Vickie and Greg Foley - Continuing a family tradition from their Kentucky bases

By Bill Heller

Asked how long the inquiry deciding the fate of her winner of the $400,000 Gr1 Woody Stephens Stakes Hog Creek Hustle seemed, trainer Vickie Foley said, “Eternity.” Then she added, “Usually, the longer it goes, the worse it is.”

Her family shared her anxiety as Hog Creek Hustle’s number 8 blinked on and off on the toteboard at Belmont Park on the undercard of the Belmont Stakes June 7. Hog Creek Hustle had won by a neck under Corey Lanerie but had clearly bumped Mind Control, ridden by John Velazquez, around the top of the stretch. Mind Control wound up finishing eighth.

Vickie’s brother Greg was watching on TV at Churchill Downs, where he saddled a horse that afternoon and where he is eighth all-time in training victories. Her nephew Travis, Greg’s son and assistant trainer, and Travis’ girlfriend Patsy, were on vacation watching on television at the Golden Nugget casino in Biloxi, Miss.  

Vickie has been training for 38 years. Greg, who has been married to Sheree for 38 years, has also been training for 38 years. Neither Vickie nor Greg had ever won a Gr1 stakes. Their late father, Dravo, trained horses for 48 years after a horse ended his jockey career by stepping on him, forcing doctors to remove a piece of his lung. He had never won a Gr1 stakes as a rider or as a trainer.

Vickie had watched the race by herself on a TV monitor at Belmont Park: “I just looked up and said, `God, please don’t take this horse down.”

Then in an instant, the inquiry was over. Using their discretion, the stewards ruled that the foul did not affect the outcome of the race because Mind Control had pretty much come up empty at that point. They left Hog Creek Hustle stand as the winner, but disciplined Lanerie with a five-day suspension for the incident.

The collective sigh of relief stretched from Mississippi to Kentucky to New York.

“I felt I had a ton of bricks lifted off my shoulders,” Vickie said, “It was the best feeling ever. I take my hat off to John Velazquez. He told the stewards that his horse was done. He wasn’t going anywhere. They did the right thing. It was the right call.”

Maybe it was karma. The stakes honors Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens, who grew up in Stanton, Ky. Thirteen miles from Hog Creek, this small town in a depressed area of eastern Kentucky that the horse was named for, signified that all of the horses’ connections had to hustle to make their way through life. Patty Tipton, who was raised in Hog Creek, and her Louisville neighbors—Mickey and Beth Martin, Stewart Smith, Melissa and Shawn Murphy, Rex McClanahan, Haley Lucas and Candy and Brian Minnichin—created a partnership. They named it Something Special Racing and purchased Hog Creek Hustle for $150,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Greg advised the partners to purchase the yearling.

Greg waited until Vickie got out of the winner’s circle to call. “He said, `Congratulations! You did a hell of a job. I give you all the credit. I am so proud of you, and I love you,’” Vickie said. She was touched. “He’s not the mushy type,” she said.

His appreciation was genuine. “That was the first Gr1 for our family,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for a long time the hard way. We persevered and we’re still at it. It’s a tough sport, period, and that much tougher for a woman. I’m proud of her for that.”

They had started their journeys together so many years ago. And though they train separately—she with a dozen horses and he with 40—they share the same barn when they winter at The Fair Grounds. Vickie, 62, is the oldest of four children, followed by Greg, Sharon and Lisa. “He’s my best friend,” Vickie said. “He always has my back. And I have his. If I have a problem with a horse, I go to him. He would be a great veterinarian.”

They were blessed by a father and mother who not only showed them a way of life but also a way to live. “Racing automatically brings you together,” said Travis, who eschewed a corporate life with his MBA from the University of Kentucky to work for his father. “There’s a common ground. We’re all thinking about the same things—what’s going on with the stable. It’s a common ground most families don’t have. Family bonding definitely happens. Horse racing is seven days a week, getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning. You have to love it. Obviously, they do and they passed it on to me. That’s one of the reasons I stayed in it.”…

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

SUMMER SALES 2019, ISSUE 53 (PRINT)

$6.95

SUMMER SALES 2019, ISSUE 53 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

PRINT & ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION

$24.95

Mark Hennig - Profile

By Jeff Lowe

The launch of Mark Hennig's training stable in 1993 was a racing rarity with its immediate impact in major races. He parlayed a strong start into one of the most influential training jobs of a generation, helping to develop Edward P. Evans' stable into a powerhouse on the track and a feeder for a vaunted broodmare band.

As the tide began to change in the mid-2000s, Hennig had to rebuild with owners like Lee Lewis who supported him from the start but carried far fewer horses than the dozens he had received every year from Evans, and from developing new clientele even as the owner ranks contracted significantly in North America.

"I was very fortunate to have the kind of horses I did starting out," said Hennig, whose first stakes winner, Star of Cozzene, swept the Gr1 Arlington Million and Man o' War Stakes along with the Gr2 Caesar's International and Manhattan Handicap in 1993. "There are a lot of trainers and owners who are capable of picking out nice horses and training them too. It's all about having the access to them. I have had years when I didn't have the access to them and I think it's shown. It's no different than a basketball coach. It's a lot easier to coach a team with Lebron James on it than to coach a team with me on it."

Hennig, 54, always seemed to have at least one marquee horse he could count on, like Wesley, a striking gray who captured the Gr2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes at Saratoga in 2008; and the fleet filly Merry Meadow, who clicked off four Graded stakes triumphs in 2014 and '15 in the filly and mare sprint division.

Little by little, depth and quality increased and Hennig, based at Belmont Park and Saratoga in the spring and summer and Gulfstream Park in the winter, now sits in a plumb position. His 2018 season was his best by purse earnings in 10 years and featured a return to the Triple Crown trail with the meteoric Strike Power, who sped to victory in the Gr3 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park around one turn in just his second career start. He then finished a solid second in the Gr2 Fountain of Youth Stakes over a route of ground, only to struggle after getting caught up in an intense pace duel in the Grade 1 Florida Derby.

In 2019, Hennig is back on the Triple Crown trail with Bourbon War, a colt with a resumé more similar to his trainer's previous classic runners Personal Hope and Eddington.

Personal Hope was one of the first horses Hennig received when he went out on his own in late 1992, after five years as an assistant to D. Wayne Lukas. Hennig was there for a nice stretch of heady days for Lukas Racing, with Hall of Famers Winning Colors and Lady's Secret and Horse of the Year Criminal Type all in the shedrow. Lee Lewis had horses with Lukas at that time, as did the Team Valor syndicate led by Barry Irwin and Jeff Siegel, who were so impressed with Hennig that they presented him with an offer that would spark his own career. At age 27, Hennig became the private trainer for the Team Valor roster, with the caveat that he could also oversee six horses for other owners. Lewis sent him Personal Hope, who had started once for Lukas as a juvenile in 1992 before going to the sidelines with an issue.

Hennig also filled the half dozen "public stalls" with horses owned by Evans. Between the three sources—Team Valor, Lewis and Evans—Hennig got off to a momentous beginning. While Star of Cozzene starred in the turf division for older males, Personal Hope immediately landed a dirt maiden win at Santa Anita and would go on to glory in the Gr1 Santa Anita Derby in 1993 before finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby.

Star of Cozzene tore through that same season with six Graded stakes wins and developed an epic rivalry with Claiborne Farm's homebred Lure, who would beat the Team Valor runner into second in both the Gr2 Turf Classic on Derby Day and the Gr3 Dixie Handicap on the Preakness card, before Star of Cozzene turned the tables with victories over Lure in the Manhattan at Belmont and the Caesars International at Atlantic City. They were both entered for another showdown in the Arlington Million, but after a spate of heavy rain, Lure was scratched and Star of Cozzene strolled to a 3 1/4-length victory at 4-to-5 odds.

"Star of Cozzene was a real hard-trying horse," Hennig said. "When it was soft, there was no beating him. We had Star of Cozzene with Wayne and he was a nice horse, not beat far in the Breeders' Cup Mile. After that, Team Valor sent him to Francois Boutin in France, and when he came back it looked like it just didn't agree with him. He was light and had tailed off. It was an amazing turnaround once he got back here and started flourishing. The one winter we had him in California it rained a lot and that really got his season rolling. He went back East and had that great series with Lure. Where Lure was dangerous on firm turf, Star of Cozzene was just terrific on soft turf; and when he won the Arlington Million, it had just rained and rained, and he won it easily. We had a lot of fun with him."

Growing up in central Ohio, Hennig spent much of his high school years on the backstretch of Beulah Park outside Columbus, where his father, John, was a top-flight trainer who would occasionally make his presence felt at Keeneland, Churchill Downs, and in South Florida.

