Me three. Too bad.
They deleted my dogs comments too. 
Mention the money part. And your gone. Seems the story has been removed from the blood horse as well.
[QUOTE=skydy;8383932]
I hope she received her fair share of the purse. That might help…
There’s not much you can do (when you work for an idiot) but move on.
I’m sure it’s a terrible disappointment. The money may at least give her an opportunity to do something good for her career and take some of the sting out of this. What a tough business.[/QUOTE]
So I heard through the grape vine that she was just contracted as a “paper trainer”–put on a wage and didn’t receive any of the winnings, including the BC victory. She was hired because she was willing to do things to a tee the way the owner wanted. My source thought Maria was nuts for taking a horse from the guy because she thought he’d pull a stunt like this. Now how much of this is true, I don’t know since I’m truly just repeating what I heard, but still. It’s something to chew on.
IMHO they deserve the storm they’re receiving on social media… It’s clear they really didn’t think about what would happen when the news broke which is PR 101.
[QUOTE=Flypony;8384091]
She did not get a % . Apparently the whole dismissal is over the money. She had a contract and worked on a wage.[/QUOTE]
oh you beat me to it. Yes this is what I heard, too. I hope better owners come her way… Even if she was just a name on paper, she clearly did something right with the horse. I highly doubt the manager is much of a trainer/horse person.
Damn. People are going to bed and now the comments are decimated.
It doesn’t seem like they were very upfront with fans and the puff piece on the NBC broadcast probably didn’t help at all. But it does seem like Maria wasn’t much more than a paper trainer, doing whatever the owner and racing manager told her to do. She shouldn’t have aired dirty laundry on Twitter and that will likely make it harder for her to get clients even after this win. What an odd situation.
Hmm… so what was the point of calling her the “trainer”? PR?
This group has clearly proven themselves very bad at PR
(I thought the lying-in-the-stall-with-the-horse photo was unwise and unprofessional, but guessed PR for the non horse public).
What a mess.:no:
How sad, if it’s true, that they wouldn’t share that financial reward with a young person who obviously helped them in one way or another.
[QUOTE=skydy;8384139]
Hmm… so what was the point of calling her the “trainer”? PR?
This group has clearly proven themselves very bad at PR
(I thought the lying-in-the-stall-with-the-horse photo was unwise and unprofessional, but guessed PR for the non horse public).
What a mess.:no:
How sad, if it’s true, that they wouldn’t share that financial reward with a young person who obviously helped them in one way or another.[/QUOTE]
My guess the daughter couldn’t get her license for whatever reason - lack of support, required experience, or too busy?!? Although I’ve known some “trainers” who I can’t believe had the license.
And funny - how in the post-race words, Mack was giving credit to Laura for doing all the social media. Well, guess she’s busy tonight!
Sounds to me like Maria was set up. Control freaks. Yes, they have a right to change trainers - they write the checks. But their firing her the next morning sounds more like a cat fight with the daughter and sister-in-law. Not handled well at all.
There go the mattress sales…
Thanks CVPeg. Such an odd situation…
The dynamic amongst the connections and the young trainer seemed odd after the race, considering the pre-race hype that was centered on the young trainer.
I suppose there are strange people in all walks of life. Too bad we have to see them in racing during what should be happy times…
It’s disappointing that in a sport where the bad times are very bad, there are people who are so inwardly focused (this is the second time in recent memory) that they seem oblivious to the fact that they are behaving poorly, not only toward racing fans but to the horse that brought them the opportunity to make fools of themselves in the first place.
Thankfully many racing folk have some class, or at least the brains (and the inclination) to fake it when they don’t.
Still, they can’t ruin my happy B.C. weekend! Wonderful horses and great races. :yes:
Hopefully the attention will give her career a boost.
I was thinking about this last night. I have had owners take horses for all sorts of reasons over the years. Some because I was too stubborn, some because I refused to run sore horses, some because the owners were asshats etc. I guess I just thought a five race win streak culminating in a record setting performance in a BC race made you untouchable, at least temporarily. They likely did her a huge favor by moving on but for now I feel her pain.
Is there a Cliff notes version of the whole story? Daughter? Sister-in-law? I was at a horse trial and didn’t watch any of the coverage, and haven’t followed this horse’s story.
Thanks!
Maybe we could start referring to Mattress Mack as “Muck Sack Mack.” Or “Stall Mat Mack.” Or better yet, “Discount Manure Mack.”
[QUOTE=Flash44;8384225]
Hopefully the attention will give her career a boost.[/QUOTE]
Ditto.
As an aside, could not help but think that this owner reminds me of Michael Gill.
http://pullthepocket.blogspot.com/2015/11/mattress-mack-gets-taken-to-woodshed.html?m=1
[QUOTE=kcmel;8384231]
Is there a Cliff notes version of the whole story? Daughter? Sister-in-law? I was at a horse trial and didn’t watch any of the coverage, and haven’t followed this horse’s story.
Thanks![/QUOTE]
So Mattress Mac has a huge reputation for being a little off the beaten path. Here’s a story I hadn’t heard before. http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/29/sports/sp-28632
He goes through trainers very quickly for not any particularly good reason. His sister in law, Laura Wohlers, is the racing manager. She very literally does not have a good track record except for finding as good a horse as RunHappy at Keeneland sales–you can look at her race record, and it’s nothing to write home about.
This article is an easy summary of what happened. http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/95679/borell-out-as-trainer-for-runhappy
I have a really nagging gut feeling that this was not all entirely McIngvale’s decision to pull RunHappy from Maria. It would not surprise me in the least if Wohlers was looking to actually add a winner to her resume, and RunHappy is the horse to do so.
Jealousy makes people do bad things too-if alleged “paper trainer” was getting all the press it might have rubbed alleged “real” trainer’s ego the wrong way.
[QUOTE=CVPeg;8384151]
My guess the daughter couldn’t get her license for whatever reason - lack of support, required experience, or too busy?!? Although I’ve known some “trainers” who I can’t believe had the license.
And funny - how in the post-race words, Mack was giving credit to Laura for doing all the social media. Well, guess she’s busy tonight!
Sounds to me like Maria was set up. Control freaks. Yes, they have a right to change trainers - they write the checks. But their firing her the next morning sounds more like a cat fight with the daughter and sister-in-law. Not handled well at all.
There go the mattress sales…[/QUOTE]
The daughter has, or had, a LOT of issues. One of the news mags (20/20?) did a story on her years ago and she has just about the worst case of OCD germaphobia I’ve ever heard of. She was literally crippled by it - went through cars one after the other because after 1 use, they were considered “contaminated”. Sad, very sad. But I can’t see her ever getting close enough to barn dirt to be a trainer.
Wow, I can’t believe this. I think the connections of California Chrome should send Mattress Mac a thank you note for making them look like consummate professionals.
They must have a full-time person working their FB page to delete all comments that are negative or even merely post links to articles.
Countdown to my demise :winkgrin:
