, with horses in Lexington and Louisville.  I’m from here, I made my mark here, this is my home.  And I can stay closer to Sue and Jenna.”
He’s also back with a different set-up.  In addition to stalls at Churchill Downs, McPeek is in the process of developing his own training center in Lexington on a 115-acre parcel of land in northeastern Lexington.
“The evolution of the idea for the farm is complicated,” he says.  “I’d been to Brazil, to Argentina, Chile, India, England, Ireland, South Africa and Dubai.  I have to say that’s probably more than the average trainer has seen.”
“I’ve been to Newmarket several times,” he continues.  “And the options that trainers have there is eye opening.  It got me to thinking how training on U.S. racetracks, in many cases, can be so limited.  Internationally, there are better options.  There’s a better way.”
McPeek believed he saw the better way on a trip this spring to Australia, where he toured two major training facilities.  One belonged to Hall of Famer Lee Freedman, who, early in his career according to McPeek, had dealt with similar growing pains and had soured on the game.  When Freedman purchased his own property and started over, he became hugely successful.  Another of the trainers McPeek met was Colin Hayes.
“His place was way out of the way,” he says.  “But he’s one of the top trainers in Australia.  I started to piece together ideas from each of their training centers.  I wondered, will this work in the U.S., and I decided to find out.”
McPeek began looking for property before he got back to America.  He purchased what is now Magdalena Farm, named for the matriarch settler of the land, earlier this spring.  The property was formerly part of 505 Farms, and before that, historic Pillar Stud, a point not wasted on McPeek.
“There’s a horse cemetery on the property, some incredible horses are there.”  Sue, who assists her husband at the local sales, is researching the human history of the land.
But the McPeeks are looking to the future as well, with plans for 23 turn out paddocks and round pens, a European walker, larger than normal stalls, a mile and a half turf course grown from genetically designed seed.
“Options,” Kenny explains as the main benefit of the facility.  “Dirt, turf, right-handed, left-handed, up-hill and down.  And the ability to make my own schedule.”
Already, he’s made the change from seven days a week of training to one day —Sundays —off.
“I’m intrigued,” he says.  “I love horse racing, and seeing the different ways of doing it…always looking for ways to improve.  I think the old ways are inefficient and bad for horses.  They’re also bad for people. Change is good, but it’s usually difficult.”
“I want my stamp on it,” McPeek offers.  “I’m putting every bit of knowledge and energy I have into it, but there’s a real comfort in doing what I do.”
“I was clumsy when I started training, and I tried everything. I tried it all. I would do anything I could to try and get them to win. But I figured out the best way is to keep it simple.  I don’t believe in fancy medication. The more you complicate it the worse you make it.  Just keep them happy and sound, and go over with something left.”
“All horses are the same,” he concludes. “They all wear out eventually.”
But hopefully, not their trainers.

Johnny Jones - we profile the legendary Kentucky horseman

When John T.L. Jones Jr. props his cowboy boots up on his desk, he leaves behind the mud accumulated from 72 years of being the Jones to keep up with. Unlike the speedy Quarter Horses that jump-started his livelihood by making a mad dash to the finish line, Jones’ ascent in the racing industry has taken him several circuits around the racecourse.

Jones spent nearly 30 years at the helm of Walmac International, presiding over the successful stallion careers of dual Arc winner Alleged and the great sire Nureyev before selling the farm to his son Johnny III and business partner Bobby Trussell. Retirement was short-lived as Jones soon fell back on his roots to train a small string of horses. In between running a couple of two-year-olds at the fall meet at Keeneland, he took some time to sit down and think back on his years in the business.

When you sold Walmac in 2004, you could have chosen to do anything, or nothing for that matter. What influenced your decision to train again?
My good friend R.D. Hubbard said to go buy some yearlings and I wanted to supervise them through at least their first year to know kind of what I got. I haven’t really supervised that kind of thing for 35 years. But I enjoy it. I guess I just have an addiction to horses. I like them! To be honest with you I don’t know how long I’m going to train.
