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Mario Baratti on how he’s created a classic winning stable in the heart of Chantilly

Mario Baratti is sitting behind the desk in the spacious office of his stable off the main avenue leading into Chantilly, munching a croissant in between second and third lots. I decline his offer of breakfast, and we quickly agree to communicate in French and to use the friendly “tu” form instead of the more formal “vous”. 

Above the trainer’s right shoulder, a large watercolour depicts a scene of Royal Ascot, “it was a wedding gift and it was too big for the house so it has a perfect place here… The colours are beautiful and it’s a wonderful source of inspiration!” The walls are also adorned with photos and a framed front page of French racing daily Paris-Turf showing Baratti’s two Classic winners to date, Angers who lifted the German 2000 Guineas at Cologne in 2023 and Metropolitan who propelled his handler onto the big stage with a first Group 1 victory in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains a year later. There is plenty of space left for memorabilia which seems sure to come to celebrate wins in the future. 

Born and raised in Brescia in North-West Italy near Lake Garda, Mario Baratti has a slightly different profile from several of his compatriots who are now successfully operating in Britain and France. The 35-year-old does not hail from a big racing family and he has little experience of training in his native country. 

He explains, “My father was a great sportsman and was good at a lot of sports. Between age 18 and 25 he rode over jumps as an amateur. I started riding very early, at age four or five, and showjumped and evented when I was young and then started riding as an amateur as soon as I could. I was a true amateur as I didn’t start working in racing until I was 19. I was lucky to ride about 70 winners, in Italy but also in Britain and France, in a relatively short career in the saddle.”

A couple of summer stints with John Hills in Lambourn as a teenager further fuelled the young Mario’s passion for racing and he soon joined Italy’s legendary trainer, Mil Borromeo in Pisa, “Mil Borromeo was a great trainer, very sensitive and with an amazing capacity to listen to his horses. His objective was to create champions and he succeeded many times during his career. He was on the same level as the top trainers from England, Ireland and France from the time. He was very sensitive and attentive to his horses. My official title with him was assistant but I was so young I was more of an intern.” 

After a year with the Classic Italian trainer, Borromeo advised the young Barrati to spread his wings and continue his education, both in racing and academically. 

The Botti Academy

The logical port of call was Newmarket and the stable of training’s rising Italian star of the time, Marco Botti. “I used to ride out in the mornings and go to Cambridge in the afternoons to learn English. The original plan was to spend just a year in England to pass a language exam, but after I passed the exam, Marco Botti proposed the position of assistant if I stayed with him. When I started he had less than 50 horses and during the four years I was there the number rose to over a hundred so it was a real growth period. I had the good fortune to ride horses like Excelebration who was exceptional, and to travel to Dubai, or Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup... He had six or seven real high-quality Group horses, who could travel and win abroad.

I learnt many things during my time with Marco and the most important was probably how to manage the horses in the best possible way to optimize their potential. I think the secret to his international success is that he travels his horses at the right moment. He understands when a horse is tough enough to go abroad, and he doesn’t take them too early in their careers.”

After four years in the buzzing racing town of Newmarket, it was time to continue the learning curve and despite an offer to join another compatriot, Luca Cumani, Baratti remembers, “everyone advised me to go to America or Ireland.” So the young Italian found himself in rural County Kilkenny. “Jim Bolger said he would only take me if I stayed for three years, but in the end I cut my time short. It was a very good experience and I learnt a lot about breaking in yearlings and working with youngsters. I learnt what I could in a short time as I was only there for three or four months, an intense experience of work and life. Mr Bolger is a real horseman, who is tough on his horses but always manages to produce champions. He can do things that others cannot allow themselves to do, because he breeds and owns a lot of the horses himself.”

 Despite the prestige of his Classic-winning mentor, Baratti was unable to settle in Ireland. “I like the countryside, but I was isolated. I was 25 years old and never saw or spoke to anyone and the lifestyle wasn’t for me. So one day I told him, “I can’t stay three years”, and he said, “you want to train in London? You can’t train in London!” I’ll never forget that! But he understood and in the end he said, “I’ve taught a lot of top professionals, McCoy, O’Brien, but it’s up to you if you want to leave. I hope that you find someone as good as me…””

Pascal Bary an inspiring mentor

Next stop was France, and Baratti took advantage of a couple of months before his start date with his next boss, Pascal Bary, to join fellow Italian Simone Brogi who had recently set out training in Pau. He also spent a month with Brogi’s former boss, Jean-Claude Rouget, at Deauville’s all-important August meeting. 

“The time helped me to learn French and integrate into the French ambiance, which wasn’t easy. I found it much tougher to settle in France than in Newmarket. As a foreigner I felt less well received. Even at Newmarket, I started as an assistant when I was 18 years old, with no experience, and it was tricky to manage a team of 25 or 30 staff. But when I started here it was even more difficult to handle the French staff. They would say to me ‘I’ve never done that in 30 years and I’m not going to start now…’ During the early days with Pascal Bary, I thought that France wasn’t going to be for me. Then it became a personal challenge and I decided to stick it out. Now, Pascal Bary is one of the closest friends I have here in Chantilly, but at the start he wasn’t an easy boss. It took two years, of the four that I was there, before we built up a real relationship. On my side, I was very respectful, and I saw him as someone who was very reserved, so we kept our distance. I was in awe of him and his career. He wasn’t interested in just winning races, he wanted to develop the best out of his horses. That’s why he had such a great career. 41 Group 1 wins in a 40-year career is a huge achievement. He won Dianes, Jockey-Clubs, Poules, Guineas, Breeders Cups, the Irish Derby… He’s the only French trainer to win the Dubai World Cup. He started off going to California for the Breeders’ Cup when he was very young. He would dare to step into the unknown, because at the time it was much more complicated to travel around the world. 

I was lucky to be there at the time of Senga - who won the Prix de Diane and Study of Man won the Prix du Jockey-Club. So I worked with top horses, who were perfectly managed, and many of them were for owner-breeders. Very early in the season, when the grass gallops opened, he would immediately pick out the three or four standout horses and plan their programme. He could tell right away which ones had talent ‘this one will debut in the Prix des Marettes at Deauville… ‘ I remember that year the filly did exactly that and won; it was Senga and she went on to win the Diane. 

When you spend time with someone at the end of their career, there is more to learn. Pascal Bary had a superb training method, and he had the success he did because he was very firm in his decisions. He’s not someone who changes his mind every day, and there aren’t many people like that nowadays. He was very sensitive to his horses and always sought to create champions. I try to keep in mind his method.”

Changing dimension

The string for third lot is now ready to pull out and we make our way through the yard which has been adapted to accommodate an expanding string. 

“We recently acquired the next-door yard and we knocked through the walls of a stable to make a passageway between the two. I now have 73 boxes in these two yards, plus 15 at another site which has the benefit of turnout paddocks.”

 Through a gate in the hedge at the back of the courtyard and we are straight onto the famed Aigles gallops as the sun starts to break through the clouds on what had begun as an overcast morning. 

“It’s a magnificent site; we are so lucky to have such beautiful surroundings and for me to be able to access the gallops on foot.” As we make our way to the walking ring in the trees where the Baratti string circles before and after work each morning, the trainer tells me, “I still ride out every Sunday, bar only two or three weeks in the year. I think it’s important to exercise as many as we can on a Sunday and if I ride two, that’s a help to the staff and a real pleasure for me too.” 

