If you are a racehorse owner, or former owner, how did you go about picking your trainer? Location, price, training style, name recognition, win%, word of mouth? How did you make your short list, who was on it and why? I’ve come to realize that while if you have the name of a specific trainer finding their stats is relatively easy, compiling a list and getting contact information for trainers on said list is rather difficult and tedious.
I am a former race trainer, and owner/breeder who did my own training. My take on your question is… it depends on what you are looking for in a trainer. It is easy to simply go get the trainer who has won leading trainer awards in your area. But this may not be the trainer you are going to be happy with. Win percentages may be another statistic that you can look at, and are not valueless in your assessment. But really, you need to talk to people. Other owners, and a variety of trainers. Some owners just want their horses to win, and it doesn’t matter what has to be done to get those wins. The long term best interest of the horse is not a concern. Other owners, want their horse to be well cared for, do as best as they can at the track, and hopefully come home in one piece. Each type of owner is looking for a different type of trainer. Both these types of trainers may have good statistics, but one will send a no-hope horse home to his owner in one piece, and the other will not. Even the best and most caring trainer can have horses hurt, or die racing. It is the nature of the sport. But one type of trainer will have a higher percentage of disasters, either lethal disasters or long term damage than the other will. People who are at your local racetrack will know which trainer is which, based on their long term relationship with all trainers at your track. And you know what you are looking for, based on your goals with the horse you are wanting to put into training.
“Big barns” and longstanding trainers have a history and reputation that you have to decide if it is for you. Usually the trainers with the best statistics will be the big barns, as they have more horses to draw from. Trainers who train smaller barns may be doing so because that is what they prefer, tend to be more “hands on” type of care. Big barns have more employees, and less “hands on” by the trainer. The best phrase I have ever heard for a trainer is “Big barn statistics, small barn care”. Some successful trainers exercise the horses in their care themselves, or used to do this when younger, or used to be jockeys themselves. This may or may not be a benefit. Some trainers have never ridden a racehorse in their lives. This may be a detriment, or it may not be. You have to decide what you think is important, and talk to the individual, trying to discern if they are a horseman or a charleton. Try to discern if they are honest, or a fake and dishonest.
To find contact information for trainers, your local racing office may be able to help you with this. And you will need to talk to a variety of trainers to find one that you think has what you are looking for in a trainer. Good luck! You may need to “trainer hop” for the first few years to find one that you truly think does the job you want. It will be easier as you get to know the personalities of the trainers available in your area.
Once your horse is in training, visit often. Take instruction about what your role is as an owner. Talk to your trainer about many things regarding your horse’s progress and prospects and goals. Get to know people, be involved. If your trainer doesn’t want to take the time to do this with you, choose another trainer, if you care.
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I’ve used 4 trainers over the course of 10 years and my preliminary advice is not to get too starstruck. One of the trainers I used was head and shoulders in reputation above the others and he was by far the least successful for me. The problem with big trainers is that unless you have a serious horse and/or you’re well off enough to cultivate, you’ll end up on their third string trained by the assistant’s assistant. The care in their program will probably be first rate but you’ll be lucky if the bigshot trainer knows your horses name or thinks much about him at all.
I found the others mainly by word of mouth and one by reputation. I look for horsemen with small enough barns that they are both hands on and appreciative of all of the owners including small ones like me with homebreds. In return, I give them a lot of latitude as to where to spot my horses to maximize success for all of us and I generally haven’t been disappointed even when I lose one through the claim box like I did last summer.
Also horsemanship aside, I have to feel some mutual respect in the relationship. That’s something that you know when you feel it and you sure know when you don’t.
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I think NancyM and Pronzini have provided very good advice.
It all depends on your goals, and the level of involvement you want to have in the decisions, etc. Of course, location, price and the like are objective and are very important. That being said, I think the intangibles are even more important - what kind of communication do you expect, and how often? Do you expect to hear from the trainer directly, or are you okay with an assistant being your primary contact? Do you expect to be involved in decisions about training, what races to enter, etc.? The only way to make sure you will get what you want out of the relationship with your trainer is to talk to them before you send them horses, and to be honest about what you are looking for. I think it’s also important to remember that sometimes not every horse you have will fit just one trainer’s program. If your primary trainer runs horses at top level tracks, and you end up with a horse that really should be in lower level races, you may need to send that horse to someone else. A good trainer will tell you that rather than waste your horse in races he/she cannot succeed in.
Our partnership uses one trainer, primarily, who was chosen by our manager. So far, ours is a success story. He is a well known trainer who had a BC winner in 2016, but he is not one of those with a mega huge barn. He is an amazing horseman, and a great person also. He has given us an honest assessment of each horse we have sent his way, and has done right by each of them. He also got us our first win, our first stakes placing and our first G1 appearance, all in our first year. I’m not sure you could ask for much more than that.
Good luck in your search!
Thank you all for the input, it is greally appreciated. I understand and have a pretty firm idea of what I’m looking for my issue is how to go about finding a trainer who fits. Being a state away from any track and not having any connections it is proving difficult to come up with names (one of the few professions that only really advertise by word of mouth). I have found 2 in the area and fee range im looking for and will be having a conversation about goals and operating procedures and such but I would like to have other options in case things dont line up. I have time to look as my 2yr old won’t be ready to send till the fall.
I have a few criteria - I will never have a positive test, the horse does not break down and they need to pay their way. I operate a business so I can’t dicker around with mickey mouse trainers who will take your money and tell you We’ll get 'em next time! Look at the long term statistics, check for infractions and look at the condition of their horses. They are not cheap, so get the checkbook out. At 15% win and 50% 1/2/3 you will pay your monthly bill. You need to be a tick above or have a pretty good horse to profit good at those numbers. Training race horses is very different and many good horsepeople can’t do it. Nothing against them, they just can’t get the wins necessary to be successful.
Honestly I am not trying to be confrontational but how do you enforce your criteria? Graham freaking Motion has had a positive test and that was somebody’s horse. He and Christophe Clement (as an example) are renowned for being world class horsemen but they have had breakdowns and that was someone’s horse. Surely all of their horses haven’t paid their way.
Knock on wood, I haven’t had a positive or a breakdown but every trainer I have used has had them and to an extent, it is a matter of luck that fate hasn’t landed on me. Obviously you do things to minimize that possibility by who you select in the first place but I think owners are kidding themselves if they think they removed the risk. If you race, you can breakdown and as silly as it sounds, I deal with that reality by a little mantra I repeat to myself silently while they are being loaded “Run fast, be safe. Be fast, run safe”. No I don’t have magical powers but it comforts me nonetheless.
And FWIW, I have had two stakes placed horses which paid their way but the others–not so much. But then I and my partners tend to be really conservative. I’ve given multiple horses whole years off if I felt they needed it which isn’t going to necessarily help the bottom line but I thought was the right thing to do.
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I set the bar as high as possible. I’m up front that I have zero tolerance and the envelope does not get pushed. Let’s not be silly and pretend it will prevent a freak breakdown or environmental contamination, but when it’s time to make a decision, the trainer will err on the side of caution.
The Motions and Pletchers and Clements cull anything that is not up to their standards.
A few things I have learned already after our first year 1) if you have multiple horses, sometimes one good one ends up paying the bills for one or two that are still developing, and 2) trainers with fairly sizable and very well run stables really don’t make money on day rate. Day rate is generally a break even game in a high quality outfit. So, good trainers usually don’t want to keep horses that aren’t good enough hanging around taking up a stall. They want horses in their stalls who are going to win purses and/or earn them a commission on a claim or other sale.
As far as positives and breakdowns go, I agree with Pronzini. Good trainers work extremely hard to prevent these things, but some things are no one’s fault. I think almost every trainer has had something unfortunate happen. Research and asking the right questions will get you the information you need about a particular trainer’s history so you can decide if their methods and risk tolerance match yours or not.