The elder Hennig ended up with a barn at Churchill with a staff that not only included his son, Mark, but also eventual trainers Kiaran McLaughlin and George Weaver. It was there that McLaughlin met Mark Hennig's sister, Letty. They have been married for more than 30 years.

"Growing up, we would all work in the barn," Hennig said. "We would go in real early in the morning and, before I had my driver's license, I would get a ride home and get ready real quick and go to school. I would go back there after school and maybe run a few horses. The work ethic was instilled in all of us that way. It was about good horsemanship and working hard. When I went off to Ohio State for college and came back, my dad encouraged me if I was going to be in the horse business and wanted to train horses that I should work for some other outfits. I think that is the most unselfish thing any father could do for their son. He introduced me to Jack Van Berg, and I worked for him for a while and then I went to work for Wayne after that. I was so lucky to have that kind of foundation for my career."

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Triple Crown 2019, issue 52 (PRINT)

$6.95

Triple Crown 2019, issue 52 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

From $24.95

Niall Collum - Canadian trainer profile

By Alex Campbell

Trainer Niall Collum brings plenty of experience at the highest level of international racing to his training program. The 46-year-old native of Clonmel, Ireland, now based at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada, has worked for major European operations Coolmore and Godolphin, and has traveled with their horses to some of the biggest races in the world, including the Breeders’ Cup, the Melbourne Cup, and races in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Japan.

His journey in the sport of horse racing started off when he was a 12-year-old in Ireland, riding horses at a pony camp. At 14, Collum got his first job in racing as a work rider for Irish trainer Pat Flynn. Collum not only rode horses in the mornings during training but also performed work around Flynn’s yard. It was that first job that kicked off Collum’s now more than 30-year racing career.

“I was offered a job for the summer with Pat Flynn, and I ended up staying there,” Collum said. “I didn’t go back to school and stuck with the horses to my parents’ horror. Back then, it was different too because we did everything. We rode out and we mucked out. You didn’t just ride the horses and go home. We’d have to do everything first hand.”

Collum had aspirations to be a flat jockey, but eventually grew to a point where that career wasn’t going to be possible. Although the flats weren’t an option, Collum continued working with Flynn for a little while longer before making a move to England to pursue a career as a steeplechase jockey.

“A guy who I knew said I would do very well to go to England,” Collum said. “I went to Toby Balding in England. He was a big jump trainer at the time. He said if I put my head down and worked hard, I’d get on there, which I did. I rode a nice few winners for him over the jumps. I rode my winners and everything, but things weren’t really taking off for me.”

Collum returned to Ireland and flat racing, joining Aidan O’Brien’s stable as a work rider. Collum knew O’Brien after spending some time working for O’Brien’s father-in-law, Joe Crowley, and worked with O’Brien and horses owned by Coolmore at Ballydoyle.

“I went back to him and spent five years there working with the best horses in the world and got to travel the world to all the big races,” Collum said. “It was a great experience, and I loved every bit of it.”

Collum spent five years working with O’Brien before looking for his next opportunity. This time, it was Godolphin who was expanding its operations, and Collum took the chance to work with them in both the United Kingdom and Dubai.

“After five years, you’re looking for something to freshen up, and the opportunity came up with Godolphin to go to Dubai,” Collum said. “They were getting big at the time. I got offered the job to go with them, and I did. We would spend the winters in Dubai and the summers in England. I think it was the best thing I ever did to be honest with you because it opened up a whole new world for me.”

Collum was once again a work rider with Godolphin, but his connections in Dubai and his prior experiences in Ireland would help him get into training. Collum worked for Godolphin for six years before making the switch to training and caught on with Eddie Kenneally, serving as an assistant trainer at Belmont Park in New York. He worked for Kenneally for a year before deciding it was time to go off on his own. Collum set up a racing syndicate and purchased horses to train, but ran into an immigration issue that would throw his career into turmoil.

Collum had traveled with his then girlfriend and now wife, Andrea Dube-Collum, to Montreal, Canada for a weekend getaway. Following the trip, Collum was denied entry upon his return to the United States, putting his syndicate in jeopardy.

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Triple Crown 2019, issue 52 (PRINT)

$6.95

Triple Crown 2019, issue 52 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

From $24.95

Leonard Powell - the French trainer in California

By Ed Golden

“When I learn that a nation can live without bread, then I will believe that the French people can live without glory.”—Charles de Gaulle

Leonard Powell can live without neither, although with a workload that consumes the majority of his very existence, he still finds time for required sustenance and moments of exultation when they present themselves.

The 42-year-old Frenchman is a world-class horseman, weaned on Thoroughbreds from early youth, starting on his family’s 200-acre stud farm in Normandy followed by stops around the globe in Australia, England, Singapore and the United States, and calling California home since 2004.

When attempting to buttonhole him in person, however, an APB might come in handy. At Santa Anita, his base of operations, a sighting at the track’s popular early morning watering hole, Clockers’ Corner, is rarer than a Triple Crown sweep.

Leonard Powell is either sedulously conducting business at his barn, or high upon horseback supervising jogs, gallops and breezes on the track.

A former amateur jockey in France, where he rode in steeplechase races as well as on the flat, landing in the winner’s circle on occasion, his work schedule is Trumpian sans the tweets.

“I wake up at 3:45 and leave the house just after four,” Powell said explaining a typical day—his accent as thick as one of France’s nearly 300 varieties of cheese. “I get to the barn just after 4:30, check the horses and provide any medications as needed.

“The first set of horses goes out at 5 o’clock, so from 5 o’clock until 10 o’clock I’m on horseback, either on a Thoroughbred or a pony. At 10 we school horses if necessary, review their condition with a veterinarian or myself, check on the horses that worked the day before or that morning.

“That takes us to 11:30 or 12. Usually from 12 to about two I go over paperwork that needs to be done in the office. In the afternoon, we go to the races when we have horses running, or back to the barn feeding, walking or grazing them until 4:30.”

Powell’s day begins well before he arrives at the barn. He commutes from his West Hollywood home to the Arcadia track, a stretch of 25 miles.

“I was living in West Hollywood when I was stabled at Hollywood Park (which closed in December of 2013),” Powell said. “I have three daughters (Louise, 14, Blanche, 13 and Jeanne, 9) and they were going to a bilingual school that taught French and English.

“When I moved my barn to Santa Anita, the kids were doing very well, so I decided to make the commute instead of them. I didn’t want them to change schools.

“Actually, my commute in the morning is easy, because at 4 o’clock, there’s not much traffic. I can make it in 25 minutes going with the traffic. In the evenings, when I’m against the traffic, it can take 45 minutes.”

Married to Mathilde—his sweetheart from their days at Caen University—all their children enjoy racing, particularly Jeanne who rides and spends time with her father at the track on weekends.

Of the 25 head Powell has in training, by far the most celebrated is an 11-year-old gelding named Soi Phet. The tassel-haired trainer was not suffering from insipience when he made the claim for $16,000 at Hollywood Park on May 23, 2013.

Since then, the California-bred son of Tizbud has achieved success of mythic proportions, and after a recent freshening, is expected to resume his racing career.

“I’m going to take my time with him,” Powell said, “but I would expect him to return to the races at some point.”

When Soi Phet posted a 47-1 upset winning Santa Anita’s $100,000 Crystal Water Stakes by a head at age 10 in 2018, he was believed to be the oldest horse ever to win an added money event at the storied track, which opened on Christmas Day, 1934.

The Crystal Water was his 58th career start.

“At the time I claimed him, he had all his conditions,” Powell explained. “He had only won a maiden 20, he was a non-winner of two (races), he was a Cal-bred; it was the spring of 2013, and the Del Mar meet was coming up with very generous purses.

“When I took him, it was because he had conditions left, and I felt I could move him up.”

Wow and double wow! Eight stakes wins and a million dollars in earnings later, Powell now looks like the Nostradamus of trainers.

When he has occasion to give a leg up and pre-race instructions to jockeys Brice Blanc, Julien Couton, Florent Geroux, Julien Leparoux and Flavien Prat, fellow Frenchmen all, the bilingual Powell does what comes naturally.

“If the owner of the horse is there,” Powell said, “I speak English so that he can understand. But if it’s only me and the rider, we speak French.”

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Triple Crown 2019, issue 52 (PRINT)

$6.95

Triple Crown 2019, issue 52 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

From $24.95

Profile: David Duggan

By Giles Anderson

Golden Gate Fields is one of North America’s fastest growing racetracks in terms of handle growth. But that’s only part of the story as Giles Anderson found out when he recently sat down with Golden Gate Fields General Manager and Vice President David Duggan.

GA: You’ve been at Golden Gate Fields now for nearly eighteen months, running the track since October 2017. The figures from your first winter/spring meet were up massively, and then the summer meet was up 29%. What have you done to achieve such staggering growth?

