Training in the Orange Groves
by Doug McCoy
Racing Action
March 1989
Imagine this scenario, if you will:
You're setting on a beautiful bass lake in central Florida, casting artificial worms and crank baits against the cattails while in search of that trophy large-mouth. The lake is all but deserted.
You're 90 miles from Ocala, 50 miles from Tampa Bay Downs and more than 200 miles from Miami. The furthest thing from your mind is horses and horse racing.
But suddenly you hear a sound, a familiar sound you've heard a hundred times before. It starts as just a murmur, but in a matter of moments it grows louder and more distinct.
It is the sound of horse's hooves, and from the pattern of the sound, it's obvious these horses are in a strong gallop or are working. You look around for a training track, for some sign of a racing strip, but all you see are orange trees.
After some investigation you find out that you had indeed heard race horses at work and that those charges came from the Rancho Del Castillo, a unique training facility located high on a hill overlooking Eagle Lake and the surrounding rolling landscape of central Florida.
The story of Rancho Del Castillo and its master, Janet Del Castillo is one well worth repeating.
From the Peace Corps to the
Race Track
It seems that many years ago a young Peace Corps volunteer found herself in
the wilds of Columbia. While working with the natives there, she met a doctor
who she later married. The couple eventually settled in Winter Haven. The
husband wanted some race horses so they went into business the usual way,
by contacting a trainer and buying some stock.
"To make a long story short," continues Janet Del Castillo, "the horses were soon beat up and injured from racing and wound up on the farm here. My husband wanted to get rid of them but I persisted, stalling him for a time.
"After he went to work I would work with the horses, learning as I went along. I snuck them over to the track to work once they were recovered, hurrying back before my husband got home."
Although the marriage failed to survive, Del Castillo's interest and love for thoroughbreds not only lived, it blossomed. Using training methods and philosophies considered radical and outlandish by many of her peers, Del Castillo went about training and developing horses the way she wanted to, with only a modicum of success.
Then along came First Prediction. "I got her from the Children's Home, believe it or not," the trainer recalled. "They had two fillies they couldn't keep and I took them both for $5,000 on the cuff."
That modest purchase went on to become a top stakes and handicap distaffer for Del Castillo, earning more than $260,000 during her career and recently came back from a bout with founder to race again with top grass company at Gulfstream Park.
Developing Sound, Healthy Horses
And where did the pounding hooves come from?
"I gallop my horses through an orange grove," Del Castillo explained. "It's exactly one mile around, with a half mile stretch where we cluck 'em and let them work."
Del Castillo calls her training style the "Montessori school of horse training" and her horses are permitted to develop at their own individual pace. She doesn't race horses at two and admits it takes her charges several races to acclimate themselves to racing once their careers start.
"Because I'm here on the farm I can take my time with my horses. I don't believe in pushing young horses and I believe the results speak for themselves. I rarely use medications, hardly ever have a horse on Lasix and I don't believe I've ever had a horse of mine bow a tendon.
"Here at the farm they're allowed to graze in the paddocks, we swim them in the lake after training and we do everything to give them a natural environment.
"I substitute time, patience and healing powers Mother Nature has given the horse over speed, medications and shortcuts. I know one thing: I develop sound, healthy race horses. We may train in the groves but itıs training all the same."