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Apr 8

Apr 8 The perspective of a North Kentucky-based trainer

AS I pull up and park outside of Barn 10 at Turfway Park on a crisp March morning, the temperature is 25 degrees with a wind chill in the low teens. As I go through this routine every day, seven days a week, sometimes I think about how I have more uncertainties than answers. I am a trainer with a twenty-horse stable, employing eleven dedicated and hardworking people who make up my staff at Mogge Racing Stables. Turfway Park has been home base for us for 15 years. But now, hard times have fallen on this Florence, Kentucky, racetrack. In the last couple of years, a certain amount of ambivalence has risen as to the future of its relevance to occupy the winter racing dates and keep the Kentucky racing circuit as we know it intact. I grew up in Paris, Kentucky, the horse capital of the world. My father managed the majestic and historic Xalapa Farm, a working horse farm as well as a wildlife refuge, surrounded by an eight-foot high rock wall built in the late 1800s. Living on that land frozen in time, it was as if I grew up in racing’s heyday; portions of the movie Seabiscuit were even filmed on Xalapa, which has a training barn with a one-mile track. The training section was leased by Claiborne Farm in the 1970s and is where Ruffian, along with other great horses, received their earliest preparations before embarking on their racing careers. From a young age, I developed my horsemanship skills at Xalapa, where I took advantage of the opportunity I was given to use their facilities. My family was involved with showing Quarter Horses, and while I was in high school we made the transition to racing the Quarters. We were fortunate enough to win several stakes races, including the $75,000 Breeders’ Futurity with the filly Assured to Pass, but had to travel to Illinois to find the closest racetrack. After a couple of years with quite a bit of success, I transitioned into training Thoroughbreds, which I could do more easily in this part of the country. I started out by breaking yearlings for a few people while attending the University of Kentucky, taking the next step when Xalapa let me work with a horse that couldn’t make the grade on the New York circuit. When the horse demonstrated some ability, I acquired my trainer’s license in the fall of 1986 and entered him in a maiden race at Turfway Park. Simulcasting at that track had proven to be successful, so the purses were at an all-time high. I shipped the horse from Xalapa to Turfway on a cold, blustery night, but I can still remember the beads of sweat on my forehead as my first runner stood in the loading gate. The feeling that rushed over me when my horse made his move into BUSINESS MOGGE.qxd:Jerkins feature.qxd 7/4/09 00:52 Page 1 WAYNE MOGGE Why racing needs to hang tough The perspective of Wayne Mogge, a North Kentucky-based trainer some Quarter Horses to train and race. It has been a blast getting back to what inspired me to start this career, and I won the All American Quarter Horse Congress Derby with a filly sent from New Mexico by longtime Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse man John T.L. Jones Jr. That filly, Jess Because, went on to win the Grade III Bradford Stakes at Hoosier Park. Currently, I have a couple of short horse prospects that I am looking to race this summer; the Quarters are just another avenue I’ve taken in order to be viable as a trainer. One certainly has to be creative in these current conditions with Ohio racing falling on such hard times, and Turfway Park is now creeping into that same category. In the last ten years, my training rate has doubled whereas the purses have dropped to less than half of what they were in the 1990s. I find myself constantly thumbing through condition books from six different tracks, all with alternative gambling that has increased purse money to a level that allows my owners the potential to make money. In 2008, I had a satellite operation at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pennsylvania. That was the first year of racing at this track and I felt like it was a good opportunity to get some stalls and develop a relationship at another track in case the situation at Turfway Park does not improve. Our stable had a considerable amount of success at Presque Isle: in forty starts on the Tapeta oval we had 20% wins, with 65% in-themoney finishes. Having a stable at Presque Isle Downs turned out to be a good decision, and this winter at Turfway my ISSUE 12 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 55 the stretch was just so overwhelming. Nothing can describe it, but anyone in my position will understand what I’m talking about. We won, with a large mutuel payoff. The horse, Suprize Me, went on to win a few more races that winter. I am sure all of the aspects of getting this horse ready to race and running him were the deciding factors in my chosen profession, and his name encompasses so much of what it has meant for me to be a trainer and winning races. I completed my Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Communications in the fall of 1989 while picking up a small number of clients, racing mostly at Turfway and River Downs. At this point in my life, I was at a crossroads, trying to determine whether to train full-time or work under a successful trainer and learn the ropes. When I brought in a new client who bred and raced Ohiobred horses, I decided to make a go of it on my own. As time went on, with moderate success racing mostly in Ohio, at River Downs and Thistledown, I developed a reputation for well-turned out horses that were usually ready to run productive races, and when business started to grow I needed a place to call home. At that time, Turfway had a lot to offer; purses were good and racing was competitive. With an even mix of Kentucky and Ohio clients, I settled on Turfway Park as my home base. In the early 1990s I met my wife and we started a family, and Northern Kentucky has been a good place to raise our children and be close to our families. Fast forward fifteen years. Racing in Ohio has all but dried up. That state’s foal crops continue to decline at a rapid pace. Breeders have since gotten out of the business, leaving me with far less racing activity in Ohio. In 2008, I did not start a single Thoroughbred in the state of Ohio. I’m certainly not boycotting racing in Ohio, but I just cannot seem to make the economics work out so that it makes sense to run horses for the current purse structures. I did, however, race some Quarter Horses in Ohio. Over the past couple of years, I have diversified my stable and taken on clients were so anxious for the meet at Presque Isle to start I found myself avoiding suitable races at Turfway in order to save the condition for double the money at Presque Isle. This certainly is not fair to my home track, but it makes sense to wait