WHERE ARE THE LITTLE OWNERS AND TRAINERS AT THE BIG RACES?
It's hard to say no to major money!
by Janet Del Castillo
Have you ever wondered why the big races generally end up with the well known famous trainers entering the world class horses? How does Wayne Lukas and some of the other brand name trainers always end up with top contenders for the major stakes? Do they have such tremendous luck that , though 40,000 horses a year are registered as thoroughbreds, the very highly talented animals seemed to be in the hands of the few?
It is difficult for the layman to understand the statistics against having Breeders Cup quality horses one year, let alone various years. There are , of course, owners who are so fantastically wealthy that they own hundreds of royally blooded mares to produce talented offspring. That kind of owner is buying the best to breed to the best in hopes of the best. He is using sheer numbers to help get that runner.
Owners with huge farms and hundreds of horses have "bought more tickets to the lottery" and have hedged their bets with astute breeding, excellent farm management and the best advice money can buy. Even with many new foals each year and hundreds being sent to tracks all over the country , the owner can find himself without the "GOOD ONE". It is then, that he might put out the word that he is looking for a promising Stakes Horse and is willing to pay for it. The early two year olds start to run and the talent appears. When a young horse starts to look good and beats a few top fields at major tracks, the offers will come in to the owner. Thunder Gulch was picked up and purchased while already running.
The previous owner probably thought he was getting a good deal, selling him for $160,000 when he had been originally bought out of the training sale for much less. The big name trainer with the wealthy client gets a promising young star. Many of the horses purchased that way are never heard of again...but the good buy- like Thunder Gulch-becomes the legend. It is the ability of the prominent trainers to purchase the promising horses that allows them to stay on the top. The horse, can come from anywhere. Larry the Legend was an example of that.
It becomes a self- fulfilling prophesy that the top trainers will get moneyed owners willing to give them the financial strength to buy the best.
Meanwhile...what about the rest of us...the little two-horse stables...the owner-trainers breeding their own foals that we hang on to for too long because we love them and don't want to risk losing them until we know what we have.. Do we ever get to the big league?
LUCK plays a huge part in this business. Let's say we have the luck to breed or acquire a talented horse. My own experience, on a smaller level, is typical of what happens. By default I got a filly that no one wanted for $2,500 on the cuff. She would not have sold in a sale for $1,500 that year based on her breeding and looks.
I trained her, along with five other horses that season, and when I put her on the track, she had a real piece of speed-that she generally put on at the end of a race. As this filly raced and became more adept at running and winning, many offers were made to me. The first was $25,000, then $35,000, then $125,000 and on up. The only basis for the offers was her ability to beat the other horses in the field.
Each time another offer reached me, I was surprised. My friends told me to take the money and run. As we all know, these horses can "go bad"at any time and each race may be the last. I was having such a wonderful time, hauling the filly down to the track, running her, and hauling back home, almost always with a check, that I had no pressure to sell. The filly was paying off the farm, buying the truck, putting the kids through school, and giving us all many thrills to be racing with Wayne Lucas, Woody Stephens, and others.
The last offer I was given for the $2,500 "throw away" filly was $500,000. I turned it down without a thought because at that point I would have sold my lovely daughter before I would have sold the filly. She was a part of out lives and we all knew that she would never be happy anywhere else . Even when she became severely ill and almost died from a virus shortly after that, I had no regrets. Many have said "Don't you now wish you had taken that money? You could be living off the interest!" I have to say, I would do it again...we got so much out of our experience with the filly ...that money can't buy! The lessons she taught us and the joy she gave us can't be measured. Now I see you old "hard hearts" rolling your eyes and thinking you might do it differently. Fine: For you! Horses are much more than meal tickets for some of us-call it an affinity ...a fatal attraction...a disease...but we do not always make choices for rational reasons. By the way, the filly, First Prediction, ran for five seasons and made over three hundred thousand. Though the illness set her back a few years to start breeding, she does now have a weanling filly that we are already dreaming about.
Back to the point- most trainers and owners will sell, take a profit, and be very happy when an offer is made for their promising horse. Then, of course, there he is, in the leading trainers barn and once again people think only the super wealthy can afford horses and only the major trainers know how to train a Stakes horse!
Please understand that major trainers either have their choice of the best bred horses off their owners' farm or they get to buy the best at the select sales for top dollar. Some trainers have fifty, a hundred, or even two hundred horses in training. They are constantly looking for the talent that can keep them on the top. Even with these "numbers" edges, there are years that they don't get the good one. The racing public is harsh and can be very hard on well-known trainers...we must all realize that the trainer can only do with what talent his horses have. Just as with any major sport, the best coach in the world can't make the untalented, talented. However...the good trainer can keep the talented horses running for years...so that we have older horses that can become sports heroes. In a business where so much can happen...even when you try to do everything right and protect your charges...it is a master who keeps his horses running into their forth and fifth years.
I saw Bill Kaplan, a trainer friend from Calder, at a sale in Ocala a few years ago. We were talking about the difficulties of the business. He admitted that he was considering just getting out. A week ago, Bill was on the way to Breeders Cup with a real contender! Bill doesn't have a stable of fifty horses and major league wealthy owners. But he got lucky... and with a little bit of luck...that can be any one of us!
If you keep your "real" job, and own and train horses on the side, maybe you'll have the luck of a talented one! And then you can keep and run him so that you...the little guy...can go to the BIG RACES!