The string of around twenty juveniles, many still unraced, passes before the trainer who gives multilingual orders. “Here we speak Italian, French, English, Arabic and Czech,” he explains, “we try to all speak French but of course sometimes we communicate in Italian, especially when things get heated! We’ve more than doubled in size since last autumn and so we built up the new team throughout the winter and in spring. It’s all coming together now. For the first few years everything went very smoothly, but there were only half a dozen members on the team! When you get up to 25, it’s a different story.” 

The team includes a couple of former Italian trainers who left their country and now work as managers for the burgeoning Baratti stable, plus veteran Filippo Grasso Caprioli, Mario’s uncle who was a leading amateur rider in Italy in his time. “He “just” rides out, he doesn’t have a position of responsibility but he does give us the benefit of his age and experience!” 

Another vital member of the team is Monika, Mario’s Czech-born wife. “We first met at the Breeders’ Cup when I travelled with Planteur and she was the work rider of Romantica for André Fabre. When I first moved to France we both lived in the same village, 100m away from each other but we never bumped into each other. We met again four years after I moved to France. We’ve been together now for seven years and married this spring. Monika is an excellent rider and she also takes care of the accounts, but her most difficult job is taking care of our two small boys. I think she sometimes comes into the yard for a break!”

As we trudge across the damp turf to the Réservoirs training track, Baratti expands on his choice of Chantilly. “When I was in Newmarket I thought I would never leave, but then it was logical to continue here after I had done my time with Pascal Bary. And of course, the French system is very beneficial compared to elsewhere in Europe. The facilities here in Chantilly are second to none. When I first started I used to use all of the gallops but now I have my routine and regularly use Les Réservoirs. I often use the woodchip but there is plenty of choice. Once you have understood how each track works then it’s simple.”

The first group of two-year-olds canter past, and Mario runs through some of the sires represented: Siyouni, Lope de Vega, Wootton Bassett, for owners such as Nurlan Bizakov, Al Shir’aa, Al Shaqab and powerful French operators such as Laurent Dassault, Bernard Weill and others.

“This is the first year that I’ve had such a good panel of owners, and a better quality of horses. It is certainly thanks to Metropolitan and the successful season we had last year. In previous years, we did well with limited material, and we managed to win Listed or Group 3 races which isn’t easy when you only have 20 horses. This year we have more horses but haven’t won any big races yet (he laughs nervously) but they will come…”

 Indeed days after the interview, the stable enjoyed a prestigious Group success on Prix du Jockey-Club day with the Gérard Augustin-Normand homebred Monteille, a sprinting filly who was trained last year by the now-retired Pascal Bary.

“It's very important to have owners who also have a breeding operation. They have a different outlook on racing and they are often the ones that produce the really top horses. They expect good results, of course, but they understand the disappointments and are generally more patient. The other owners are important too, and Metropolitan, who we bought at the sales, is the proof of that.”

Classic memories

Understandably, a smile widens across Mario’s face as he remembers the day when the son of Zarak lifted the Poule d’Essai des Poulains to offer the trainer his first major Classic winner. 

“I was only in my fourth year of training, it wasn’t even in my dreams to win a Poule so soon in my career. It’s hard to describe, the joy was enormous. The fact that we ran in the race again this year, with a very good horse (Misunderstood) but everything went wrong, makes you realise now how difficult it is for everything to go right on a day like that. I always thought that Metropolitan was an exceptional horse. We were far from favourites in the Poule but I knew we had a good chance of winning. The owners rang me on the morning of the race and asked, ‘Mario do you think we can win?’ and I said Yes! He had finished fifth in the Prix de Fontainebleau and we had ridden him to avoid a hard race, but still, many observers overlooked him. Apart from in his last race on Champions Day, he never put a foot wrong. He confirmed his class when third in the St James’s Palace Stakes in a top-class field and then was beaten by the best four-year-old miler in Europe, Charyn, in the Jacques le Marois. And at the time, we only had three or four three-year-olds in the yard, so the percentage was amazing.”

Baratti had already tasted Classic glory a year earlier, thanks to Angers (Seabhac) who won the Group 2 Mehl-Mülhens-Rennen (German 2000 Guineas). A first successful international raid from the handler who learnt from some of the industry’s specialists. 

“You travel if your horse is very, very good, or not quite good enough,” he explains.“If you travel to Royal Ascot, you have to be exceptional, the same for the Breeders’ Cup. But for Germany you can take a decent horse who isn’t quite good enough for the equivalent races here. Angers had finished second in the Prix Machado which is a trial for the Poule d’Essai. I already had Germany in mind for him if he was placed in the Machado, and he went on to win well in Cologne. Every victory is very important, the key is to aim for the right race within the horses’ capabilities. Each horse has his own “classic” to win, with a made-to-measure programme.”

Many expatriate Italian trainers target Group entries in their native country, but Baratti is not keen to explore this option. “I have never had a runner in Italy. I did make an entry recently but we ended up going elsewhere. Italian black-type is very weak for breeding purposes, so it’s not really worthwhile for me to race there. There are a lot of good professionals in Italy but I don’t really have much connection with them because I’ve never worked over there, I left when I was young.”

A realistic approach

Baratti’s adopted homeland of France has recently announced austerity measures for the forthcoming seasons to compensate for falling PMU turnover and pending the results of a recovery plan which aims to increase the attractivity of French racing for owners and public. France Galop prize money will be reduced by 6.9%, equating to 10.5 million euros during the second half of 2025 and 20.3 million euros for following seasons until a hoped-for return to balance in 2029. 

“It’s normal,” says the Italian pragmatically. “It’s better that they make a small reduction now than wait two or three years and have to make drastic cuts. It’s necessary to take the bull by the horns, not like how it was in Italy when they let the situation decline and then it became too hard and too late to redress. We are fortunate to be in a country where prize money is very good compared with our neighbour countries in Europe, so a small reduction won’t affect people too much. 

Owning racehorses is a privilege and a passion. It is a luxury and people should treat it as such, not buy horses as a means to earn money. If you buy a magnificent yacht, it costs a fortune, and it’s pure outlay. Money spent on having fun. Nowadays, a lot of people invest in racehorses for business purposes, but they need to have the necessary means. If you are lucky to buy a horse like Metropolitan and then sell him for a lot of money, that’s another story, but it wasn’t the aim at the outset.” 

He remembers an important lesson on owner expectations from former mentor Pascal Bary. “I was surprised once when Mr Bary received some foreign owners in his office. They wanted to buy ten horses. He told them, the trainer earns money, not every day, but he tries, in any case his objective is to earn money, the staff earn money and the jockey earns money. Normally, the owner loses money. If things go well, they don’t lose much, if they go very well they can break even, and when it’s a dream, then you can make money, but that’s the exception to the rule. The guys had quite a lot of money to invest and they were there, open-mouthed. In the end they chose another trainer. But Mr Bary was right. If I decide to buy a horse tomorrow for 5,000€, I have to consider that 5,000€ as lost. If I want to invest, I should buy a house. 

His explanation was very clear and that’s how racing should be understood. It would be nice to have a group of friends buy a horse, but it costs a lot. Ideally it should just be for pleasure, like membership at the golf, or tennis. It's an expenditure. And if in the end you end up winning, then all the better. And it can happen. Bloodstock agents do that for a living but it’s their profession. My owners are in racing for the pleasure.”

With an upwardly-mobile, internationally-minded and ambitious young trainer, Baratti’s owners certainly look set for a pleasurable ride over the forthcoming seasons, and the office walls are unlikely to remain white for long. 

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Henke Grewe - the Classic winning German Trainer

Article by Catrin Nack

When Grewe retired from race-riding and took up training in 2014, it wasn’t exactly the hottest news in German racing. He had been a middle-of-the-road jockey, never reaching lofty heights. But as a trainer, he has made it to the top of his profession. 

