TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1075818
TA: The way that stereotype has been broken is by my par- ticipating in the yearling sales. The last four or five years I have gone to Keeneland and have made a big effort to buy horses there, and it's paid really good dividends. I used to think that going to the sales was real laborious, but now it's something I really enjoy doing. I'm still going to be claim- ing horses. In my opinion, that's something as a stable we do well. But we've added this aspect to our stable and it's been a real pleasure and a real exciting time for everyone in the barn. TA: Before I started training, I had a very good background working my way toward becoming a trainer. I felt when I started training back in 1988 that there wasn't a horse I couldn't train. I was very comfortable working with horses and trying to get them to the races. I've always been pretty aggressive in the entry box, so that certainly plays a part in this. But the most important thing of all is that I'm around the barn. I'm there every day. I'm there in the afternoons. I'm there on dark days in the afternoon. I'm around my horses. For everyone who says it's a shame they can't talk and tell you what they are thinking, all you have to do is learn their language. The language they display in the stall and on the racetrack, things that they do, I feel I am fluent in the language that the horse gives out. The only way you can become fluent and stay fluent is to be around them as much as possible. TDN: When you started off in the business you developed a reputation as a claiming trainer. Now you are winning graded stakes races and have a lot classier barn than you might have had 10 years ago. Sometimes, when people get stereotyped as claiming trainers, it's very hard to break that stereotype. How have you done that? TDN: Perhaps the greatest attribute you have as a trainer is your consistency. Year after year after year, you win a lot of races and have a high winning percentage. A lot of trainers come and go. They're hot and then fade away after four or five years. What accounts for that consistency? I feel I am fluent in the language that the horse gives out. " "