Your father was in the insurance business. Did he want you to follow in his footsteps?
Not particularly. We’d had horses since I was a boy, I mean, as far back as I can remember. He got interested in Quarter Horses and registered his first horse in 1945, so I just grew up with it. He was a businessman, but still we always had a farm and had horses and so I had an interest. Then when I went to college, I played golf and got away a little bit from the horses because I was gone all the time. When my dad passed away in 1958 he had probably 25 or 30 head of Quarter Horses. So basically I started devoting all my time to horses right after my father died.
So how does one begin the journey from humble origins with Quarter Horses in Quanah, Texas to syndicate manager for some of the world’s most valuable Thoroughbred stallions?
I ended up joint venturing a deal on my farm in 1965 and when my partner got into a financial bind that carried me with him I lost everything I had. When you wake up one day with four children and no money, you’d better get your ass to work. I went to the track and started training for Walter Merrick in 1966.
Had you had any introduction, formal or otherwise, to training?
No.
So from the first day you started training horses you just went on instinct?
Well, Mr. Merrick was a legendary horseman but he never had much input. What he basically told me is that little things win races. In other words, that everybody knows to feed them, everybody knows to gallop them, everybody knows to work them, the details are what make the difference between the people that win and the others. Most of what I learned was trial and error. So I won races all the time, everywhere I went. First started off with match racing, and we won most of them.
Where was that, at bush league tracks?
You’d pull up in a trailer and a guy would say, what have you got and how far do you want to go? You’d bet $500 or $1000. I started doing that every weekend instead of playing golf.
I got into it because a cowboy was badgering me one time so I went down by the wheat field and grated off about 3/8’s of a mile, just turned around and let the horse run. We got to hauling down there to those little old straightaway tracks. Most of them were bred to run; well the horse I started out with was out of a half-Thoroughbred mare. Originally he was meant to be a parade horse for a friend of mine’s boy. That was in 1962 or ’63, first time that he’d ever been on an official – by that I mean pari-mutuel – track. His name was Gold Nugget Sims. The first time I’d ever been to an official track and he ran second and I was thrilled. I went and got them to give me a picture of him being second.
It was about a $300 purse. I was in the paddock that night and it was hotter than Hades up in Oklahoma, 240 miles from where I lived. So I was in the paddock and I was nervous and I’d never been in a paddock before like that. The paddock judge came out and said, “Rain’s over!” I said, huh? It was so hot and not a cloud in the sky... He said, “Reins over!” and I went oh! and threw the reins over the horse’s head.

I think you’ve learned a lot since then!
I’ve learned most of it by trial and error. Still making errors!
At this point your main focus was on Quarter Horses. Did you win any major races?
The biggest Quarter Horse race I won was the Kansas Futurity in 1967 with Jet Smooth for Mr. Merrick. I did train some cheaper, New Mexico Thoroughbreds for him, too.
How and when did you transition to Thoroughbreds?
I went to work for a fellow named Marvin Warner in Cincinnati. He gave me the freedom and the financial backing to do what I thought was the best in the horse business. In 10 years he never bought a horse and he never sold a horse. Now, had I not been producing, had I not been making money, I’d have been back in Texas chopping cotton. But he enabled me to accomplish something or use my knowledge to accomplish something where 99% of owners like that that don’t know anything about the business start thinking they know and it’s all an odds game anyway. He enjoyed the game, he enjoyed going to the races and never injected what he thought about the horses. I had pretty much a free rein and we were fortunate enough to do well. It just gives you an edge, it just gives you the advantage of over a period of time being right more times than you’re wrong. ‘Cause in the horse business you’re going to be wrong a lot of times. So, that’s really where I was lucky with Mr. Warner because he just gave me a free rein. He looked at the balance sheet and as long as that was good he allowed me to go to Europe, he allowed me to go anywhere I wanted to go. Not many people have that opportunity.