Eleven years later and February 2025 - it’s six fifteen in the morning and It's pitch black. The first lot is out already, and Grewe is in the saddle. 

The majority of German racehorses are trained on a racecourse. Nearly every main track – think Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hannover, Iffezheim or Hoppegarten – doubles as a training centre. A chosen few have the luxury of private premises, but Grewe shares Cologne racecourse with three other major trainers, and roughly 300 horses. 

Shared facilities consist of a trotting ring, and two sand gallops, sand, not fibre. His roughly 78 boxes are split into four stable blocks, of various size and quality. The largest block of roughly 40 boxes was actually a grandstand in bygone times. 

Tighter animal welfare measures saw a row of windows being installed, with one row of horses glancing onto the stable alley, the other side enjoying a room with a view to both sides. 

Every box is filled generously with straw, something increasingly rare in domestic racing yards. “The year I used sawdust was my worst ever, and I am convinced there is a correlation. Horses feel comfy on straw so there you go.”  Three horse-walkers grace the place, one is called “the terrace” as it has no roof. And basically, that’s it. The height of technical racehorse training.  

A covered trotting ring is in the distance, but “that’s not mine. That’s Peters [Schiergen, of Danedream fame]” says Grewe. 

No saltbox, treadmill, solarium, let alone a pool. Scales somewhere, “but I hardly use them.” He concedes that horses may have a perfect racing weight, “but I need to see that. If a trainer can´t spot it, well….” 

 There is a simplicity in the whole setup, mirrored in the trainer´s beliefs. “Really, you can train a horse anywhere. Hans-Walter Hiller [who was Champion Trainer in 1999, and whose yard he was attached to as a jockey] trained on a strip next to a motorway, so clearly you don’t need much.” 

Grewe’s principles when it comes to readying horses are cut from the same cloth. “The most important thing is routine. Routine. Once the horse figures out what he has to do he can relax in that routine, and he feels secure. I don’t like fresh horses. On average my horses are out three hours a day, it comes down to three things: routine, the feeding, and proper medical care.”

The yard has a couple of paddocks now too, and some horses are turned out in the afternoon. Roughly 23 people work for Grewe, with active and retired jockeys playing a vital part in the morning. Thore Hammer-Hansen is one of them. 

Having returned to his roots in 2024, the jockey, with a retainer from Cologne racecourse president Eckard Sauren, wasted little time to take German racing by storm. He combined with Grewe (but not Sauren) to win the German Derby on Palladium (more of him later); the end of the year saw him crowned Champion jockey as well. 

Fresh from a trip to Riyadh, where he guided the Marian-Falk Weißmeier-trained, Straight to a respectable 5th place at Gp.2 level, Hammer-Hansen feels slightly under the weather but is full of praise of Grewe, who “is a team-player and a very good trainer”. 

Much needed positives after other work-riders declare that the trainer's most remarkable trait is “his bad mood before the first lot”. While such statements are (hopefully) tongue-in-cheek, the relaxed atmosphere with a lot of banter is duly noted; Grewe is usually riding three lots himself and doesn’t shy away from the general chores. 

Grewe doesn't miss a beat: while preparing his horse and answering cumbersome questions at the same time, his eye is all over the place and every idleness is (duly) spotted. 

It all started inconspicuously. Born in 1982, his parents had a couple of horses, so the foundations were laid early on. “I had to decide whether I wanted to be a professional table tennis player or pursue horses. I felt there was more money in the latter.” The good, the bad and the ugly, money is a recurring theme for Grewe. 

It is what drives him, because, quite plainly, “I want to be rich”. Grewe retired from race-riding with a handful of Black-Type wins to his name. With the help of then-business partner Christoph Holschbach he set up a limited company to train racehorses on August 1st 2014, with a mere 12 (bad) horses; his first runner, just 20 days later, was a winner. 

They kept coming. It was quantity over quality at first, “I had to get my name out”. In his prime Grewe had roughly 120 horses. The first Listed winner came in 2017, the first Group winner, Taraja in a Hamburg Gp.3, in May 2018. Khan, who eventually switched to hurdles, provided the breakthrough at the highest level when taking the Großer Preis von Europa in September 2018.  

The hardy and consistent Rubaiyat flew the flag for four seasons; unbeaten as a 2yo in 2019, he won at least one Group race in every season. While he missed out on valuable Gp.1 glory, his trainers list of high-class winners started growing: the German Derby (Gp.1) twice (Sisfahan and Palladium), the German Oaks (Muskoka), the Großer Preis von Europa (Donjah and Khan), The Großer Preis von Bayern (Sunny Queen and Assistent). 

When asked if he has a preference for fillies or colts, the answer is an emphatic “no”.  While the German Derby was the highlight of 2024 (next the birth of his son Mikk), the yard won eight more Group races. Having been crowned Champion Trainer in 2019 and 2020, Grewe's focus started to shift. 

He still likes to travel, but now it´s for Black-Type and not for claimers. His intimate knowledge of the French racing system means that country still is his preferred hunting ground, along with Italy, where he has won 10 Group-races to date if our counting hasn’t let us down. But gone are the days when for every domestic runner he had two abroad. 

Grewe no longer has that number of horses, nor does he want to. “Horse numbers are down [in Germany] because training is just too expensive,” he admits. “Look, I am very open about this but every month my owners part with €3000 per horse. Who can afford that? Look at the prize money and do the maths. Syndicates are the solution, no two ways about it.” 

It helps that Grewe has syndicated horses in his yard. While Germany may not be ready for micro share syndicates (even though Hammer-Hansen evidently thinks so), it was certainly ready for a syndicate called Liberty Racing, founded in 2020 by shrewd entrepreneur Lars-Wilhelm Baumgarten and partner Nadine Siepmann. Selling 25 shares at €25.000 apiece (for a bundle of three hand-picked horses) may have taken some persuasion at first, but success came almost instantly; now there is a waiting list. 

Buying (and owning) a Group 1 winner in every year since its foundation, Liberty Racing has now won two German Derby’s in a row. Fantastic Moon was their flagbearer in 2023 when taking the blue ribbon for trainer Sarah Steinberg, and Palladium was the winner of last year's race on the first Sunday in July - the traditional date for the German Derby. 

Palladium was trained by Grewe, who still marvels in the wonders of it all. After spending considerable time telling me that he doesn’t ‘do’ emotions, doesn’t have a favourite horse and doesn’t get attached to horses, his eyes did light up when recalling that day. “Look, nothing came easy to Palladium and he didn’t excite us at home.”  He ran ok as a 2yo [no win] and proceeded to win a small race on his fourth start, before finishing a lacklustre 4th in Germany's main Derby trial, the Union Rennen. 

“I am still not sure what wonders combined in Hamburg and how we managed to win there. It was great, especially with my girlfriend being heavily pregnant with our first child [son Mikk was born later that month]“. 

So you had emotions that day? “Maybe for five minutes,” he smiles. 

Mikk naturally changed a lot. “Everything changed with him, and I wonder what I did all day before he came. We came home from a holiday the other day, so many suitcases and his buggy. I thought - clearly we need a bigger car! I don’t think it changed the way I train, but I do feel more pressure to succeed, to earn money as I want him to have every chance in life.” The money, right? No emotions, right? 

Palladium of course went on to write his own chapter in Grewe's (and Liberty Racing’s) vita when selling for €1.4 million at last year's Arc Sale. This made him the highest-priced horse ever to go hurdling and joined Nicky Henderson’s famed Lambourn stable. He was a winner on his first start over the smaller obstacles at Huntingdon in late January. But, come this summer, an ambitious flat campaign may beckon too. 