DD: We made a lot of changes. It became quite a fast-moving, changing environment. What we discovered was that we have a lot of people who've been here for many, many years, but there hadn't been any adrenaline shot given to the place for quite some time, so we did change it, but it wasn't necessarily all down to me. There was a lot of people involved in this, and I was keen to have a younger crew in the management of the facility. They're great at connecting and they understand what their friends and colleagues are thinking, and they tell me. I feel all the talk about getting the young people in, and we have an aging demographic that follows horse racing. The only way to connect with young people and the millennials, and all these different groups that people are putting together now, is to listen to young people and that's what we have.

We've spent a lot of time since I came here, both myself and Cynthia Sidle—my special operations manager in San Francisco. We speak to and go and shake hands and meet lots of different groups. We've made a very big effort in Chinatown because I obviously know the Asian market quite well. We take bus loads of them to come out here on a Saturday to see us. We've spent a lot of time with the LGBTQ community and we've had some very, very successful events with them as well and indeed the Hispanic population which is very, very big in the city. We have a specific Latin festival here in the summer which is very, very well patronized as well.

What we've discovered is we can sit and hope people are going to come. In the greater majority of time, we've actually had to go out and get the people and bring them here. There's so much talk that the world of horse racing has become very, very small through various means, but there's so much talk about attracting younger people, getting younger people to come to the races. That's all very well, but you've got to be proactive and you have to do something about it.

If you make the effort to get people and bring them to the racetrack, they will come back.

But was the handle growth mainly off track—is that where the growth was coming from?

We worked hard with the racing office to increase the field size, therefore a lot of eyes around the country were on us. We also paid particular attention to the post times because on a weekend in particular, it can become quite a congested program because you have action on the East Coast, you have action on the West Coast, and you have action in Florida. It's very important to keep an eye on when everybody's coming out of the starting gate. We're very keen, and we watch them very carefully and we get a lot of help. If we need to move or wait a couple of minutes until somebody finishes, that's what we did.

When we looked at the figures, it was evident that we were clashing with bigger meetings; it was the “clash of the Titans” really. We were going off at the same time as Saratoga or Keeneland or Belmont, and we were going to lose every time. It was like a heavyweight mismatched boxing match.

We had to adjust that and that was a big help, but export was great and amazingly enough of our own track figure—people betting on us, on the facility, etc. was very good too with the increased attendance, but our figures across the board were good.

What's your average field size been?

View fullsize

Our average field size has jumped. I think we're about a 7.2 and we're heading in the direction of 7.4 at the moment. That's a big, big jump from early sizes (late 5’s).

You’re in a unique position having the only artificial surface on the west coast. That must be a big strength for you?

Although we've got lots of different artificial surfaces worldwide, the Tapeta track is sensational. We've got a beautiful, beautiful turf track here. It's very mature and it really is tremendous. In fact Tom Queally, who was Sir Henry Cecil's jockey, was here for a season last year, and he said it rode as good a turf track as any.

When we do have to come off the turf, when we have heavy rain and we go onto the Tapeta, it's a very seamless transition and we get very few scratches. It takes the weather really well. It really is a great all-weather surface. I know Tapeta and Michael Dickinson won't thank me for saying all-weather, but it is Tapeta surface; but it's extremely durable, very kind and it's got a great cushion on it. The equine injuries are way, way down and there's very little attrition off it. It's really a wonderful surface.

The horsemen love it. It's great to train on and it's very durable. I think that's the key. There's a lot of horses out there in the morning. It's very easy to maintain as well. Once you follow the guidelines as set out by the manufacturers, it really is terrific.

What's your stabling capacity?

Well, we can hold something in the region of 1,400 horses. I think we've got 1,350 odd at the moment, so we're very, very full. A lot of that credit goes to Patrick Mackey and his racing team down there. Patrick and I went out and we went to the East Coast. We went to tracks that would have similar surfaces to us, and we got some trainers to come here from there.

It's not as easy. We haven't got a great pool of horses around us so we have to go and get them, but we're very full at the moment. We've also got some excellent trainers.

Last summer, the Northern California off track wagering deal was seemingly threatening the future structure of racing in this part of the state. Has any progress been made?

Very often in California it's a place of political influence, and sentiment outweighs economic reality, which in itself is puzzling, but that's California. It's a very different state. It's a very heavily regulated state, and that transcends down to horse racing as well and the administration of horse racing.

Tim Ritvo is very keen to provide a better grounding for our trainers with regards to what they get back and the purse money gets back. That's an ongoing situation at the moment and that'll continue to play out, I would imagine, well into 2019.

We'd love to be year round. We always put in our application for as many dates as we can possibly have. It's a shame in many respects that we don't race in the summer because we've got such a fabulous turf track that holds its moisture so well; and we'd love to be racing on the turf, but we don't for the greater part of June and July, and we start back in August. It's regrettable but it is the way it is. Hopefully one day the time will come when we can race in the summer.

Where do you see the role of the fair meets?

I think the fairs are part of the fabric of Californian society and there's no denying that. Whether they continue to exist in the current format, it will be interesting to see how that plays out. But they've been here a lot longer than me, and they probably will continue to be here a lot longer than me. We do our very best to accommodate them. The majority of the horses that are stabled at Golden Gate Fields race indeed at the fairs. I think there will come a time where perhaps economic reality will outweigh political sentiment. It's important to recognize at the very least that they are part of the fabric of our society in California.

Looking ahead for the coming year, what are your aspirations for the track?…

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Spring 2019, issue 51 (PRINT)

$6.95

Spring 2019, issue 51 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

Add to cart

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Andrew Lerner - a young trainer on the up

By Ed Golden

Andrew Lerner looks like he just stepped off the pages of GQ.

At 29, six feet tall, 180 pounds and hazel eyes, he oozes subtle masculinity and innate innocence, bearing the attributes of an NFL tight end.

Picture Superman and Clark Kent or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

But beneath that demure demeanor lies his true countenance, horse trainer, body and soul.

It was not a matter of if, but when it would happen.

“I created a couple of businesses that fortunately did well, and that put me in a position to buy some horses,” Lerner said. “I sent them to trainer Mike Pender with the caveat that I wanted to learn to train.

“I started a company with a friend of mine in 2012 and we did well; I sold half of it, not for a fortune, but for enough where I was able to buy a horse named Be a Lady and give it to Pender.

View fullsize

“That’s how it all began. She’s still racing.

“I told Mike I wanted to learn how to train, came out every morning at 4:30, shadowed his grooms and hot walkers for about a year and a half, then decided I wanted to learn how to ride, not at the track but somewhere else, just to get an idea of what the jocks and exercise riders were talking about when they got off a horse and told us how it went.

“I wanted to understand first-hand what they were explaining, more than just hearing their words. After that, it took me about six months to get my trainer’s license in March of last year.

“It was a small stable initially, just me, a groom and two horses. Now we’re up to about 22 head.”

Lerner came to Pender’s barn every morning, not with a chip on his shoulder but a thirst for knowledge.

Thus, Pender readily recognized that Lerner would triumph against the odds. His acuity was ever present.

“He won a race with the first horse we claimed together, and we were off and running,” said Pender, 52, a Los Angeles native whose major stakes winners in a career approaching 15 years include Jeranimo and Ultimate Eagle.

“When he told me he wanted to train, I asked why he would do such a crazy thing, and he was emphatic. He said he wanted to, and I knew how he felt because I had been in his shoes at one time.

“I told him he was going to fail more than he’d succeed and tried to talk him out of it, but he stood his ground. Even after I told him the only way to succeed was through hard work and spending a lot of money—some of it coming out of his own pocket when owners don’t pay and walk away leaving you high and dry with a $10,000 feed bill—he remained firm.

“He gave the right answers to all my questions, but most importantly, he showed up every morning. I’ve had a lot of guys walk through my doors saying they want to become trainers, and I feel a responsibility for them to achieve that goal, because it’s trainers who bring in new owners.

View fullsize

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Spring 2019, issue 51 (PRINT)

$6.95

Spring 2019, issue 51 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

Add to cart

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Add to cart

In conversation with Jim Lawson - Mr Woodbine

By Giles Anderson

Jim Lawson has literally grown up with Woodbine Racetrack, he was born in the same year that the track opened in 1956. Today Lawson assumes the roles of CEO of Woodbine Entertainment Group, Chairman of Ontario Racing, as well as chairing the board of governors of the Canadian Football League. He recently sat down with Giles Anderson to discuss the future direction and goals for racing and the Woodbine facility in the years to come.

It would be fair to say that you came to racing through a sporting injury and looking back your career may have well evolved on ice.

Yes, I played US College Hockey at Brown University in Rhode Island. By 1978 I was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. I left school early, I had enough credits to graduate but had an injury-prone two and a half years in their organisation, with many issues. Ultimately, I retired and went to law school, and when I went to law school, like a lot of people, I thought ‘wouldn't it be great if I could do sports law, or be a player agent, or whatever?’ And of course you soon realise that you need that foundation of law and legal contracts, so I ended up  doing commercial law for the most part.

So here I am, 30 years later, being in a position where I am with the Canadian Football League. Even though I was a hockey player, I always had a passion regarding football and horse racing. My dad had Thoroughbred horses from the time I was six or seven years old, so I used to come out here 1965, 1966, when I was 10 years old. He ran a modest stable, but a successful stable. He was a great student of the game and I think he won 67 stakes races here with a very modest stable over the years and he's in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

So I spent my early years around Woodbine and also studying bloodlines.

So how did you end up working for Woodbine?

Mostly because of the clients through my work at a major downtown Toronto law firm and as I'd spent a lot time around Woodbine, the board was aware of me. They initially asked me to come on the board to look after the 700 acres of land that they had here. So I joined the board and then I evolved into being chairman of the board in 2012.

Then in 2015, when the CEO stepped down, the board asked me to step in and, here I am. I've gone from chairman to CEO here now, but I have a big background, as I said, in horse racing and a big part of what we're doing today is real estate development.

How many teams make up the Canadian Football League?

There are nine teams. We're looking to expand it, Halifax to be a tenth team, but there are currently five teams in the west and four teams in the east. Montreal, and Toronto, and Hamilton and Ottawa and as I said, potentially an expansion team in Halifax, so a lot of teams across the country.

“THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE WE HAVE IS TWO-FOLD AND THEY’RE RELATED. AND THAT IS AN AGEING DEMOGRAPHIC IN BOTH SPORTS.”

Why do you think has there not been as much expansion in the last five years as much as there has been of teams in soccer?

Well, that's a good question. In football, the biggest, I think, single achievement is the renewal of capital investment in the stadiums, which has been a big plus. There's been a completely renovated stadium in Toronto, a brand new stadium in Hamilton, a completely renovated stadium in Ottawa, a new stadium in Saskatchewan, a new stadium in Winnipeg. So the biggest achievement, I think, is the reinvestment of capital to keep the league in good shape in the sense that it's very much a gate-driven league as opposed to many other sports, which are television revenue driven. We do have the television contract with TSN and we have good ratings on the sports network, which is a Bell Globe Media property. But I think the biggest thing that the league has done is reinvested itself and set itself up for a strong future.

Do you see a big crossover from what you’ve learned about football into racing?

The biggest challenge we have is two-fold and they're related. And that is an ageing demographic in both sports. Our core customer is probably that 50-year-old to 70-year-old male. I think we're doing a good job in horse racing because of our food and beverage experience and the cost of having a good experience here. We're making great strides in bringing up that younger customer. But our real core wagering customer fits in that 50 to 70-year-old demographic.

Woodbine’s vision for the future

The same is true in the Canadian Football League, it may well be true in the golf world and the tennis world, and so that is a real challenge to see and it is actually of interest for me to see how both organizations from the marketing partnerships approach that. And then secondly the challenge in both sports has been the consumption of the sport and what I mean is that the Canadian Football League is a gate-driven league, while in order to get people interested in horseracing, you really need to get them here and see the horses and feel the horses and just the excitement.

In both cases now, in a large part on the football side the evolution, it's not just overnight, it's the last 15, 20, 25 years depending on your measure of the large screen TVs that sit in everyone's den or family room. People want to consume sports in luxury, and television has done a great job with production, with slow motion and replays and analysis and making that television experience so great, so that a lot of people would rather than sitting out in colder weather, they'd rather sit in home in the comforts of their den or family room, watching television on a big screen TV. The same thing for horse racing, really. We have, for business purposes, made it very accessible to wager on horse racing through the internet. People don't have to come out here any more and that's a challenge.

So we've got a couple of sports there where, because of technological advances and just raising the level the game of how we distribute our content in both cases, you're challenged in terms of getting people interested. People are only going to invest in horses if they are out here and they get the excitement of the game. We need new owners, we need new breeders and you're not going to get that from people who are gambling over the internet, you're going to get that from people who come out here and say, "Wow, I love this, wouldn't it be fun to own a horse."

And the same with football, you need to get them out to the game to experience it and meet the players and see the players. One of the challenges with football, especially in Canada with so many sports coming - soccer has grown huge, or European football, shall we say - I think that one of the things we need to do with football is to get youth playing it and the likelihood of that happening is if they can get out to the games and feel the excitement, and watch it and meet the players.

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Breeders’ Cup 2018, issue 50 (PRINT)

$6.95

Pre Breeders’ Cup 2018, issue 50 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Trainer Profile - Bill Mott

By Andrew Champagne

Some trainers start their careers with dreams of winning a garland of roses, or a gigantic trophy.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott’s first big prizes, though, were substantially smaller.

“When I was 15, I got my first horse to train, which my father purchased for $320,” Mott recalled. “I put the horse in training. We ran her at a small fair meet in South Dakota, and she dead-heated for the win the first time I ever ran her.”

“The purse was $500, and we had to split 60% down the middle. I also won a blanket and a cooler. Because it was a dead heat, we flipped a coin.”

Mott still has the blanket and cooler from that race, and over the past 50 years, he’s added plenty of other pieces of hardware to his ever-growing trophy case. His career is one built on simple values instilled in him by some of the top horsemen in the Midwest during the 1970s, a group that included Keith Asmussen, Bob Irwin, and Hall of Fame conditioner Jack Van Berg.

“The major lesson I learned is, just show up and work,” Mott said. “The Asmussens were a hard-working family, and of course you can see what they’ve produced. Van Berg was the same. You worked hard, and you were a part of everything that went on. If you were interested, you were going to learn something.”

Riley Mott and Elate

After several years of honing his craft as an assistant, Mott went out on his own in 1978. When asked about obstacles he had to overcome as a new head trainer, he was quick to thank Van Berg and an assortment of owners that helped him get off on the right foot.

“Jack had given me a big opportunity, and I had owners that came to me,” Mott explained. “I didn’t go out and hustle any horses or try to recruit anyone. Everything just fell into place. I showed up for work and things kept happening. My phone was ringing, and people were wanting to send me horses.”

Less than 10 years later, a son of Nureyev found his way into Mott’s barn thanks to owner Allen Paulson, and he would help shine a light on his conditioner’s world-class talents. His name was Theatrical, and while he had won several stakes races in Europe, it wasn’t until he came to the United States that he achieved his greatest success.

Theatrical won seven of nine races in 1987, including that year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Hollywood Park. In total, his campaign included six Grade 1 victories, and he was crowned as that year’s Champion Grass Horse.

“Theatrical was my first champion, my first Breeders’ Cup winner,” Mott said. “He let everyone know that I could train a good horse, that I could train a Grade 1 winner, that I could train a champion. Theatrical being owned by Allen Paulson is the reason I got Cigar.”

Six and a half years after Theatrical walked off the racetrack for the final time, Cigar was transferred to Mott’s care. He had started his career in California for trainer Alex Hassinger, but was sent east at the recommendation of Dr. Steve Allday following double knee surgery.

“I remember getting on him when we took him to Belmont,” Mott recalled. “One morning, we went to the training track. I galloped him, and I remember going back to the barn and just raving about this horse. The adrenaline had kicked in, and I was spouting off. I said, ‘this horse is like a machine.’

“I’d been on a lot of good horses, and I know what most good horses feel like. There’s a difference. You can sometimes feel that special horse underneath you. He was one of those.”

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Breeders’ Cup 2018, issue 50 (PRINT)

$6.95

Pre Breeders’ Cup 2018, issue 50 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Javier Jose Sierra - Invisible no more

By Ed Golden

Javier Jose Sierra has survived if not prospered for 45 years in a game he loves. Yet, he does not warrant a bio in any media guide.

He is racing’s Invisible Man.

The 66-year-old trainer has been sedulously plying his trade despite lack of recognition, ego be damned.

A native of El Paso, Sierra stands on a foundation adorned with pillars of self-confidence, gained in no small part from a proper upbringing in a family of 12 children, and tours early on with legendary trainers D. Wayne Lukas and J.J. Pletcher, father of Todd Pletcher.

Sierra grew up in Juarez where he played soccer as a kid. At 14 he aspired to be a jockey at Sunland Park in New Mexico, but his father, Cirilo, a native of Mexico, made education a priority. Javier aborted racing, went to school at the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. Eventually, he earned an MBA while still working full time.

“I was doing well as an engineer,” Sierra said. “I worked my way up to vice president at an aerospace company.”

