OMG their post from last night that had hundreds, if not thousands, of replies is now just down to 34 pro- “Team Runhappy” replies. Disgusting.
I feel so sick for Maria.
I now refer to Team Runhappy as “Team Gottheruns.” Maybe Mack is trying to beat Michael Gill’s Guinness Record for “canned trainers.” Mack probably went to one of Gill’s seminars on “How to get nowhere fast or How to make enemies instantly.” Mack has already shown up Gill by the caliber of trainer he has already dumped. I have always liked Zito. He’s probably looking for a mattress to crawl under.:eek: Is it true that Baffert trained for Mack?:eek: Can’t imagine what it is like to feel screwed by a character called " Discount Mattress Mack." 
Lord knows “all Mack’s canned trainers” will have to admit to being in “bed,” at one point in their careers, with a discount mattress salesman. That could be humbling. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Mack show up next year with a colt or filly named NyQuil. Or Ambien. Or memory foam. Or Inner Spring. Or maybe a claimer named “Discounted.”
Fortunately, Maria is young and professional. She’s going to get through this and no doubt we’ll all hear positive things about her stable in the future. As for Mack, he’s going to have a new and costly long term salaried position open for a website sensor. I recall a story about Suffolk Downs trainer Mike Catalano, told in T D Thorton’s NOT BY A LONG SHOT, as he pondered a hard luck season training for Michael Gill in MD and DE, getting canned, and returning to his farm in MA to start all over again. Catalano survived Gill. Everyone crosses a painful path like this in their lives, particularly in the horse business. Like Catalano with Gill, Maria Borell will survive her encounter with “Discount Mattress Mack.”:yes:
I am sure my comment is not going to be very popular. But I have been around the block more than a few times and I live in the real world. Put on the long paints a long time ago. Do I feel bad for her? Sure but that’s life.
If she didn’t know Mattress Mack’s PPs shame on her. He has gone through just about every trainer in the book. He has “fired” much higher profile trainers then her over the years. A friend of mine got a string of horses from him last year. They lasted about 10 months. As he said about 9 months longer than expected.
No disrespect intended but she needs to suck it up, stop the whining and put on the long paints. Going “public” over this is NOT going to help her in the long run. Trust me I know what I am talking about. This isn’t “Romper Room”. This is the big leagues. It’s easy to be a fish, big or small in the local pond. Completely different when you “swim” in the ocean full of sharks.
Look at this way and she should too. M-M has deep pockets and buys nice horses. The chances of her getting those kind of horses from “nicer” owners would have been slim to none. I know people that can train circles around her and have been for years. But a trainer is only as good as the horses that are given to them. Most will never get a shot at the “golden ring”. She did and she got “two rings” so instead of pissing and moaning perhaps she should feel a little grateful.
I’m not saying the guy wasn’t a jerk about the way he went about it. For all we know she might have already been told things were going to change after the race. Maybe she thought he would reconsider after winning. I’ve made people millions as a Bloodstock agent and got screwed many times. By some people that are considered “beyond reproach”. “Names” that lot of people on this forum think are the “cats meow”. Nature of the beast.
It’s his money, his check book and his ball and jacks. That’s how it works in the real world. Horses or business. I have worked for some VERY successful people. They didn’t get to where they are by being Mr. or Mrs. “nice guy”.
Life’s not fair. Everyone does not get a blue ribbon for just showing up.
I’ve done some business with them. His racing manager/sister in=law is not an idiot, can be a bit “flakey” at times. But I knew their “form” and watched my back. I have her cell phone number if anyone what’s to call her and give her a “piece of their mind”.
I have very little respect for people who go through as many trainers as the mattress guy has. That very fact says a lot about who he is. Not someone I would want to do business with. Sure he can do what he wants with his money, but just because it’s “the nature of the beast”, doesn’t make it right.
I hope Maria is able to do a minor bit of damage control and come out of this the better for it.
Gumtree: You should work on not sounding so pompous. You’ve got a few decades of experience on this young lady and you had the privilege to have parents in the business. Sucking it up is a learned response. Give this young lady time. Feeling humiliated and embarrassed is probably all she can handle at the moment.
Awfully nice of you to offer up the racing manager’s cell number. Sounds like an idea “The Donald” put to good use. You would be a hit if you would post Michael Gill ’ s too. It has been a dream of mine to talk to some wealthy people whose public reputation is first and foremost that they are idiots.
Having “been around the block” is dependent upon the distance you cover. You know that, I am sure.
I’m throwing a flag on the play for overuse of quotation marks. Both offense and defense, penalties offset.
Like I said earlier, anyone in the business knows that horses can get ripped out of your hands at any time for any reason and this owner guarantees it is just a matter of time, but the timing was rude. You would think winning a BC race would buy her a little time and they could ease her into it.
