This will seem like a dumb question: What does a racehorse trainer to? What about someone at the level of Bob Baffert?
I assume they manage the feeding and nutrient intake, the training workout schedule, who rides the horse, training the horse how to break from the starting gate, etc. Do they generally own the place they train out of? Do they determine the strategy for a race or does the jockey do that? In your opinion, what makes a really good race horse trainer a really good trainer?
In the US, most trainers have their horses stabled at a race track. And yes to all of your assumptions. What goes unnoticed is the uncanny instinct some trainers have of accurately asses the ability of the horses they train and of the ability of the horses they will run against, and placing their horses in races they can win. There are many many good horsemen (and women) who are not successful race horse trainers because they can’t accurately evaluate the competition and put their horses in races they can win. It’s a talent. I sure as heck can’t do it, hence my participation in most aspects except as a trainer.
In the US, races are written with restricting conditions - gender, age, distance, surface (dirt, turf), number of races won, (maiden, nonwinners of 2, nonwinners of 3 etc). Some races are allowance/stake races with high purses, and they are very competitive and have different levels, the higher the purse, the better the horse.
Claiming races are the most popular, meaning the horse is for sale and a licensed owner with a trainer can fill out a form and walk away with the horse at the end of the race. The claiming races are written with specific price tags, ie claiming price $5,000, for each race. They can go as high as $100,000 although that is rare, you usually don’t see higher than $25,000. The price tag defines the quality of the horse - cheaper horses are slower. So the trainer wants to race the horse where he can win- against cheaper slower horses - but what are the chances someone will claim the horse and get a real bargain?
Thanks, Palm Beach, for your detailed answer! I have a much better appreciation for the role of the trainer now (I’ve really always wondered what it entails).
What trainers do any given day depends a lot on the trainer and the size of the barn. Baffert has a large barn primarily based in California but the horses are scattered between Santa Anita and Los Alamitos and sometimes Del Mar. Obviously he can’t be in three different places so he has assistants to do a lot of the day to day even at the home track.
A smallish trainer with 20 or so horses is probably making the set lists him or herself, overseeing the training, checking legs after training, reviewing the condition book, securing rides for races that he or she wants to enter, entering horses, discussing races with owners. Then you go to the races and if he or she is a claiming trainer–they mark legs ie they are at the walking ring before a claiming race looking from knee or below on horses that might be on their radar to claim and marking it in the program. Of course there are also the races in which they entered. In a very real sense, trainers of this size are entrepreneurs, hustling up owners, trying to compete well enough to stay relevant. At any given time, the trainer could be dealing with vets, owners, the racing office, jock agents, their help, riders for the myriad issues that come up every day. Most of this happens at the track that is they are running at but some will be based elsewhere (like San Luis Rey in California) and ship in.