It's not that Grewe and Liberty Racing are resting on their laurels. The latter naturally features prominently on Grewe's owners list, with five 3yo’s for three different syndicates. Among those is a strapping son of Camelot, purchased for €180,000 at the 2023 BBAG Sales and from Röttgen Studs fabled A-damline.   

Called Amico, and stabled in the same block that housed Assistent and Muskoka, Grewe asks, “do you want to see this year's Derby winner?” Well that is some introduction. History in the shape of three Derby winners in a row would beckon for Liberty Racing, and while that’s not unprecedented in the annals of the German Derby, it certainly hasn’t been done with shared ownership. 

Nowadays Grewe trains roughly 80 horses and runs a tight ship. “It´s too expensive to have a bad horse in training and I am quick to call a spade a spade. Not everyone likes that.” 

He always has an eye on the strike-rate and had nearly 30% winners to runners in 2024. His horses are brought along a little slower nowadays, but 2yo racing with its lucrative sales races is vital to his business. “Nothing wrong with training 2 year olds, in fact they need it and studies clearly show the benefit of starting early. I am no fan of pre-training though.”   

He calls a spade a spade when it comes to German racing too, where low prize money, “ineffective” leadership and rival racecourses are his main complaints. 

He misses the sense and obligations for the wider good of racing from the latter group in particular, but feels the tide is ever so slowly turning for the better. 

“They [the racecourses] need to work together, and with the owners, to create a more potent environment. My impression is they slowly understand. I do speak my mind, and people listen.”

Syndicates, as mentioned, are Grewe’s idea of accelerating fortunes in German racing and he sees responsibilities with trainers, himself included. “I know I need to get much better at communicating with owners, and yes, no doubt trainers could – and should – set up racing clubs and syndicates.” 

Grewe remains as hungry as ever, if not hungrier.  “I have won nearly everything worth winning in Germany, but there is loads left abroad.” Eckhard Sauren's horse, Penalty - a rare son of Frankel on these shores, is pencilled in for European Gp.1 mile races.  

Constant rumours suggest that Grewe is only biding his time in Germany, but more imminently he plans to take the helm of his training company buying out his (new) business partners in 2025. New chapters will be written, and the best is surely yet to come. 

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TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter – SIR MARK PRESCOTT BT.

Sir Mark Prescott trainer of the quarter

Article by Giles Anderson

Heath House Stables in Newmarket has been the only yard our deserved TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter, Sir Mark Prescott, has trained from during his fifty-three years with a training licence.

Britain’s longest serving trainer has produced many horses at the highest level. Consider the fact that he operates with a self imposed limit of fifty horses under his care at any given time and his record seems even more impressive.

Over time, Prescott has worked closely with many leading owner breeders - none more so than Kirsten Rausing. Over the years, they have produced the likes of Albanova and Alborada to score at the highest level.

In 2019 a filly named Alpinista, made her racecourse debut on July 18th at Epsom. The debut was a winning one. Prescott wouldn’t necessarily be a trainer you would associate with winning debutantes, so many took note of this performance. The Racing Post reported that Alpinista; “dwelt, in touch in 5th, slightly green when asked for effort over 2f out, soon closed to lead over 1f out, pushed clear, unchallenged after”.

It would be fair to say that the five horses who finished behind her, haven’t exactly set the form book alight since. The same can’t be said for Alpinista.

Her subsequent start at Goodwood in August (2019) proved to be her only start where she finished out of the first four - when finishing 6th in the Gp.3 Prestige Stakes.

Winning ways resumed the following August (2020) when scoring in the Listed Upavon Fillies Stakes at Salisbury.

In 2021 Alpinista simply dominated the German Gp.1 races, with victories in the Grosser Preis von Berlin, the 59th running of the Preis von Europa and the Grosser Preis von Bayern.

Prescott, has always been a devotee of the European Pattern, looking further afield to pick up (in his own words) “cheap black type” for the fillies in his care. But little did he know when Alpinista beat Torquator Tasso and Walton Street in the Grosser Preis von Berlin what impact this race would have and cement Alpanista as the filly of her generation.

Walton Street ran two places better on his next start in Toronto when a fascicle 5 3/4 length winner of the Gr.1 Pattison Canadian International.

Torquator Tasso went onto frank the form in a duo of Gp.1 races -  the prestigious Grosser Preis von Baden before a ‘shock’ win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The only person who probably wasn’t suffering from shock on the first Sunday in October 2021 was Sir Mark Prescott - he now knew he now had a serious filly in his care.

When the actual plan was hatched to aim Alpanista for the 2022 running of the Arc de Triomphe one will never know. But one can safely bet that by the time the 2022 Pattern Book dropped through the letterbox at Heath House Stables, Prescott had already worked out her plan for 2022.

Fast forward to the build up for the 2022 Arc and anyone who has enjoyed the shere entertainment of Prescott’s company will have enjoyed the build up for the race. With Prescott providing a level of light relief, regaling stories of previous voyages to France and the disappointment of defeat that most such ventures result in.

But in Alpanista’s victory in the 2022 Arc de Triomphe we got to celebrate the victory of two of the greatest proponents of the European Pattern in Sir Mark and Kirsten Rausing. 

Alpanista was retired in November to embark on her next career as a broodmare at Lanwades Stud. 

Her final race record reads as; 15 starts, 10 victories - with 6 in Gp.1 company - coming in three different countries. Quite a record.

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Jérôme Reynier - The French horseman’s pathway to success

Jérôme Reynier

Article by Katherine Ford

Take a look at the French trainers’ standings in September, and hot on the heels of the Classic powerhouses of Rouget, Fabre and Graffard in fourth place was Jérôme Reynier. Based in his native Marseille, still a couple of years shy of his 40th birthday, the discreet yet determined professional has climbed step by step to racing’s top table, and his ascension is far from over. 

I met Reynier at Deauville during the August meeting and interrupted his breakfast with half a dozen staff. “We have a family atmosphere and a good relationship. I’m not a difficult boss, but if there are decisions to be made, that’s my job. I don’t want anyone else to take initiatives without consulting me first. That’s why I’m always available in case there’s a problem,” Reynier admits.

What is striking with Reynier is an attention to detail, whether that be in the organisation of his training regime, his assiduous desire to answer any queries from any quarters, or his true passion and almost encyclopaedic knowledge of bloodstock and racing. Going back to the origins of his love of racing, he explains, “I caught the virus from my father who was an architect but passionate about racing and breeding. I was born in 1985, and that was the year that he bred his first horse, called Shaindy.” 

Reynier goes on to recount in great detail the destiny of Shaindy, who was bought back as a yearling and ended up Group-placed as a juvenile and winner of the then Listed Prix Djebel. It is easy to forget from the vividness of the description that at the time he was still in nappies and has no direct memories of the time. “It was magical, for a first homebred, carrying my grandfather’s colours. That caused a snowball effect with my father who bought more mares. He was lucky, but then you make your own luck.” 

Learning the trade

Just a few years later Reynier’s father sold all his burgeoning thoroughbred interests when his son was still too small to remember, in order to devote more time to his wife and family. 

Jérôme Reynier French trainer.jpg

However, the marriage broke down and his son remembers, “My parents separated when I was 12, and I went to live with my father who took me to Deauville sales to see if I took to the bloodstock world. It was all new to me, but I loved it and thought of nothing else from then on. 

“At school, I put sales catalogues inside my textbooks; so during lessons I was engrossed in the pedigree pages. I had never touched a horse in my life—my experience all came from books as there wasn’t even [French racing channel] Equidia at the time.”