Training horses at River Downs in Ohio in the late 1970’s, you were in a good spot to observe the fledgling career of Steve Cauthen.
[Steve’s father] Tex was our horseshoer. I wasn’t paying much attention and I’d already made a deal with a jock at River Downs to ride our horses when Steve started riding and I couldn’t really get out of that commitment because I wanted to do what I’d said I’d do. I rode Steve some when he first started out. But then when he went to New York we’d sent horses to Chuck Taliaferro [for Marvin Warner] and since his family knew Chuck – we were all kind of family – well Steve went up and stayed with Chuck when he got really rolling.
Why did you leave training?
I figured out if I was ever going to be a factor in the industry it was going to be through stallions but I didn’t have any money; I had to get into something where I could use other people’s money. A man told me a long time ago that in the stallion business, people are calling you – you’re not having to call them. In other words, you can gather a lot of information in all facets of the industry by just picking people’s brain when they call asking about a stallion or something. I knew where I wanted to be but I didn’t know exactly how to get there. I thought with some of the older, established farms, I thought at that time there was a little spot for a younger farm. Brereton Jones had just got started and most of the other farms around here had just one stallion, except for Claiborne, Spendthrift and Gainesway. In all honesty, I’ve known a lot of people in my life that worked very hard and were good horsemen but never did have the break.
What is the most difficult part of being a trainer?
Training horses is somewhat of a mundane life. In other words, as Walter Merrick taught me, the little things win races. For example, there will be a few seconds, a few minutes of highs…the majority of what a trainer goes through are negatives. He’s got a horse that’s coming up a little off, or not doing what he expects of him, or enters it in a race but only one horse can win.
That’s probably less true of trainers at the top level with a barn full of stakes-quality horses. There is quite a dichotomy between the Todd Pletchers and everyone else.
For some of these fellows it’s somewhat of a system to run a business rather than training and teaching the individual horse. The horse adapts to a system and if he doesn’t they really don’t have time for him, especially when they’ve got horses at five different locations. That’s also different from the way I came up. Thirty, forty horses was the most anybody had. Most owners had their own personal trainer; the Whitneys had their trainer, Spendthrift had their trainer, Claiborne had their trainer. Very few have that now; they’ve either got their horses scattered or they’ve got them in a huge stable with somebody.
We’re talking about a very small minority of the trainers. But even in Europe, I think, most of the bigger stables are still geared towards the personal aspect and trainers are able to feel their horses’ legs every night and know about every little niggling problem as it happens.
With major trainers in America today, probably a lot of them know exactly what is going on but they have to hear it from somebody else. Their system is excellent, but the owners don’t have the personal touch. It used to be a much more social atmosphere, a personal atmosphere rather than all business. They have a very, very good system but they can’t possibly be as involved like the trainers of the old days. You used to see pictures of old Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons sitting on a stool running cold water on a horse’s legs. You don’t see much of that with your high-profile trainers anymore.
Sure you do, right after their horse has won the Kentucky Derby! But that makes for a great photo op.
That’s it.
What differences have you noticed between the horse of today and his ancestors?
The horses are much more fragile than they were 30 years ago. Horses that had stamina were more acceptable in American racing until the advent of the two-year-old sales. A huge part of our market is to pinhook into the two-year-old sales so that requires speed. With so many buyers looking for speed people are breeding for it. The faster horses run the more liable they are to break down so I think that probably we’re breeding less sound horses. Not many people want to buy a horse and wait for him to make his first start at three; they want it now.
Of course I have to ask, what do you think of the Polytrack?
Polytrack, well, nobody knows for sure but I do know one thing, it’s much easier on horses. I think it will probably in a number of years have an effect on how we breed horses. They say that grass horses like the Polytrack. I think to a certain extent – obviously there’s no absolute to this business – I do think it will give horses with stamina more opportunities and it’s safer for the horses. Everybody likes it. I give Rogers Beasley a lot of credit for pushing them [to install the Polytrack at Keeneland]. First of all, it’s safer. It’s just safer. Plus, you don’t have the days when your racetrack’s a soupy mess.
Is there anything you don’t like about artificial surfaces?
One thing I do think is that all the tracks going to that surface should use the same material. Not with any prejudices to any manufacturer but just to make everything the same. I haven’t experienced any of the others so I can’t say accurately but I would say it would have been better if they had been all the same. And they may be all so similar that it doesn’t make any difference.
And its overall effect?
It’s much easier on a horse. A horse has got to be a little fitter, there’s going to be a little more emphasis on recognizing stamina in pedigrees. Five furlong horses that could go 6 furlongs or even a mile and a sixteenth are not going to do that on these surfaces. I think you’ll see horses lasting longer, I think you’ll see fuller fields. Fuller fields mean more pari-mutuel wagering so I think it’s all positive. If horses last longer owners have more chances to recoup money and to make money and it’s positive all the way down the line.
Another positive of the artificial surfaces is that horses are getting a hold of it leaving the gate. I think a lot of horses hurt themselves when they stumble or the ground breaks out from under them leaving the gate, bam! and they’re hitting it wrong and then they run around there and break down. I just think a lot of injuries are caused at the starting gate and with the new surfaces they get a hold of it, they don’t slip, and they go.
The recent Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit held at Keeneland included a presentation made by Wayne McIlwraith, D.V.M., in which he said that most breakdowns are due to pre-existing stress fractures or other such conditions. Would you like to see routine MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds become mandatory?
I guess you could regulate yourself clear out of business.
But if you’re saving your horse you’re keeping yourself in business.
Well but it’s going to come down to an opinion. It’s just like the vets vetting these horses that have a little chip here or a stress fracture or something that they’re not particularly sore on, but it’s there. One vet says don’t run it, the next vet says it’s okay to run. If you want to just have a nightmare, try to do something like that.
What is your stance on the ever-controversial drug and medication policy in the U.S.?
Overall I think racing is good. I think we’ve gone overboard in not allowing some analgesic-type drugs to be used on horses. I imagine the people who are saying that horses should run on oats and hay are taking eight pills a day for themselves to get through the day. I don’t think it’s fair; analgesics are just comfort-type drugs. They’re athletes, just like baseball players or football players, and narcotics and steroids are not good but I think drugs like Lasix and Banamine and stuff like that are fine. It’s like someone getting up in the morning and taking an Advil for their headache. I don’t think they’ll ever solve the problem. We’ve got too many jurisdictions and everybody wants to be the hero. By the time they figure out what one guy’s using he’s going to come up with another [drug], and it’s almost impossible; they may know something’s in a test but they can’t tell you what it is.
How would you deal with this issue?
There are two things that could probably stop a huge part of it. Number one, the jurisdiction should know what’s in the truck of a veterinarian pulling in on the backside. No point in having certain drugs in your truck, or they could have a dispensary for specific drugs that could be signed out. I also think – I know it’d be expensive – but if they think people are doing something illegal – they take your picture most anywhere now, anytime you go to the bank to cash a check you get your picture taken, or go to the convenience store, everybody’s getting their picture taken. So, if they really want to do something about it they should just put some monitors in the barn. Then they’ll know who’s in the barn at all times.
But you can’t see what they’re giving them.
If you know what’s in their truck, you’d know that they don’t have any business with certain drugs. I just think you’ve got to try to stay away from anything that is going to endanger a horse’s health but analgesic medications, I don’t see anything wrong with that.
Let’s hear your thoughts on another sensitive subject, the horse slaughter ban bill awaiting Senate approval.