Bill Finley always makes good sense of issues involved with horseracing.
http://espn.go.com/horse-racing/story/_/id/14036661/borell-firing-disgrace
With all the bad press, I get the feeling that the only thing impressed by MM is memory foam when he lays on it.
Runhappy’s dam just sold at Keeneland to Stonestreet. 1.6 million.
[QUOTE=Shammy Davis;8385813]
Gumtree: You should work on not sounding so pompous. You’ve got a few decades of experience on this young lady and you had the privilege to have parents in the business. Sucking it up is a learned response. Give this young lady time. Feeling humiliated and embarrassed is probably all she can handle at the moment.
Awfully nice of you to offer up the racing manager’s cell number. Sounds like an idea “The Donald” put to good use. You would be a hit if you would post Michael Gill ’ s too. It has been a dream of mine to talk to some wealthy people whose public reputation is first and foremost that they are idiots.
Having “been around the block” is dependent upon the distance you cover. You know that, I am sure.[/QUOTE]
Let’s see, I am being “pompous” by telling it like it is. What I have learned over the “decades”. Kind of reminds me of the exchange between Colonel Jessep (Nicholson) and a young Lt. Kaffee (Cruise) in A Few Good Men;
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to.
Col. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Col. Jessep: You can’t handle the truth!
"Give this young lady time"
Considering she is going on 35 the clock is ticking. I suggest she take a “crash course” on how to handle disappointment and adversity because that is a big part of the game and the profession. Anybody considering making a career out of training horses better learn that there is a LOT more to it than just the “training” part. A lot more.
Anyone that thinks Todd Pletcher got where he is by just being a good trainer never spent any time around him and his operation. The same can be said with just about all of the top trainers these days. Owners these days are by and large a completely different “breed” than those of past generations.
Borell going “public” on social media may not be over looked by people thinking of sending horses to her. Especially high profile types. Back ground checks have always been a part of the hiring process. What people say and do on “social media” is highly scrutinized.
If I was considering sending horses to her I would think twice. Just too many others that know how the game is played.
As to “parents” in the business, my father ran one of the sales companies. Which I worked for briefly. Didn’t interest me. He was not one to “coddle” or hand me or others anything. I worked my way up and down entirely on my own. What I have or don’t have I got and lost entirely on my own. I cleaned bathroom at the sales pavilions mucked countless stalls, and hot walked countless horses.
Contrary to popular believe being the child of a “name” in any business can be a blessing and a curse. IMO and experience more of the later. They tend to be held to a “higher standard” scrutinized more closely. If they are “successful” it’s because they held on to “Daddy’s coattails”. I am not saying it doesn’t help because it does “open doors”. But they can close a lot faster also.
Glad you picked up on my attempt at a bit of humor, “I have her cell phone number”.
“Having “been around the block” is dependent upon the distance you cover. You know that, I am sure.”
LOL, well said! Most people don’t leave their neighborhood
I’ll take my “pompous” butt and leave the room now. Go down to the barn and muck some stalls, get bashed around by a couple of youngsters I’m starting to break. I guess I need to get a handle on some humility before coming back in. But I will put on my flak jacket this time. I forget shooting the messenger is popular sport in most forums.
There was a comment on the Paulick Report that says Mattress Mack has been through 33 trainers in 20 years (quoted from an article in The Blood Horse). Among the fired: Zito, Jack Van Berg, Baffert, Frankel, Asmussen, Billy Turner, Tom Amoss, and Michael Dickinson.
Don’t get mad Gumtree. We love you, even when you’re pompous.
I’m sure the trainer will learn from this experience. She can’t have gotten this far without being fairly tough.
The “social media” excess (as I see it) of today is unpleasant to me and I don’t participate, so I really have no idea whether the trainer was out of line with her “tweet” comments or not. If she said the same to a person, her comments don’t seem so out of line.
It seems as if tweeting is just “speaking” to many people at once.
I would think that if potential employers of this trainer don’t want to be discussed, all they need do is make that clear to her.
You wouldn’t think it would be necessary, but in this day and age with young(er) people, it probably is.
Gumtree: I didn’t mean to hit such a sensitive nerve. As a young Marine infantryman I served in Vietnam. Most Marines will tell you that the movie A FEW GOOD MEN was an entertaining screenplay but hardly representative of the USMC.
I can handle the truth despite what you think. I have been around the block too. Your point about neighborhoods is well taken but a block in one area is different than another.
Colonel Jessup is a pure fictional character who played the role of a myopic leader who lived in his own isolated and deranged world. Surely you can’t believe the Colonel is an appropriate lead in to your response on this issue. Interesting connection your post makes with the Colonel. I guess if I disagreed with him he’d march off to the barracks and beat up on a few recruits.