At 15 years old, Jérôme Reynier had his first hands-on experience during a summer at Alain Brandebourger’s Haras de Chartreux, and the following summer his father sent him to Newmarket to learn English. “I spent two months with David Shekells at Old Mill Stud. He had two yearlings for Deauville sales, but I was only tiny and not strong enough to hold a yearling weighing 400kg. They were both monsters—a Nashwan and an Unfuwain—so my job for two months was to walk behind them to keep them moving forward. 

“Then during the journey from Newmarket to Deauville, I had to travel in the back of the horsebox at their heads all the way to stop them from fighting. It was a real test of my enthusiasm!”

Full marks for effort

Deauville trainer Jerome Reynier.jpg

Jérôme passed the test with flying colours, and his enthusiasm remained intact, more so than his academic career, which suffered from his obsession with thoroughbreds. “I failed my Bac [baccalauréat], and things weren’t easy then as I had no qualifications, contacts or references. When I went to the races at Deauville, I didn’t have access to any of the reserved areas; I saw racing as a very closed environment. For me, it was unattainable. During that summer, I worked at the Forien’s Haras de Montaigu to prepare the yearlings. After that, I applied to do a season at Coolmore, and they took me on from January to June in 2005; so I went to Ireland and passed my Bac as an external candidate.”

A fascination for pedigrees

Jérôme Reynier has stars in his eyes as he remembers his stint at Coolmore. “I worked in one of the small yards with barren or maiden mares, so there were no foals but some amazing pedigrees, and we took them to stallions like Sadler’s Wells, Galileo and Montjeu. I got to see the stallions and how the system worked. I was always more interested in the pedigrees and breeding aspect than the racing in the afternoon.” 

The Irish National Stud course followed in 2006 and while there, the determined and precocious Jérôme applied for and was accepted onto the Darley Flying Start programme. “I didn’t waste a minute!” he remembers. “In 2008 I was 22 years old and found myself with qualifications from the Irish National Stud and Darley Flying Start. The problem was that I was overqualified for my age. I needed work, but everyone considered that I was too young to take on the jobs in the breeding industry that I was qualified for. At the same time, my father fell ill so I went back to Marseille and as nobody would employ me, I set up my own business as a bloodstock agent. But I soon realised it was very difficult to earn a living without a large volume of trade. I knew a few people, but I didn’t have a network of clients. I was young and based in Marseille, so I didn’t tick the boxes…” 

It was therefore by default that Reynier began his successful training career, initially as a private trainer for the Ecurie Camacho Courses. “I was employed to train around 15 horses for them at Marseille, and in two years we had 38 winners and €800,000 in earnings with modest horses. It was a great way to start off, but after two years, I wanted my independence.” 

Starting from scratch

From four horses at the outset in March 2013, the ambitious professional soon made himself noticed and his stable grew. “I was getting good results, including in the Parisian region where I could find favourable entries and make a name for myself, rather than focusing on local races at Marseille. I’ve always tried to look beyond my immediate horizon. I had horses of a limited quality, but my passion was to find winnable races. I was back to what I loved—really hands on, mucking out in the morning, going to the track, driving the horses to races myself. I wouldn’t hesitate to make a long journey for a made-to-measure entry. I think that was the best period in my career as a trainer.” 

Reynier was hit hard by the untimely death of his father in November 2014 and doubled down to bury his grief in work, “to make him proud from where he is now.”

He was satisfied with his 40-capacity stable but in 2018 received a career-changing offer from powerful local owner Jean-Claude Seroul, whose orange and grey colours were a familiar sight in Marseille. They are now known far beyond, thanks notably to the exploits of prolific top-level winners Skalleti and Marianafoot.

Reynier took on the job as private trainer to Seroul’s 50-55 strong string, based just across the road from his own yard at the Calas training centre, 30km north of Marseille, “Mr Seroul has his own stable, his own horses and his own staff; it didn’t affect my own structure. They are two separate operations, and the strings don’t go out at the same time; so instead of having four lots with 30 riders in each, I have eight lots with 15 riders each time. It’s much more manageable as I like to give each rider precise instructions for including the exact position of every horse in each lot. All the details are indicated on the list, which is sent out the previous evening, and that organisation now allows me to delegate more; and for instance to spend the month here in Deauville where we have an allocation of 14 boxes and a rotation of horses. If we win six races here and a few places, it will be a good result.”

That August target was achieved with the highlight being a Listed victory for the Seroul-owned filly, Rose Premium.

Calas ticks all the boxes

The conversation moves back to Calas, described by Reynier as a “perfect” facility with a main 3km round track, which gives the opportunity to work left- or right-handed depending upon the day. It also offers an incline for interval training, as well as turf, sand and jumps schooling tracks. “We have all that we need, and the results are proof of that. I will never abandon Calas because it is a good training centre with a wonderful climate, and it allows us to create a very progressive programme for the horses. We all—Christophe Escuder, Fabrice Vermeulen and myself—like to run our horses as much as possible rather than over-train them, so we provide a lot of runners for the PMU. Our owners want to see their horses at the races, so as soon as the horse is ready, whatever his level, I find a race for him. I find the French programme clear and simple, with opportunities for all categories.”

Marseille was rocked in late 2021 as dawn raids saw three members of the Rossi family among several professionals taken into police custody under suspicion of the use of forbidden substances and conspiracy to defraud and fix races. Frederic, Cédric and Charley, who were responsible for around 150 horses at Calas, are currently suspended from training and under police investigation. Reynier comments, “It saddened me because I know Cedric and Charley (Rossi) well, and I am sure that they are not cheats. It’s been a tough time for the region to be in the spotlight for negative reasons, and there is also the risk that if we don’t generate enough runners for turnover on the PMU, they will reduce the number of races at our tracks.” 

The city’s best racecourse, seaside Marseille-Borély, is already under threat of closure and Reynier adds, “The lease has been extended until 2024. It’s perfectly situated for development, but it will be a disaster if it is lost; so that’s why it is important to keep an open mind geographically. I wouldn’t exclude creating a small satellite yard in Chantilly to start with to avoid too much travelling for some of the horses. Then why not extend the Chantilly stable to have two bases… But it is certain that the future lies in Paris, or maybe abroad.”

Plotting a path to success

Trainer of Royal Julius, winner of the inaugural Bahrain International Trophy.jpg

Jérôme Reynier has always had the opposite of a blinkered approach and loves to see a well-made plan come to fruition, as his first stable star Royal Julius, winner of the inaugural Bahrain International Trophy, demonstrates. “When Bahrain created the new international race, the prize money was very generous. And the conditions were optimal for Royal Julius, who was a true right-hander who loved a fast surface and ten furlongs, so I set out to prepare and qualify him for that race. He needed to keep a high rating, so I sent him to Italy where it was easy for him to do well in Stakes company; whereas if I’d run him in a Gp. 3 in France and he’d finished fifth, his rating would have dropped and I would never have been invited there or to Qatar. He was a great horse for the stable, as was Master Spirit who was a “second hand” horse we received; and from being a handicapper, we managed to take second place in the Grand Prix de Deauville with him. I’ve been lucky to train some good horses, but it’s important to take good care of them to age well.” 

More recently, flag bearers Skalleti and Marianafoot have rewarded the patience and skill of their handler, along with Thunder Drum who joined Reynier for owner Lady Bamford. “It was particularly satisfying for me to receive beautifully bred horses for Lady Bamford and exceptional to win the Prix du Royaumont (Gp. 3) last year on Jockey-Club day with Thunder Drum, who couldn’t win a maiden in England as a juvenile. We had intended to run her in the Italian Oaks that weekend but made a last-minute change of plan due to a modest field and rain in Chantilly; and it worked perfectly! As for Skalleti and Marianafoot, they both had their best seasons last year at six years old, which is amazing. In fact, I was the leading French trainer on Gp. 1 wins, with the three victories of that pair. Cédric Rossi and André Fabre had two each!”