I think it is going to be a major problem in the logistics of it if they go ahead and pass this horse slaughter ban. There’s nobody that loves horses better than I love horses. And if I want to take care of my horse, turn him out and retire him and let him die of old age, that’s my business. If I want to support an organization that does that, that’s my business. I shouldn’t try to legislate what somebody else does with their property. Not just the Thoroughbred industry – there’s millions of horses. I don’t know what they think that they’re going to do with all of them because it’s just going to compound. That’d be like turning them out on the roadside only to get killed by people running over them. Which is worse, letting a horse go to slaughter or letting him starve to death? That has to do with the difference between being emotional and being realistic.
Either way, people are looking for absolution instead of taking responsibility. Slaughtering the horses just makes room for more and it creates a snowball effect. Stasis will only make things worse because people will feel encouraged to continue to breed as though there is no moral dilemma.
The government cannot take responsibility for what we do. We have to be responsible for our own morality and what we do with things. We can’t have the government telling us every move, whether it’s moral or immoral or what it is. I could argue both sides of the coin. It’s pretty silly to a certain extent to spend all that money they’re raising to save retired horses when the same guy walks down the backstretch and sees little kids in the tack rooms with no money and does very little for them.
John Gaines credited you with breaking down the dissension that threatened to keep the Breeders’ Cup from becoming a reality. Are you satisfied with how it has matured in these 23 years?
Give him credit, I thought Mr. Gaines was very innovative. And I think that once we got it organized and were able to appease the different factions, I think [the Breeders’ Cup has] been a tremendous success. If you went through the list of buyers at the Keeneland Summer Sale in like 1970, none of them were from Europe but I suspected that the game was going to get global in the early Seventies with global transportation and ease of getting horses over here. You could fly one over here from England about as quick as you can fly it to California – definitely faster than you can van it out there. So I thought it was going to be a global thing and I thought that it would put the spotlight on a special day, at least have another venue that the public could attach itself to rather than just the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont if you happen to have something that might win the Triple Crown.
What improvements would you suggest?
We probably need to take a step further, which I think we’re doing, by creating venues leading to the Breeders’ Cup. It could be a venue in England or Ireland or France or anywhere. I don’t think you can really create any public excitement without events. People always follow crowds. People aren’t going to NASCAR just to see cars running around, they’re waiting on a wreck and to people-watch. The biggest thing about the Derby is, number one, it’s the Derby. Number two, people go to people-watch 150,000 people. People like crowds.
You don’t think that these additional venues will detract from the Breeders’ Cup?
No no no. Not if you start soon enough, it’s just like football and baseball and basketball, they all have playoffs.
Do you think you have any Breeders’ Cup-caliber horses in your barn?
I’ve got two or three of them working like they’re nice horses. A Chester House colt looks like a good one, the same for a Holy Bull colt and a Cat Thief colt who rapped a tendon – it’s minor but I’m giving him some time – I think he might be a good colt. The rest of them I think might be just ordinary.
How many horses do you have in training?
We’ve got about fifteen, all 2-year-olds.
Did you buy any yearlings at the sales this year?
No, but I’ve got three I bred that will go into training.
You’ve had a winner from only a handful of starters, but it didn’t run in your name! How did that happen?
I wasn’t licensed in Ohio so I just let my assistant trainer Ricky Castilleja get his license and he was down as the trainer. I had a filly run third at Saratoga but I’d sent her to Patrick Biancone for the meet and I’ve since sent her to Mike Doyle at Woodbine because she’s a Canadian-bred. I don’t care whether it’s in my name or somebody else’s. I was in San Antonio all winter every day just about and then Keeneland in April, and went to Turfway after that. I’ve got an excellent assistant, and I talk to him twice a day.
Will you continue to train for the foreseeable future?
If I don’t have three or four nice horses by the end of Churchill I’ll probably send them to another trainer.
And then what? Play golf? Go to Barbados?
I’ll just spend more time at my ranch in Oklahoma. I like the cattle. I’ve enjoyed this and I have no complaints. It’s just that I’ve been doing it for forty-something years.
You can only get so far even by being in the right place at the right time, so how do you explain your success?

In a nutshell, I’ve been lucky. But I was paying attention.