The appeal of the turf, however, proved an alluring temptress. Duly smitten, Sierra ultimately came to California in 1976.

“As soon as I graduated from college, I loved racing so much, I bought a couple horses,” he said. “I was doing both jobs at the same time, training horses and working in the aerospace industry.”

Most of Javier’s family were involved in racing. “All my brothers worked in racing in different positions, grooms, hot walkers, exercise riders, thanks to my father, who was a trainer.

View fullsize

“While in college, I worked three summers for Lukas when he trained quarter horses in New Mexico, and with J.J. Pletcher one year at Sunland Park. I remember Todd being there. He was probably five years old.

“I learned a lot from both men, especially Pletcher. I was impressed with the quality of horses he brought in from back east. One was a son of Bold Ruler named First Edition. J.J.’s training regimen was amazing, completely unlike everyone else there at the time.

“Gerald Bloss was another big trainer from New York who was in New Mexico in the ‘60s. He was like Baffert is now. He had big owners, like DuPont, and used different techniques from those of the cowboys. We learned a lot from those guys.”

Bloss trained the great Gallant Man in the first part of his two-year-old season before he was transferred to New York with John Nerud.

Gallant Man, along with Bold Ruler and Round Table, in 1957 comprised arguably the greatest crop of three-year-olds ever. Gallant Man finished second by a nose to Iron Liege and Bill Hartack in that year’s Run for the Roses when Bill Shoemaker, aboard Gallant Man, misjudged the finish line and stood up in the stirrups in the shadow of the wire.

Gallant Man went on to win the Belmont Stakes and at age 34, became the longest living horse to win a Triple Crown race. He died on Sept. 7, 1988. Count Fleet was the previous record holder, having died on Nov. 30, 1987 at the age of 33 years, eight months.

“My older brother, Cirilo Jr., was an assistant trainer for Jake Casio who conditioned quarter horses in New Mexico for many years,” Sierra continued, “but when Jake died, I asked my brother to help me train at Santa Anita. Ten years ago, he retired and I took over training full time, giving up my job in aerospace.”

All these years later, he is a mainstay in the Golden State, making Santa Anita his headquarters save for tours at Del Mar when the seaside track is open. He lives 17 miles from Santa Anita in La Crescenta, with his wife, Dulce. He has never raced on the East Coast.

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Breeders’ Cup 2018, issue 50 (PRINT)

$6.95

Pre Breeders’ Cup 2018, issue 50 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Val Brinkerhoff - the former jockey turned trainer

By Ed Golden

The Santa Anita stable notes for April 14th (as written by Ed Golden) succinctly summarize that Val Brinkerhoff is one of the faceless trainers who drives the game.

He might be light years from being in a league with the Bafferts, Browns, and Pletchers but pound for pound, the 62-year-old Brinkerhoff has one of the most industrious operations in the land, flying beneath the radar while gaining respect from peers and bettors alike.

He’s an angular version of John Wayne, cowboy hat and all, but without the girth and swagger, Brinkerhoff is a hands-on horseman from dawn till dusk.

He is a former jockey who gallops his own horses, be they at Santa Anita, Del Mar, Turf Paradise in Arizona, or his training center in St. George, Utah, where he breaks babies and legs up older horses that have been turned out.

In short, Val Brinkerhoff is a man’s man, pilgrim.

It all began when he was 14 in a dot on the map called Fillmore, Utah, current population circa 2,500.

Named for the 13th President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, it was the capital of Utah from 1851 to 1856. The original Utah Territorial Statehouse building still stands in the central part of the state, 148 miles south of Salt Lake City and 162 miles north of St. George.

But enough of history.

View fullsize

“My dad trained about 30 horses when we lived in Fillmore,” said Brinkerhoff, a third-generation horseman. “I would ride a pony up and down a dirt road outside our house every day, and that’s how I learned to gallop horses.

“There was no veterinarian in Fillmore, so you had to learn how to be a vet on your own, on top of everything else, because it was 300 miles round trip to a vet. So, if something was wrong, you had to figure it out for yourself without having to run to Salt Lake and back every five minutes.

“I was 5’ 10’’ and weighed 118 pounds and rode at the smaller venues, mainly in Utah but also Montana, where I was leading rider, and Wyoming and California (Fairplex Park in Pomona). I’ll never forget the day my dad took me to Pomona. I walked in the jocks’ room and immediately became aware of how tall I was.

“While in California, Bill Shoemaker gave me one of his whips, which I cherished. I rode many winners with it. Towards the end of my father’s life, my son, Ryan, asked him if he had any regrets. He said he had one.”

His father said, “I should have taken Val to the big tracks in California and given him the chance to make it there. He had the desire and the talent.”

Brinkerhoff also rode in Utah at outposts with names that sound contrived, like Beaver, Richfield, Marysvale, Kanab, Parowan, Ferron, Payson, and Panguitch.

“But ultimately,” he said, “I couldn’t make the weight. I was already skinny and at 5-10 and 118 pounds, didn’t have an ounce to lose.

TO READ MORE --

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

August - October 2018, issue 49 (PRINT)

$5.95

August - October 2018, issue 49 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Noah Abramson

By Linda Dougherty

In an era during which the Sport of Kings is often criticized for its aging fan base and lack of appeal to younger people, there is a youthful presence in Maryland racing who has made himself known as a trainer in a very short period of time.

Noah Abramson, a 26-year-old native of Woodbine, Maryland, turned heads when he won with the first two horses he saddled, both at Laurel Park in June of 2017. And who knows, had it not been for an unfortunate starting gate incident, he might have won with his first three.

Abramson was not new to horses when he decided to take the trainer’s test, but he was new to the Thoroughbred world. Thanks to hard work and an inquisitive nature, he was able to glean information from seasoned horsemen, gain the confidence of an owner/breeder, and start down the path to early success in a game that is not often kind to newcomers. With the help and support of his family, Abramson has embarked on a journey that he realizes will be filled with as much disappointment as glory.

Take a stroll down Abramson’s shedrow on the Pimlico backstretch and you’ll see 15 or so Thoroughbreds in thickly bedded stalls behind custom webbings, emblazoned with the stable’s logo. It is not a slap-dash operation but one that appears well-tended and professional, one that you might think is run by a veteran conditioner. Yet at its helm is a young man who has taken what he’s learned from a very successful equestrian career, much in the mold of equestrians-turned-trainers Rodney Jenkins and Michael Matz, and parlayed it into a burgeoning Thoroughbred business.

As a young boy, Abramson grew up with many pets, but there was one animal he really wanted -- a horse.

“I said to my parents when I was about seven, ‘I want to own a horse,’ and they said, ‘Well, you’ll have to learn to ride if you want one,’” recalled Abramson. “So I said I’d give it a try. I went for a lesson and the instructor had an apple tree in her arena. I’m little, and the horse is big, and the horse starts trotting away under the apple tree, and then the branch cut me straight out of the saddle. I fell off, scared to death, and I quit.”

He didn’t start riding again until four years later, this time with much better results. He had a knack for riding, a natural affinity with horses, and pushed himself to see what he could become in the equestrian world. He gave up hanging out with friends to be in a barn every day, sometimes walking there as soon as school dismissed. By the time he was 16, he was competing in shows all across the United States.

“I got my first horse and then my parents (Alan and Holly Abramson) bought me another, a big jumper that they imported from Germany, so I had two horses,” said Abramson, whose instructor for many years was Kim Rachuba Williams, also from Woodbine. “I took them to the McClay finals in New York, and to Devon and Kentucky, going over 4-foot-6 fences.”

It was through his uncle, Darrel Davidson, that Abramson was introduced to Thoroughbred racing.

TO READ MORE --

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

August - October 2018, issue 49 (PRINT)

$5.95

August - October 2018, issue 49 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

Why not subscribe?

Don't miss out and subscribe to receive the next four issues!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Trainer Profile: Brad Cox

By Joe Nevills

Between the first of April and the first of July, Brad Cox saw the kind of career progression most trainers spend a lifetime trying in vain to achieve.

April started with Cox picking up his first Grade 1 win after Monomoy Girl conquered the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. He finished the prestigious meet tied with Wesley Ward as the leading trainer by wins.

May saw the trainer and Monomoy Girl grab global headlines with a game victory in the Kentucky Oaks. In June, Cox found a new gear, adding another Grade 1 win with Monomoy Girl in the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park, and another Grade 1 winner when Long On Value took the Highlander Stakes at Woodbine. Cox finished the month as the leading trainer of the Churchill Downs spring meet by earnings.

At age 38, with a stable of about 100 horses spread across four tracks, Cox has laid the groundwork to entrench himself among North America’s leading trainers for a long time to come. What will keep him there is his commitment to training like he’s still got 15 horses in his barn.

“We’re grinding every day,” Cox said. “We have a very good team assembled.”

Louisville upbringing

In the aftermath of Monomoy Girl’s Kentucky Oaks win, much was made of Cox’s local ties to Louisville, Kentucky. The story has become almost boilerplate when writing about the trainer at length: Cox grew up just two blocks from the Churchill Downs property, in a white house at 903 Evelyn Avenue in Louisville’s Wyandotte neighborhood. His father, Jerry Cox, a forklift driver at a local factory, took his son to the track as a child and the younger Cox caught the racing bug so severely, it became a career path.

The trainer admitted he does not often drive by to check on the house, just a stone’s throw off of Longfield Avenue, even though he is at the track nearly every day. His parents moved out a half-decade ago. Jerry died in 2016, and Mary resides in another part of town. However, the trainer’s reasons are less about sentiment and more about logistics.

“It’s kind of by Gate 10 (an entrance to the track’s parking lot]) and I go in and out of Gate 5 (the backstretch entrance),” he said.

View fullsize

What makes Cox’s success somewhat unique is that he is not a generational horseman. His father was noted in many stories for his affinity toward betting on Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, but no one in the family had hands-on experience with horses to pass on to Brad. When he made his way on to the Churchill backstretch for the first time as a teenager, Cox started with a built-in handicap.

Cox made up for the lost time in spades by paying attention and being punctual. He hotwalked and worked as a groom for a handful of trainers on the Louisville backside, including Frank Brothers and William “Jinks” Fires. He relished the grunt work, slowly gaining the trust of his bosses and working his way up their ranks.

“It’s a tough business,” Cox said. “As far as coming to work every day, I enjoyed it. I had no problem getting up in the mornings. It wasn’t a job for me, and it’s still not a job for me. It’s something I love to do. I’ve always said getting up seven days a week is half the battle.”

Years later, Cox is now an equal to the trainers that gave him his start. Fires said he speaks with Cox regularly and considers him a friend.

“He’s gone on and become successful,” Fires said. “He pretty much did it himself. He had that work ethic to go on, and that’s what people do. When they want to, they go on, and he did it.”

TO READ MORE --

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

August - October 2018, issue 49 (PRINT)

$5.95

August - October 2018, issue 49 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

Why not subscribe?

Don't miss out and subscribe to receive the next four issues!

Print & Online subscription

$24.95

Mike Machowsky: in profile

By Mary Dixon Reynolds

In Southern California, the San Gabriel Mountains serve as the backdrop to Santa Anita Park, the home of many top trainers, including Michael Machowsky Stables. Machowsky has been based on this circuit for 34 years, from the time he worked as assistant trainer and stable foreman for Richard Mandella for almost six years before he went out on his own.

Recently, Hall of Famer Mandella recalled Machowsky’s early days: “Mike was a young man when he worked for me. I was a younger man, too! He was a very devoted, hard-working young person who had nothing on his mind but racing horses. I have watched him grow through the years, he’s still that way and always puts his horses first. I’m in the Hall of Fame because of people like Mike
Machowsky and so many others. They have propelled me to where I am now,” Mandella said.

“Machowsky has a very good feel for horses, which is innate. He proves it year after year. It’s not something you can acquire. You have it or you don’t, and Machowsky has it!”

Although Mandella was speaking in serious tones, a sense of pride was evident in his words. Machowsky credits his mentor with teaching him patience, and Mandella deflected the compliment from himself by saying, “We all learn patience from the horses.”

View fullsize

Patience is not all that Machowsky took away from his time with Mandella. “I learned everything from him,” he said. “Detail, leaving no stone unturned on the horses -- those traits stayed with me. Mandella taught me it’s the little things that matter.”
The Sunday after Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, Machowsky trainee Make It a Triple won a claiming race. Machowsky’s smile was as wide as any of the people representing owner Richard Barton in the winner’s circle. Afterwards, Machowsky celebrated his victory at the restaurant 14 Hands. The
5’ 11” trainer was sitting at a table, wearing a long-sleeved dress shirt, jeans, and the same smile from the winner’s circle. He stated, ”I always expect to win. We put everything into these horses: conditioning, proper diets, daily care. It’s my position to decide what type of race they should enter for a win. If things do not go right, I blame myself, as I should because I am with these Thoroughbreds every day and know them inside out.”

Machowsky took out his trainer’s license in 1989 and saddled his first winner, Bidadip, on New Year’s Day at Santa Anita in 1990. Almost two years later, on December 22, 1991, Native Boundary became his first stakes winner, while Dancing Rhythm, winner of the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes in 1998, was his first graded stakes winner. In 2009, he won the $900,000 Sunland Derby with Kelly Leak, over future Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird in fourth.

Born September 19, 1965, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Machowsky was two when his family moved to Southern California. He became interested in horses through his physician father’s ownership of Quarter Horses and, later, Thoroughbred racehorses. When the popular, nearly white colt Vigors -- winner of the 1978 Santa Anita Handicap -- caught Machowsky’s attention, he never looked back.

He knew he had found his calling and would be relentless in its pursuit. He began working as a hotwalker and mucked stalls for trainer Clay Brinson after school and on weekends. At 15, he traveled to Del Mar with Brinson and stayed in a motorhome across the street from the track. He worked as a groom for trainer Henry Moreno for two years before moving to Mandella’s barn.

TO READ MORE --

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

August - October 2018, issue 49 (PRINT)

$5.95

August - October 2018, issue 49 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

Why not subscribe?

Don't miss out and subscribe to receive the next four issues!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Rodolphe Brisset - The Frenchman making his mark on American racing

By Jessie Oswald

The calendar will show that Rodolphe Brisset passed the one-year mark as a trainer on April 1st, but he’s quickly making a name for himself with the success of Grade 2 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby winner Quip. Owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, and SF Racing, the win put the Distorted Humor colt on the list for consideration for the spring classics and gave his young trainer his first graded stakes win.

“Winning that race was very rewarding and emotional, but you have to make sure you keep your feet on the ground, enjoy it for a day or two and then regroup and try to get another one,” said the humble Brisset.

Delve deeper into his record over his first year as a trainer and it becomes apparent that come the first Saturday in May, Brisset will have plenty to cheer about should either Justify or Noble Indy get their nose down in front on the wire.

Brisset may be most recognized as a former assistant trainer for Hall of Famer Bill Mott, but the French native has been working with and riding horses for much of his 34 years. Growing up in the countryside of Tours, France, Brisset and his sister spent weekends at the family vacation home about 30 miles from his parents’ restaurant and down the road from a horse ranch. With no family connection to horses, it was at the ranch that Brisset picked up the horse-riding bug, beginning lessons at age five. He took naturally to riding and progressed quickly.

View fullsize

“I think I was born to be on the racehorse,” Brisset joked from his base at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky. “It’s really something that feels very natural for me. I’m more comfortable on the horse than on my feet.”

As Brisset’s aptitude for horses grew, he competed in cross-country and dressage and was at the ranch most every day, even helping break their young horses. By age 10 he was riding in France’s popular pony races. At 12, representatives from the esteemed AFASEC School in Chantilly, France, approached the pre-teen after his win in a pony race that was sandwiched between races on Chantilly’s regular racing card. His future was set. Brisset enrolled in the school at age 14 and attended for two years before riding his first professional race as a jockey at age 16, the earliest he could be licensed. But with his body still growing, a career as a jockey would not last long.

“It was fun,” recalled Brisset. “But from 18 to 21, it was tough, between the weight and maybe I started to mature and realize that I was not very good as a jockey, I just started to think about something else.”

With his dreams of being a jockey coming to an end, Brisset looked for other opportunities in the industry. Though he couldn’t ride in the afternoon races, his nearly 20 years of experience riding and working with horses made him an excellent exercise rider and horseman. Recognized for his talents on and off the racetrack, Brisset was offered a job with one of France’s leading trainers, Alain de Royer-Dupré, where he learned how to make the transition from jockey to assistant trainer.

“It was a big change for me,” said Brisset. “He’s a very detail-oriented person. He’s the one that gave me that passion about getting your horse ready to the point that you get the best out of them for the start. I started to get on some of the horses that were difficult in the morning and we tried to fix them. The turn for me between being a jockey and trainer. I spent time with him and it really made me realize that this was something maybe I would be, an assistant trainer, and, maybe at some point, train.”

TO READ MORE --

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

August - October 2018, issue 49 (PRINT)

$5.95

August - October 2018, issue 49 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

Why not subscribe?

Don't miss out and subscribe to receive the next four issues!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Trainer Profile - Roger Attfield

View fullsize

By Alex Campbell

At 78 years old, Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield is still at the top of his game, showing no signs of slowing down.