Prize money for happy owners and trainers

“We don’t have a star this year, but a lot of horses are earning their keep and that keeps the stable going. Take the example of Happy Harry, a son of Zarak that we claimed in January; in six months, he has earned €70,000 (the gelding boosted his earnings by a further €14,000 in prize money and owners’ premiums for a handicap win days after our interview). If I have 50 Happy Harrys, I’m happy! The French system makes this possible if you have a healthy horse who can run regularly. In England, if you have a decent horse, you either try and win some good races or you try the commercial route, win on the debut and then sell it on. It’s impossible to earn money with prize money in England, and I couldn’t train there. It’s a different policy. The French way of constructing a career is with a horse that might be just 80 percent ready for his debut and he will progress as he races. So, we can think of the long term rather than the short term. As long as we can keep our system in France with the PMU and decent prize money, we are privileged. We are the best country for racing in Europe or maybe in the world, but a whole generation of punters is on the way out, and I don’t see many young people betting on racing, so I often feel pessimistic.”

Jerome Reynier trainer of Happy Harry.jpg

Despite his concerns, Jérôme Reynier is, as always, aware of upcoming opportunities and a changing of the guard, which may enable him to move even further up racing’s top table. “There is a whole older generation of trainers in Chantilly who are on the way out, so there will be opportunities. The new trainers who are there now and setting up soon will create a new dynamism. Maybe I will be a part of it and maybe I won’t…” 

One thing is certain, whatever Jérôme Reynier does or doesn’t become a part of will depend upon a carefully constructed plan, leaving little to chance and attracting more good luck his way. 

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TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Johnny Murtagh

TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Johnny MurtaghThe TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Johnny Murtagh. Murtagh will receive £1,000 worth of TopSpec feed, supplements and additives as well as a consultation with one of their senior n…

By Lissa Oliver

The TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by Johnny Murtagh. Murtagh will receive £1,000 worth of TopSpec feed, supplements and additives as well as a consultation with one of their senior nutritionists.

Johnny Murtagh had said all along that he wasn’t there for the free lunch; and on the opening day of Irish Champions Weekend, the well-named Champers Elysees ensured the drinks were on her. The three-year-old filly provided Murtagh and his team at Fox Covert Stables on the Curragh, Kildare, with a memorable first Gp1 win in the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown—a remarkable improvement by Murtagh of a filly rated 86 only three months earlier.

Despite the foreshortened season, Murtagh has already surpassed previous season tallies, and Champers Elysees is his 36th winner of the season. Just to add icing to the cake, her stablemate Know It All was only narrowly denied third place, held by a head by Prix de Diane and Nassau Stakes heroine Fancy Blue. 

“I always thought she had a lot of promise,” Murtagh says of Champers Elysees, who remains unbeaten so far this year. “She ran well on her first two starts last year, so we had a go at the Tattersalls sales race where the big field was just a little too much for her; but she went back there and won two weeks later. In the Birdcatcher Nursery she just got a bit tired in the heavy ground.”

With a win and three places from her five starts at two, the interruption of COVID-19 saw a late start this year, when she collected a handicap in June on her seasonal debut. “We liked her a lot,” Murtagh reflects, “and then she won a Listed race at Galway by seven lengths, so I made the entry for the Matron Stakes. At that stage we thought of Know It All as our best filly—she’d won the Group Three Derrinstown Stud Fillies Stakes.

“Then Champers Elysees won the Group Three Fairy Bridge Stakes, and that was the key factor in convincing me to run her in the Matron Stakes—I knew she would run well. Both fillies had been going well for us at home all year, but the week before the Matron they were training really well.”

Know It All was beaten less than a length when third in the Prix Rothschild—that first Gp1 tantalisingly within reach—so the Fox Covert team had good reason to be optimistic ahead of Irish Champions Weekend, which they capped with a win in the Northfields Premier Handicap on the second day with Sonnyboyliston.

“We’ve not been doing anything different,” Murtagh says of his excellent year. “They got held up for two months at the start of the season, so they had a bit of extra training in the spring, then a bit of a break before they got going again. 

120920_CHAMPERS ELYSEES10.jpg.jpg

“But overall we’ve just got a better standard of horse. We’ve got them fresh and well and ready to run, and they’ve been consistent all year. I’ll be going to the sales next week, and I’ll buy a few that I like myself as I always do, and they’ve been lucky for us. The aim is always to win enough prize money for them to pay their way.

“It’s a real family affair, and my wife Orla runs the office. We’ve got a very good variety of gallops, very good staff and very good riders, which is the most important thing. There’d be no winners without them. I do enjoy sitting down at night to pick races, and this year it was easy to pick them out; they just fell right. 

“Self-belief is everything. I’m a naturally positive person, and I try to put a positive spin on everything we do. To go from champion jockey to successful trainer is hugely satisfying. I’ve worked with some of the best trainers in the world, and I’d like to think some of it has rubbed off and I’ve learned from them.”

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Understanding Trainers’ mental health

Mental health and wellbeingThere is no doubt that the welfare of the horse is important and the public perception of how we care for the horse in training and on retirement impacts directly on the level of support we can expect from sponsors, racego…

By Lissa Oliver

There is no doubt that the welfare of the horse is important and the public perception of how we care for the horse in training and on retirement impacts directly on the level of support we can expect from sponsors, racegoers and governments. The care of the horse, however, is wholly dependent upon those it is entrusted to and they are the ones who have often been neglected.

Racing Welfare was founded in the UK in 2000 and the service was expanded in 2014. In Ireland, the Industry Assistance Programme (IAP) was launched in 2016 and receives great publicity from Irish racing publications. Both support systems are easily accessed and provide a free and confidential 24-hour service, seven days a week, for everyone working, or who has previously worked, within the thoroughbred industry and their immediate family members.

Sadly, this is not the case elsewhere, but not from want of need. Many German trainers feel the wellbeing of industry professionals in German racing is sadly ignored. If the Direktorium has any regard or respect for stable staff, it is escaping without notice.

“At the Baden-Baden meetings, the stable staff are still living in squalor by today’s standards,” one trainer, who prefers not to be named, tells us. “Jockeys with welfare or alcohol problems are pushed aside and never heard of again. There is no Injured Jockeys Fund, no helplines or advice for a future career. For this day and age that is a really shameful state of affairs.

“It’s time these issues were aired. After all, without our dedicated workforce we have no racing. I have personally helped various people from the industry who have fallen on hard times, even in one case an attempted suicide, and have received no support. It has reached a point where I now only run horses in France when at all possible, I have lost all faith in German racing.”

That really is a damning indictment, particularly as one trainer went so far as to say that their support of an industry professional who had hit rock bottom earned them nothing but derision. It is interesting, too, that none of these individuals wanted to be named. Not for their own modesty, but in respect of the confidentiality of those they had helped.

This same sense of a lack of care and concern was reiterated by a French trainer unaware of AFASEC (www.afasec.fr), a service for racing and breeding professionals. AFASEC (Association of Training and Social Action Racing Stables) was commissioned by France Galop and the French Horse Encouragement Society in 1988 for the training and support of employees of racing stables throughout their career path. The association is managed under the double supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

AFASEC ensures the training of future employees through the French Horse Racing School and offers support to employees throughout their professional life. Five social workers and two social and family economics counsellors are at the disposal of 4,000 French racing professionals. Their mission is to inform, help and support in their professional and personal lives. The social workers can then refer those looking for support to relevant services.

