The Road Less Traveled
by Laura Hillenbrand
Equus
January 1991
From the moment she first visited a racetrack backstretch, Janet Del Castillo was uneasy about the physical and mental demands placed on conventionally trained racehorses. Kept in their stalls 23 hours a day, pushed to destructive speeds early in their lives and often times plied with medication to add a competitive edge, most equine athletes are not allowed enough time to "be horses" in Del Castillo's view.
Nonetheless, it wasn't until the former polo pony trainer faced a tricky personal dilemma that she discovered that a completely different training style was feasible-and profitable.
In 1986, a divorce left Del Castillo with three children to raise on her own and a barn full of racehorses to train. Complicating matters was the fact that her home, an orange farm located in Winter Haven, Florida was a 4 1/2 hour drive from the nearest racetrack. But she solved her problems by drawing on her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer and the maxim she had once taught to others.
"In the Peace Corps, my mission was to teach people to look at their problems and cope with their problems with what they have," she says. "If you have lemons, make lemonade."
In surveying her lemons - a 14 acre orange grove and small barn miles from the nearest racetrack - it occurred to Del Castillo that her horses might train just as well, or even better, on the heavy sand trails between her orange trees. Then, to the scorn of many trainers, owners and journalists, she packed up her horses, shipped them to her farm and began making lemonade. With the help of her children, she galloped her horses into condition on the meandering trails of her orange groves and swam them in a nearby lake, ferrying them to the track only for races and occasional timed workouts.
More than a decade later, a brilliant, multiple-stakes-winning mare and a matchless record of training sound, durable horses have silenced the naysayers. And Del Castillo is spreading the word about her concept of a "backyard racehorse."
Del Castillo's offbeat training approach does not consist of simply keeping racehorses on the farm. Blending practical experience with common sense, her program is designed to engender the endurance, strength and physical maturity needed to withstand the breakneck speeds of racing.
"Horses have a capacity to do more than what is good for them," she explains. "On the track, [trainers] go straight to speed. The horses start pulling themselves apart. That's damage you can't undo. You have to allow them a certain amount of growth time." Thus, Del Castillo's horses are not raced or asked for speed drills before they are three years old. Instead, the trainer uses swimming and long gallops at graduated distances and weights to give them the "substructure to allow them to hold up to their own speed." And, once horses are fit, Del Castillo gallops them only every three to four days. "All you have to do is keep their wheels greased," she says.
The trainer also takes a commonsense approach to her horses' stabling arrangements. Unlike track-dwelling athletes, who are usually out of their stalls only for training or racing, Del Castillo's horses are turned out for much of the day, an arrangement that allows them to stretch, graze and socialize at will. "I try to inhibit the horse as little as possible," she says. "Horses are very social animals. When they are emotionally undernourished, they develop neurotic habits to cope with it.
"People think a horse has to be jumping out of his stall and acting like an idiot to be a good runner. Those things don't go hand in hand," she continues. "My horses are relaxed, but when they go to the racetrack, they know what theyıre there for."
While one set of unusual circumstances spurred the development of Del Castillo's unique training approach, another led to her greatest triumphs - as well as the long awaited vindication of her methods.
In 1984, a Florida breeder donated two Thoroughbred fillies as pleasure-horse prospects to a children's home where Del Castillo was a volunteer. The home's director soon determined that he could not house the fillies and asked Del Castillo if she was interested in them. Although in such a precarious financial position that she feared losing her home, Del Castillo saw enough potential in the fillies to buy them, on credit, for the bargain-basement price of $5,000.
One of the fillies did indeed prove to be best suited to life as a riding hack, but the other, a little gray named First Prediction, thrived on the backyard training regimen and became Del Castillo's most accomplished runner.
First Prediction, who won several stakes races and earned more than $300,000, almost single-handedly put her trainer on the map and proved the legitimacy of her once-maligned training approach. Dubbed the "Iron Maiden," the mare was phenomenally sound, racing more than 100 times between ages three and eight, while sometimes competing as often as three times in two weeks.
So far, First Prediction is the only stakes-class campaigner to emerge from Del Castillo's barn, but the trainer has also had notable success with her less celebrated charges. Although she has been able to afford only obscurely bred runners, almost every one of her horses has made it to the winner's circle during its racing career - an extraordinary statistic for any racing stable.
In addition, Del Castillo has managed to avoid the soundness troubles that frequently plague racing operations. She reports, for example, that none of her horses has a tendon problem, an affliction common among conventionally trained runners. And although she does use medication when necessary, such instances are rare. "I try to combine common sense and medical know-how" says Del Castillo. "The horses I train last."
Currently at work on a backyard training manual, Del Castillo is also planning a series of seminars for those interested in learning more about her philosophy and techniques.
While admitting backyard training is not for just anyone with a horse, barn and pasture, Del Castillo believes her program can bring much-needed new blood to racing. "I'm trying to appeal to competent horsepeople. I want to encourage racing to be a positive force," she says. "People have illusions that only the rich and the criminals are involved, but there are many, many people like me in the sport."
A strong selling point is the comparative cost of backyard training as opposed to conventional race training. On-track training can cost as much as $100 per day, Del Castillo says, while training a racehorse at home costs no more than keeping a pleasure horse. Plus, she points out, racehorses normally spend months at the track, running up bills before they are even old enough to have their talent gauged. In contrast, her program calls for a horse to be shipped to a professional trainer at the track only when the animal is ready to begin speed training and racing. If a horse turns out to be a poor racing prospect, he has cost his owner far less than a conventionally prepared horse would have, Del Castillo says, and his relaxed upbringing will make him an excellent pleasure horse.
Basically, the trainer says she wants to share some of the enjoyment she has derived from racing. Looking out the window of her home, Del Castillo's eyes rest on her Cinderella horse, First Prediction, now in foal to Preakness winner Gate Dancer. "The joy I've had with this you could never buy."