The point might be better made that we each seek our goals via different paths. It appears you assume that you are the last word on the map we follow or the directions we get. Shame on you.
[QUOTE=skydy;8386530]
Don’t get mad Gumtree. We love you, even when you’re pompous.
I’m sure the trainer will learn from this experience. She can’t have gotten this far without being fairly tough.
The “social media” excess (as I see it) of today is unpleasant to me and I don’t participate, so I really have no idea whether the trainer was out of line with her “tweet” comments or not. If she said the same to a person, her comments don’t seem so out of line.
It seems as if tweeting is just “speaking” to many people at once.
I would think that if potential employers of this trainer don’t want to be discussed, all they need do is make that clear to her.
You wouldn’t think it would be necessary, but in this day and age with young(er) people, it probably is.[/QUOTE]
Absolutely. Younger people tend to be more tied into social media and often have a harder time disengaging from it. I know younger trainers (in sporthorse disciplines) who have a hard time staying off their cellphones. Many old school trainers don’t have a problem with it since it wasn’t so ingrained in them as they didn’t grow up with that stuff.
When working at Gulfstream in the 1990s, there was a top trainer who would jog his horses the day after a race. I cannot remember who it was, but the theory was that light exercise was more beneficial than just walking the shed. Of course, this was on a case by case basis, and if there was a physical issue then the horse walked. The guy I worked for walked the day after, jogged the next day, and walked the next day.
I am not familiar with the racing term: putting on the long paints - can someone explain this to me? 
[QUOTE=gumtree;8385675]
I am sure my comment is not going to be very popular. But I have been around the block more than a few times and I live in the real world. Put on the long paints a long time ago. Do I feel bad for her? Sure but that’s life.
If she didn’t know Mattress Mack’s PPs shame on her. He has gone through just about every trainer in the book. He has “fired” much higher profile trainers then her over the years. A friend of mine got a string of horses from him last year. They lasted about 10 months. As he said about 9 months longer than expected.
No disrespect intended but she needs to suck it up, stop the whining and put on the long paints. Going “public” over this is NOT going to help her in the long run. Trust me I know what I am talking about. This isn’t “Romper Room”. This is the big leagues. It’s easy to be a fish, big or small in the local pond. Completely different when you “swim” in the ocean full of sharks.
Look at this way and she should too. M-M has deep pockets and buys nice horses. The chances of her getting those kind of horses from “nicer” owners would have been slim to none. I know people that can train circles around her and have been for years. But a trainer is only as good as the horses that are given to them. Most will never get a shot at the “golden ring”. She did and she got “two rings” so instead of pissing and moaning perhaps she should feel a little grateful.
I’m not saying the guy wasn’t a jerk about the way he went about it. For all we know she might have already been told things were going to change after the race. Maybe she thought he would reconsider after winning. I’ve made people millions as a Bloodstock agent and got screwed many times. By some people that are considered “beyond reproach”. “Names” that lot of people on this forum think are the “cats meow”. Nature of the beast.
It’s his money, his check book and his ball and jacks. That’s how it works in the real world. Horses or business. I have worked for some VERY successful people. They didn’t get to where they are by being Mr. or Mrs. “nice guy”.
Life’s not fair. Everyone does not get a blue ribbon for just showing up.
I’ve done some business with them. His racing manager/sister in=law is not an idiot, can be a bit “flakey” at times. But I knew their “form” and watched my back. I have her cell phone number if anyone what’s to call her and give her a “piece of their mind”.[/QUOTE]
I’d think paints= pants
[QUOTE=skydy;8386678]
I’d think paints= pants[/QUOTE]
<slaps forehead> Oh, geeeze! :o
I’m so infused with Derpitude these days
As of yesterday she had put out the statement that the parting was amicable and she wished MM the best.
I guess that is called the “mature” response. But I do not believe it is the true one. So, do we want PC responses or true responses? Evidently the PC responses are highly favored by most people. Myself – I like the truth.
I think it should be noted that Twitter does not equal “Social Media”. Things that are said on Twitter are sent out to the person’s followers. Granted, Burnell’s followers probably increased in the 24 hours following Runhappy’s win, but her posts were not directed toward the vast majority of the racing, and non racing, world.
The fact that the comments were picked up by the media and broadcast to a general audience was secondary to the original audience who were the intended recipients of her post.
I have been known to blow off steam to friends on FB. That does not mean that I intended the world to read what I said, even if that was the end result.
PS: Some of the trainers on the “fired” list were actually the ones who ended the relationship with MM. My first dealings with those people occurred when the SIL had taken over because Zito told MM to leave and they had no place to send the horses. Sometimes it is not worth the money to keep a client around, and MM was one of those clients.
Thanks LHU. I have no idea how twitter works, but thought it was included as “social media”.