The lack of awareness of this service among some French trainers suggests that more publicity is needed to ensure every racing industry professional has the necessary contact details and can avail of this service when required. The need for trainers to make such services known and displayed in the yard is paramount.

The confidentiality of the support network set up in Britain and Ireland is vital to its success, and Racing Welfare and HRI/CARE prefer not to reveal figures regarding the number of individuals who have availed of the service. However, Racing Welfare supported more than 2,200 people in 2017 with a wide range of challenges, which represents a significant proportion of racing’s workforce.

One trainer who is happy to discuss the help she received from the IAP is Clare Cannon, in County Down, Northern Ireland. She holds a Restricted Licence, with only four horses in her yard, and struggles to make her business pay.

Clare Cannon

Following the particularly harsh winter and spiralling costs, coupled with the retirement of her best horse, Cannon considered giving up and joining the many Irish trainers to have relinquished their licence this year.

“It doesn’t matter how big or small a trainer is, the problems are the same—just on a different scale,” she points out. “A lot of things had happened to me on top of each other. It reached a point when I thought, ‘why am I even doing this’? The biggest thing is that since going to the IAP I’ve had such a great season. If I’d not got help and I’d given up, I would have been watching someone else having a great year with my horses.”

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Joseph O'Brien - King of the Hill

JOSEPH O’BRIENKing of the HillBy Alex CairnsLineage matters in racing. The entire thoroughbred endeavour is based on selective breeding aimed at producing quality and even ‘perfection.’ Of course, thoroughbred breeding isn’t an exact science, with h…

By Alex Cairns

Lineage matters in racing. The entire thoroughbred endeavour is based on selective breeding aimed at producing quality and even ‘perfection.’ Of course, thoroughbred breeding isn’t an exact science, with humbly bred horses sometimes defying their roots and blue-bloods regularly failing to live up to the promise of their page. But pedigree still reigns as the most reliable gauge of innate ability in racehorses.

In centuries gone by, humans too were judged on their parentage and given a particular standing based less on aptitude than origin. These days our social structure tends to be more of a meritocracy, in which people are born equal and gain a position through achievement.

Last page image - possibly running text over the top half.jpg

Being the grandson of a successful trainer, son of two successful trainers, and nephew of a successful trainer, those in the racing game might say Joseph O’Brien has the perfect pedigree for the job and will logically excel.

At the same time, his background has afforded him a head start via a family owned yard and well-stocked address book. As we discovered in a recent interview, however, the soon-to-be-25-year-old takes nothing for granted and is determined that his operation will succeed on its own merits.

THE HILL

Severe snow and unseasonable cold had brought much of Britain and Ireland to a standstill in the week prior to our interview with Joseph O’Brien. Such conditions can prove a challenge even on the flattest, most accessible terrain. O’Brien’s yard, which operates under the banner of ‘Carriganog Racing,’ rests on the slopes of Owning Hill in County Kilkenny, a secluded location accessible only by small country roads.

This setting might be problematic in extreme weather, but it provides the foundation for a gallop that has proven its value in the training of several decades’ worth of winning racehorses. A steep uphill stretch of seven furlongs with a high hedge on one side, it was masterminded by Joseph’s grandfather Joseph Crowley. It then passed into the hands of Crowley’s daughter Annemarie. A certain Aidan O’Brien took the reins after marrying Annemarie, and then Annemarie’s sister Frances kept things in the family when the O’Briens moved to Coolmore’s famed training facility at Ballydoyle in 1996.

Stepping out of the crisp morning air into the yard office, Joseph reflects on his family’s longstanding relationship with this land. “Granddad originally came here and it was just fields. He had a few horses and started cantering them from the bottom of the hill to the top on a dogleg. Then Mum and Dad took over, then Frances. Over time it was a plough gallop, then artificial, but the layout is pretty much the same as it was 40 or 50 years ago. This office is actually where my bedroom used to be, though I don’t really remember living here as we moved over to Ballydoyle when I was four or five.”

With two trainers as parents, Joseph has been steeped in the profession from day one, making the training vocation a question of both nature and nurture. “All my life I’ve been in this environment and training was always my goal. There was no backup plan, as I don’t know anything else, to be honest. I was raised at Ballydoyle and worked there from as soon as I was able. I went to Jim Bolger’s for a week for work experience at school, but other than that I never really saw anyone else training except Dad.”

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April - June 2018, issue 61 (PRINT)
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Starting Up: Where in the EU can New Trainers Get the Best Start?

Published in European Trainer, January - March 2018, issue 60.

In the previous issue of European Trainer (Issue 59, October-December 2017),  the Trainers’ Daily Rates Survey was summarised, while Europe’s best training centres were also featured. From the former we learned that only 38% of trainers derive their sole income from training, yet this doesn’t deter hopefuls from taking out their first licence. So, where is the best place to set up a new yard to tip the balance in your favour?

Just over half of European trainers keep between 10-50 horses; fewer than 10% have more, and it is generally not considered to be economically viable to train fewer than 30 horses. The average daily rate per horse charged by a trainer is €43, which would provide a weekly revenue of €9,030 for a 30-horse yard.

Comparing daily rate to staff wages, there is little benefit to be found in starting up in one country versus another. The EU minimum wage maintains a constant across the board although the stable staff associations of some countries, such as Ireland, do ensure that a higher rate is paid. Therefore, anywhere from 50-90% of the daily rate charged will go to staff. A shortage of good riders and experienced staff is currently being endured throughout Europe, so, again, a new trainer is free to choose any location...

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NEW: 'Hindsight' - Clive Brittain

Hindsight - Clive Brittain In a training career spanning more than 40 years, Clive Brittain and his Carlburg Stables in Newmarket became synonymous with high-profile success in Britain and on the international racing scene.Clive’s lengthy resume of …

Published in European Trainer - October - December 2017, issue 59

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In a training career spanning more than 40 years, Clive Brittain and his Carlburg Stables in Newmarket became synonymous with high-profile success in Britain and on the international racing scene.

Clive’s lengthy resume of top-flight wins includes six British Classics and overseas triumphs in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and Japan Cup, achieved by horses such as the legendary Pebbles, User Friendly, Jupiter Island and Warrsan.

Two years on from his retirement, Clive reflects on the pivotal moments and people in his amazing career.

During your time with Sir Noel Murless, you were part of the move from Beckhampton Stables to Newmarket, which has been your home for more than 60 years. What are your memories of working for Sir Noel Murless and what changes have you seen in Newmarket in this time?

“Sir Noel was a very good boss, a very fair man, and never changed. I started out as an apprentice jockey, but I made a very good stable man and went with Sir Noel and the team to Warren Place. At the time, the stable held around 70 horses, which was a lot in those days, as most of established trainers would have around 50 horses with Geoffrey Brooke possibly having around 60, most of which were two-year-olds.

“Sir Noel later became the first trainer to have more than 100 horses, but numbers today for the larger trainers are typically well over 150 horses per trainer. We later had 160 horses between two yards, Carlburg and one at Stetchworth, on Bill Gredley’s estate, of around 30 boxes.”

You achieved notable success with long-priced runners in the big races (such as Terimon's second in the 1989 Derby at 500/1). What do you think of the BHA's recent decision to put a minimum qualifying rating of 80 on contenders for the Group 1 races for three-year-olds and upwards?

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The true cost of training

First published in European Trainer issue 58 - July - September 2017

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The FRBC French Annual Review 2016-2017 shows that in 2016, the total distributed prize money in Britain, Ireland, France, and Germany was €528,357,185.