“While I’m well and healthy and enjoying it, I’ll keep on doing it,” Attfield said. “I enjoy the horses. I always have. I’m still enjoying the people and my owners that I’m working with, so there’s no reason not to.”

While some people are born into the sport, Attfield developed a love of horses all on his own. Born in England to Leslie, a coal merchant, and Gladys, a stay-at-home mother, in 1939, he grew up in the town of Newbury. Attfield said that as a child, he would often venture off with a group of foreign settlers that made their home just outside of his village.

View fullsize

“The Romaners used to come up and camp on the village green, and still do apparently,” Attfield said. “They used to come up there with donkeys and goats, and when I was very young I followed them up. They sort of befriended me up there. My parents went mad when they found me because they thought they were stealing me. I fell in love with animals, and especially horses, from a very early age.”

This love of horses led him to a riding school. His parents didn’t have the means to pay for lessons, so Attfield funded them himself by working for farmers in the area.

“I started riding for some local farmers that had ponies kicking around,” Attfield said. “I used to do a milk round and I used to go ferreting for rabbits and sell the rabbits to the village and the local butchers to get enough money to go to the riding school.”

As Attfield got older, he moved into competitive riding. He started with show horses and eventually raced steeplechase horses as a teenager, where he won the juvenile steeplechase championship in 1955 at 16 years of age. The next year, he enrolled in the Berkshire Institute of Agriculture, where he specialized in farm management. Once he finished his education, Attfield started his own training and breeding business, while also riding show jumpers at the same time.

But as he moved into his 30s, Attfield was finding it tough to get by, even while competing in international equestrian competitions. In 1970, he made the decision to move to Canada in search of greener pastures.

“It’s pretty hard to make a living, no matter how well you’re doing, riding jumpers and show jumpers,” he said. “You had to sell the odd horse every now and then to make ends meet and you’re working really, really hard. That was getting to be a little tedious, and I didn’t see how I was going to do much better financially.”

Attfield had established a good foundation in the horse business during his time in England.

View fullsize

“A number of the people that I rode for were horse and cattle dealers, and they were just true farmers and horse people,” he said. “I used to go around sales and ride for a lot of these horse dealers that were really, really good horse people. I was always asking them questions and listening to conversations. I was always surrounding myself with some pretty good older horse people that really knew horses.”

Attfield said it was easy to spot the differences in horseracing between England and Canada once he made his first visit to Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

“When I first came over, I went down to the track with Frank Stronach one morning,” he said. “It was an eye opener for me as opposed to how we train horses in England. I was going into a situation where there’s riders and hotwalkers and grooms. Back home, somebody would do two or three horses and do everything with them.”

Attfield said he initially gave himself three years in Canada before he was going to move back to England. His first job at Woodbine was as a freelance exercise rider, but he quickly moved into training himself. He was given the opportunity to spend one season at Blue Bonnets Raceway in Montreal with Stronach’s trainer Fred Loschke, but when the meet at Blue Bonnets ended, Attfield wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue in racing.

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Spring 2018, issue 47 (PRINT)

$6.95

Spring 2018, issue 47 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Diamonds are Forever: Chuck Fipke in Profile

By Frances J. Karon

The kitchen table is in a state of organized chaos. Thick white binders; thin red binders; a three-hole punch; scissors; clear tape; paper printouts; a box filled mostly with yellow HB 2 Paper Mate pencils, their erasers worn to the nub. From where Charles “Chuck” Fipke is seated at the table, he need only glance up to see Forever Unbridled’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff trophy. To his left, down the length of the wooden table, is a window bench that was overtaken long ago by more fat white binders, behind a Nikon with an 800mm lens on a tripod.

This is where Fipke plans his matings, like the one that produced Eclipse Award-winning champion older female Forever Unbridled.

The view through the back window is magnificent: the house backs up to the shore of the Okanagan Lake in Kelowna, British Columbia. And the Nikon is pointed at the top of a tall perch, recently frequented by an osprey, on the dock outside. On the ground, plump quail, unperturbed by a fat squirrel in their midst, peck at the birdseed that Fipke tosses out from a container near the door.

The yard, says his son Taylor, the youngest of Fipke’s six children, is “like a mini-ecosystem.”

For as long as anyone knows, Fipke has always had this connection with nature, linked with his fearlessness, fervor for adventure, and the methodical approach of a passionate and unwavering workaholic. Listen – you don’t discover diamond mines by accident or luck.

Nor has his Thoroughbred breeding operation been run by accident or luck.

“In both disciplines [horses and geology], I do my own little research,” he says. “To identify minerals that go with diamonds, I’ve got my ways of doing it. It’s pretty complicated, and I do the same with horses, too.”

They’re really not so different, finding diamond mines and breeding champions.

Chuck Fipke was the first of Ed and Anna’s four children, born in Alberta, Canada, in 1946 with independence and a take-charge attitude.

Anna was, she says, “always right behind” her young son.

“I remember when he was just a little boy and he used to take his little tricycle and go down a hill,” says Anna, “and there was traffic down there. That really scared me. I didn’t want him to do that but he did it anyway. It was a challenge for him to go fast down there and just stop.”

Instead of curbing his strong personality, she gave him freedom. “I always encouraged him to do things, I never restricted his doings. He was quite a kid to raise.” And here she laughs again. “He had his own way and he wanted it done his way. He always was a leader. Whenever he was with a group of boys, he was the one that was always arranging things and taking them wherever they should go, which he still does. And it seemed like he did good because I never heard complaints about it.”

His family couldn’t afford much, and with Ed drifting in – and mostly out – of the picture during the early years, Anna resolutely raised four children. “I always found a way,” she says. “They never went hungry.”

“My dad left us once for two years, eh.” Fipke says matter-of-factly. It’s consigned to the past now. “We had this garden, and at one stage all we had left was celery to eat. I didn’t like celery after that, but now I love celery, because I ate it when I was young.”

View fullsize

Jerseytown

Fipke was a quick thinker, precocious and clever enough to devise means of earning money – though not always in ways that he could tell his mother. “I actually was quite a good entrepreneur,” he says. “I was probably the richest kid in my class. And you know, I never got anything from my parents.

“I did a lot of questionable things, to be quite honest. Even though I was a Scout,” he says quietly, looking back on a child’s survival instinct through an adult’s filter.

When his father started an aerial farm photography business and settled down somewhat, moving the family from Alberta to British Columbia – to a Peachland farm on the outskirts of Kelowna – Ed was more present in their lives, although his work took him away often.

Anna used a paintbrush to turn Ed’s pictures into beautiful works of art, and their oldest son knocked on doors to sell the photos. Young Fipke was, he discovered, good at sales, and the job helped prepare him for the future. “It doesn’t matter what you do, you have to sell yourself,” he says.

“My dad was always critical, which was good. It’s good to have criticism. But my mum was always positive, so I had a balance of both.”

While finding his balance, Fipke began to yearn for a horse. He says, “I liked all animals, but all I dreamt about was having a horse. I never thought I’d get one.”

He’d raised a collection of birds, from pigeons to owls and even a falcon, from a very young age. Maybe he was attracted to the freedom that birds experienced. One day he’d stood helplessly watching as his falcon flew away, never to return.

With horses, he, too, could fly. Their wildness that could never be fully tamed was a buzz.

“The thing about riding a horse going full blast is it’s exciting, because with downhill skiing, you can control yourself, but with a horse you never really know exactly what’s going to happen. You direct it, but it doesn’t necessarily go there!” He laughs, his enthusiasm boyish and pure.

He had two horses before he was out of high school, an Arabian filly he lost when his father still owed money for her and an ex-racehorse he sold after it nearly killed him, giving Fipke a concussion and fracturing his skull in three places.

“I used to love to ride like the wind. You develop quite an attachment to them, too. It’s one of the things I don’t like about having so many horses, that I can’t really see them all,” he says.

He rode the ex-racehorse against Exhibition (now Hastings) Park racehorses that were on their way to the Calgary Stampede. “I came dead last, but it didn’t discourage me,” he says, remembering that he’d ridden Western against real jockeys on lightweight saddles. “I didn’t think I’d lose, you know.”

Taylor tells his dad, “That doesn’t cross your mind often.”

View fullsize

Unbridled Forever

Fipke graduated from high school in Kelowna and enrolled at the University of British Columbia (UBC). His father had advised him that there were nine jobs available for every geophysicist who earned a degree, so he started off in that direction until a required course unearthed a talent for geology.

“Before I went to university, my little brother liked rocks, but I didn’t really. You know, they were interesting, but…”

Rocks, he soon learned, presented him with the intellectual challenge of discovery and the physical challenge of the hunt that drives him even now. Geology could unlock the secrets, billions of years old, of the Earth for anyone with the intelligence, patience, and derring-do to find them.