for those better purses. The horses only have those conditions one time, and my job as trainer is to be efficient with each horse’s condition. My stable has been active in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Canada, where the tracks are supported by alternative gambling. Transportation costs last year for my clients were over $50,000. This additional cost was welcomed by the majority of my owners because it allowed them the opportunity to make more money, but it’s a risky maneuver. Just recently, I received phone calls from three different tracks enticing me with races they had available for a horse I had ready to run, but it’s not that simple. When making the decision of where to run, there are several factors to consider: the cost of shipping, how well the horse ships, and the competition the horse will face. In this particular case we stayed home and it worked out in our favor. The filly, Dream Session, won an allowance at Turfway Park with a decent purse. The question I have to ask myself is how long my clients will continue to absorb the additional costs before they decide to send their horses to be trained at these tracks with higher purses. The racing industry as a whole is at a crossroads. Medications, steroid policies, alternative gaming and ADWs are just some of the issues that the industry is starting to regulate more, especially in Kentucky, and these are only some of the factors that have negatively affected this great sport. The captivated audience that horseracing once had has seemingly dwindled to an all-time low. In the past, when someone asked me what my occupation was they seemed impressed when I said, “horse trainer.” They would ask if I have ever run a horse in the Kentucky Derby, and my answer has been, “not yet!” but they certainly respected my career. Most recently, these people’s response has been to ask more about drug use – especially steroids – and breakdowns, which are just a couple of topics that are filtering out into and being discussed in mainstream America. The last couple of years of Triple Crown races, with their highs and lows, seem to have raised the awareness of industry leaders that it’s time to put the horses back to the forefront and hold them in the highest esteem. Without these masterful and majestic animals, the sport of horseracing is dying a slow death. During these economic times I have to BUSINESS 56 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 12 Racing at Turfway Park has become popular with the younger generation clients were so anxious for the meet at Presque Isle to start I found myself avoiding suitable races at Turfway in order to save the condition for double the money at Presque Isle. This certainly is not fair to my home track, but it makes sense to wait for those better purses. The horses only have those conditions one time, and my job as trainer is to be efficient with each horse’s condition. My stable has been active in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Canada, where the tracks are supported by alternative gambling. Transportation costs last year for my clients were over $50,000. This additional cost was welcomed by the majority of my owners because it allowed them the opportunity to make more money, but it’s a risky maneuver. Just recently, I received phone calls from three different tracks enticing me with races they had available for a horse I had ready to run, but it’s not that simple. When making the decision of where to run, there are several factors to consider: the cost of shipping, how well the horse ships, and the competition the horse will face. In this particular case we stayed home and it worked out in our favor. The filly, Dream Session, won an allowance at Turfway Park with a decent purse. The question I have to MOGGE.qxd:Jerkins feature.qxd 7/4/09 00:52 Page 3 WAYNE MOGGE maintain a stable that is mobile. I would like to lead my horse right out of our home barn to run rather than racing at another track and incurring the costs associated with traveling. Keeping existing clients satisfied and finding potential new clients to invest in horseracing has become more and more difficult. When Turfway installed the Polytrack surface it offered new life into my struggling little corner of the world, and I feel that these types of changes need to be welcomed into this traditionally rich sport. Synthetic surfaces, alternative gambling and amicable advanced deposit wagering are relatively new issues that can provide relief to the struggling racetracks. The horsemen need to be open to the various avenues for a new era of racing. Training is such a volatile life, with so many highs tempered with so many lows, but I still believe that training horses is the most gratifying profession I can be involved with. Training and racing consumes so many lives, but winning is an intoxicating incentive. This is a game that always has you betting on the come, with that new twoyear-old crop or the next race for a particular horse. It always seems to be “tomorrow…” and “tomorrow…” never ends in this game. A trainer is full of hopes and dreams and a “we’ll get them next time” kind of attitude. If not for training, I’m not sure what else I would do at this point. I’ve got good clients, and the quality of my stable has improved, but it all comes down to economics. I’m not trying to get rich in this game, but the bottom line is that as a last resort, I may have to consider making a move to somewhere that would support me and my family a little better than Northern Kentucky. Kentucky House Bill 158 – the slots bill – is a much-needed band-aid, but I think it’s an ever-changing solution, with something down the road that we’re going to have to do again. I wish it could all rest on its own laurels but for now, we have to be open to change and help support racing in Kentucky. People still want to be interested in horseracing: one thing they’re doing now on Friday nights at Turfway is having live bands, $1 beer and $1 hot dogs. We’re getting 4,000-5,000 people here on those nights, when before we’d have 1500. That’s huge, and it’s a start. When we’ve got a younger crowd of people all over the place, invariably they’re going to watch races and bet, and they’re going to fall in love with a particular horse or jockey. It will bring them back to the races, and there has to be more of these kinds of things to get a bigger base of racing fans. This is a tough game to give up on, but we need it not to give up on us, either. At the end of every day, when I get back in my truck to drive home, I wonder if we’re any closer to finding the answer, and then I realize that every one of us involved in this sport is the answer, that as long as we still love horses, we can find a way to make it work. ■

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Wayne Mogge (08 April 2009 - Issue Number: 12 )

Apr 8 Feeding to support immunity in racehorses

Apr 8 The Absolute Insurer Rule