On a typical day, Chuck Fipke spends his mornings poring over the papers in his horse binders and afternoons poring over samples, results, charts, and maps at his lab, where he’s in the process of finalizing a “very important” diamond indicator mineral classification scheme that no one else has done.

C.F. Mineral Research Ltd. is in a modest building that’s been the company’s base since it relocated from the kitchen of Fipke’s first house. His parking spot – which he uses more often now that he isn’t bicycling or rollerblading to the office anymore – is marked with a sign: “Stud parking only. All others will be towed.” An old, broken-down Oldsmobile, AKA “The Shark,” occupies a parking space, too.

“We do things cost-effectively. What I found when we were starting out is that it was cheaper to put five guys in a car and drive than it was to have everyone go on a bus, eh!” he says. The Shark is kept around as a reminder of how Fipke once had to make do on a shoestring budget.

The work that goes on inside the lab is, frankly, staggering. The process of sifting through each sample of what, to the uneducated eye, looks like dirt, dirt, and more dirt is incredibly detailed and exacting. No single grain is ignored; each step sifts out particles of earth whose analysis will not lead to diamonds, gold, or whatever element they happen to be looking for, until they are left with a small, viable sample that warrants closer examination.

The man running the wet-sieving equipment removes every last speck of dirt before moving on to another bag of dirt. If he doesn’t do this perfectly, the next sample will be contaminated. And so it goes for each of the weeding-out processes. One tiny misstep can put prospectors on a costly false trail – or turn them away from a legitimate one.

This lab, it’s been said, is the world’s best in its field. “One reason we’re so successful in mining,” Fipke says, “is we developed the technology ourselves.”

That technology has helped Fipke identify what he thinks is his second diamond mine, in the Attawapiskat area north of Toronto.

“It’s fun finding diamonds!” he says.

But despite using the highest level of technology to separate and analyze millions of grains in a bag of dirt – or to breed and develop horses – Fipke doesn’t use the internet. For him, the fax machine is still king, and, though his horses sometimes wear heart monitors and GPS equipment, there’s nothing better than a stopwatch when it comes to training.

Fipke, who has a perpetual hint of mischief in blue eyes and a laugh always percolating under the surface, says, “I’ve learned how to use a microwave! People call me a dinosaur, but I’m high tech now that I use that microwave.”

Maybe his reluctance to embrace all aspects of modern technology is a vestige of his earliest days in the field when, just out of college with a wife (from whom he’s divorced) and young son, he lived among cannibals, warriors, and bushmen, sometimes sleeping with a double-barreled shotgun by his side.

TO READ MORE —

BUY THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DOWNLOAD -

Spring 2018, issue 47 (PRINT)

$6.95

Spring 2018, issue 47 (DOWNLOAD)

$3.99

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE?

DON'T MISS OUT AND SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEXT FOUR ISSUES!

Print & Online Subscription

$24.95

Norm McKnight - Woodbine's Leading Trainer

View fullsize

GET YOUR HANDS ON THIS ISSUE - VISIT OUR ONLINE SHOP HERE!

Are you a subscriber?

Don't miss out and subscribe to receive the print magazine now! CLICK HERE

Profile - Mick Ruis

Published in North American Trainer, Winter 2017 issue.

Trainers are nothing if not confident.

It’s rarely their fault when they lose a race.

It’s the track, the ride, the post position, the equipment, the weather.

Mick Ruis is a refreshingly standup guy in a game where the batter often receives a curve ball rather than a pitch right down the middle. He speaks with a child’s innocence, and he believes in the Golden Rule.

After he won three races at Santa Anita on opening day, September 29, he was humble, appreciative, and forthcoming when asked about the feat.

“Usually we’re lucky if we run one horse a day,” Ruis (pronounced ROO-is, as in Lewis) said, speaking of Ruis Racing, LLC, the ownership comprised of himself and his wife, Wendy.

“But we saved all the horses for that meet. I’m a believer that if someone helps you, like Santa Anita did by giving us stalls, you try to help them, so we wanted to save our horses for the short meet (19 days) since we were stabled there.”

Most magnanimous, but one would expect nothing less from a man whose philosophical foundation is based on curiosity and practicality. His esteemed business sense was developed through hands-on application, not surprising from a high school dropout who became a millionaire.

“I was penniless when I started, and to this day I work for everything I’ve got,” he said.

To read more of this article - subscribe here!

Buy this issue here

Trainer Profile - Dennis Collins

View fullsize

Published in North American Trainer, Winter 2017 issue.

Accepting reality is a lot more difficult when you’re on your back in a hospital bed. When your whole world has crashed. When you realize the rest of your life will be spent in a wheelchair.

Asked when he was able to wrap his mind around that, Dennis Collins, a 53-year-old jockey with 2,287 victories who was paralyzed in an accident at The Downs at Albuquerque in 2016, said, “The third day. I said, ‘This is the way it’s going to be. Why bitch and moan about it? I’m not going to walk again. But I’ll always have my own chair in a restaurant.’”

Collins, who recently began training horses with his fiancée Heather Brock – his lifeline, his saint, and his best buddy – has already scored a victory by not letting an accident take him out of racing and away from his passion, one begun whenever his parents, who had no connections to racing, took him out for a drive from their home in Gloucester City, New Jersey. “When I was a kid, every time we’d drive by a farm, if I saw a horse, I’d scream and cry,” Collins said. “We’d stop, and I’d go pet him. They’re beautiful animals. I’ve always loved horses. It was in my blood. I knew if I was short enough” – and at five-feet tall, he was – “I wanted to get into horse racing.”

Brock is so glad he did.

To read more of this article - subscribe now!

Profile: Mike Stidham

“I’m a very self-conscious person who thinks a lot, worries a lot, and is a perfectionist. In this business, there’s not a lot of perfection.”

First published in North American Trainer August - October 2017 issue 45

Click here to order this back issue!

---

SEE OUR EXCLUSIVE PHOTOSHOOT

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

How do you reconcile a win-only mentality in a profession where a 25 percent success rate is as good as it gets?

“I struggle with it to this very day,” trainer Mike Stidham said. “If I expect a horse to win and he doesn’t, I don’t want anybody to be around me for a little time. I’ve always been a very competitive person. I’m an action junkie who loves competing and I want to win. It’s not the greatest way to live because it’s impossible to do.”

Fortunately for the 59-year-old conditioner, his horses have been winning more often than ever in his 38-year-old career as he builds a national presence after winning his first training title at the Fair Grounds in 2016, the same year he finished 36th overall in the country by earnings, with $3,747,766. That remains his most successful year to date thanks to a career-high 105 victories from 608 starts.

Those numbers are remarkable considering he was almost forced out of the business when he won just six races in 1989 and three in 1990.

Yet now, as he has his whole life, he wants more. He wants better.

“I’m the kind of person who’s hard on myself,” Stidham said. “I always want a reason why. ‘Why didn’t he run good? What did I do wrong?’ I’m a very self-conscious person who thinks a lot, worries a lot, and is a perfectionist. In this business, there’s not a lot of perfection.”

That didn’t prevent the late Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack, a close friend of Stidham’s family who was a mentor and like a kind uncle to Stidham, from feeling the same way.

“My mother would cook dinner and he would come over,” Stidham said. “One night, I asked my dad why Bill was so upset. My dad said, ‘He rode seven and only won five.’ When he was riding, he expected to win every race. When he didn’t, he wasn’t easy to be around. He was very serious. That’s why he was so successful.”

Hartack, though, just like Stidham, had a softer side. “He was two different people,” Stidham said. “When he came to our home on days he wasn’t riding, he was like a little kid. He really was. He took us to amusement parks and played with us. I think that was his release.”

Stidham’s now-84-year-old mother, Anita, agreed: “They would go to the movies. He’d take a lot of Michael’s friends to Disney. He’d take a day off and take all the kids to the movies all day long. They used to do fun things.”

After Hartack passed away in 2007, Stidham and several other friends established the Bill Hartack Charitable Foundation, which rewards each year’s winning Kentucky Derby jockey with a ring. Ticket sales for the event and ads in the program raise money, and the winning jockey chooses which charity he wants to help. Already, donations have been made to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, the Winners Foundation, and the Racing Employee Assistance Program. At the event, the Stidhams bring and display Hartack’s five Kentucky Derby trophies that he left them.

The Foundation gives Stidham’s mother another reason to smile about her son. “I couldn’t be any prouder,” she said. “He excels in everything he does and he’s a good person.”

And his over-competitive drive? “That I believe he got from Bill,” she said. “Michael was around him a lot growing up. He picked up some of Bill’s traits. Michael was very competitive, all his life, in everything he did. He always wants to win.”

To read more - subscribe now!