It’s interesting to note that in France (95%) in particular and in Ireland (65%), prize money is pretty much self-funded via racing organisations, which contribute only 48% to British prize money and as little as 4% to German prize money. The contribution from owners stands at 4% in France, 7% in Germany, 16% in Britain, and 23% in Ireland.

 With prize money recognised as the lifeblood of racing, it’s interesting to see where it originates and even more interesting to see where it goes. In Issue 39 of European Trainer (Autumn/Winter 2012) we featured the distribution of prize money, jockey and trainer fees, and percentages. At that time there were 1,500 licensed trainers throughout Europe chasing 10% of winning prize money, from which further deductions in many cases brought that down to 7%.

 The figures have changed little since, and it’s no surprise that the majority of trainers continue to survive largely on the trading of horses. Selling winning horses out of a stable can hardly be viewed as a sustainable business plan and it is never going to help trainers in the lower tier break through into the higher ranks when their best horses are sold and moved to other yards.

 With so many relinquishing their licence each year due to rising costs and the inability to make training pay, there have been recent calls to put more in place to help trainers. Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) earlier this year launched a trainer marketing scheme to assist in attracting new owners, as well as the new “Experience It” campaign to provide potential owners with the experience of a day at the races as an owner. HRI also plans to assist in the collection of training fees to protect against non-payers.

 Gaining new owners and ensuring that they pay is only half the battle, however, and the high-profile removal of Gigginstown Stud-owned horses from Willie Mullins has highlighted the problem of the fees themselves. Mullins is not alone in maintaining the same weekly fee for 10 years, and the example set by Gigginstown shows the dangers of increasing fees when that is no longer viable. Wages, insurance, utility bills, diesel, and feed and bedding prices have all increased during the past decade but most training fees have not, which means trainers have effectively reduced their fees each year.

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JEAN-PIERRE CARVALHO - the French trainer in Germany

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Sir Mark Prescott - a racehorse trainer completely comfortable in his own skin

Love him or hate him - odds are against indifference - trainer Sir Mark Prescott needs little introduction. The unapologetic Prescott isn't bothered whichever the sentiment, as he is very much his own man and comfortable - some might say all too much so - in his own skin.

Frances Karon (European Trainer - issue 22 - Summer 2008)

Love him or hate him - odds are against indifference - trainer Sir Mark Prescott needs little introduction. The unapologetic Prescott isn't bothered whichever the sentiment, as he is very much his own man and comfortable - some might say all too much so - in his own skin.

Frances Karon (European Trainer - issue 22 - Summer 2008)

 

 

 

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In at the deep end - Mike Back, the trainer and mechanic

Fair Meadows racetrack in Tulsa, Oklahoma is sheltered under the shade of the city’s imposing skyscrapers, yet once there the eye is riveted by the busy jumble of pick-up trucks and horse trailers, cowboy hats and shiny belt buckles. The stabling area is well stocked for the mixed racing meet. Walk down the barn and pick a nose to scratch from among the heads stretched over the doors of their cedar chip-bedded stalls: Quarter Horse, Paint, Appaloosa or Thoroughbred.
Frances J Karon (01 October 2007 - Issue Number: 5)

By Frances Karon

Fair Meadows racetrack in Tulsa, Oklahoma is sheltered under the shade of the city’s imposing skyscrapers, yet once there the eye is riveted by the busy jumble of pick-up trucks and horse trailers, cowboy hats and shiny belt buckles. The stabling area is well stocked for the mixed racing meet. Walk down the barn and pick a nose to scratch from among the heads stretched over the doors of their cedar chip-bedded stalls: Quarter Horse, Paint, Appaloosa or Thoroughbred.

One of the truck-and-trailer rigs belongs to 37-year-old Mike Back, who has hauled his filly Hard Bargain to Fair Meadows from his home in Adair – an hour away – for a half-mile workout, once around the 4-furlong “bullring” track. This is his first of two treks to the venue today for what will be a total of four hours on the road. Later, he will run Irishrunaway in the 3rd and Bagadiamonds in the 9th races on the 12-race twilight card. Back greets his rider and leans against the rail to watch as Hard Bargain skips over the red dirt surface. “He didn’t let her roll,” says Back. “Having a big, tight hold of her made her start throwing her head around a little bit, wanting to buck. I was wanting to see her set down and work. She was just doing a lot of jacking around.” He meets them at the gap, and when they get to the vacant stall he’s found for her in the barn he pays the rider, lets Hard Bargain draw some water from a bucket he has brought from home and hoses her down. Behind the barn, he surveys the eight four-horse Equicisers, chooses one and snaps the lead onto her halter. All of the walkers have two or three unsupervised horses on them already. On one, a gray Quarter Horse has stopped flat, refusing to yield to the tug on his head. He has that unmistakably ornery look in his eye, and you feel sorry for the bay attached to another arm of the mechanized hotwalker; there will be no cooling out for him this morning. Occasionally a passer-by will scoot the gray horse along, but inevitably he will stop again as soon as he’s left on his own. In a half-hour he completes three circles. On the other side of the enclosed area, Hard Bargain goes quietly, rhythmically placing her hooves on the worn path of the small circle. When her breathing has regulated and her coat has dried, Back unhooks her, loads her on the trailer and begins his long journey home.


Training horses is Back’s second career. His day job, the one that pays the bills, is as a mechanic for American Airlines, where he has worked for 18 years. “I couldn’t afford it without my job,” he says. He has taken a vacation day to shuttle horses to and from Fair Meadows today but doesn’t seem to mind. “I get excited at these races. It’s my Kentucky Derby.” He gets philosophical for a moment. “Otherwise, if you can’t do something that drives you, why go through life?”


Returning to Adair, Back turns Hard Bargain out into a pen. Except for the ones running later, his horses are lazily sunning outside. The set-up on his 160-acre farm is simple. Where possible, he has used whatever was on hand to save money, and inside his barn many of the walls are made up of sturdy wooden boards with colorful letters stenciled on them: “Mike Back for School Board.” (He was successfully elected.) There is a breeze billowing through the aisle and fans whirring over the stall doors to cut through the Oklahoma humidity. Three of the farm’s horses are in training; one is a pregnant broodmare he’s keeping for a friend; and a field towards the rear of the property houses one gelding who was badly injured during a race last month – a horse ran up on his hind tendons – and a few ex-racehorses that didn’t make the grade. “It’s a business and if one can’t run that’s fine but I won’t ship them off to the killers. I’ll find a home for them. I may have to keep them a year.” All the horses are happy and well-tended: this is not a bad place to be a horse. Training is done in the round pen, 15 minutes a day. “When you get one [fit enough] all you’ve got to do is just stand there and they’ll go 15 minutes strong. You’ll know when they’re ready for a work or for a race.” He smiles, telling a joke on himself. “I have the poor man’s Equiciser. I’m the motor in the middle. Except I can only do one at a time!” After their workout, each will be handwalked for 10 minutes before being set loose to play in the paddock.


By major racetrack standards, Back’s method is unorthodox but he is not alone in training this way: round pens have begun to appear at various racetracks. At Lone Star, he says, they “charge ten bucks to get in it, and it’s full every day. There’s a waiting list. Some people, when I tell them [how I train], they kind of frown and say that it’s hard on their knees because they’re always turning. Well it’s hard on their knees, too, when you put a 140-pound exercise rider up. Danged if you do, danged if you don’t. It works for me, and I’ve got the tracks close enough that I can take them there and blow them out.”

 
Fed by slots at local Cherokee and Choctaw owned casinos, prize money in the state is “almost double this year.” Tonight’s Thoroughbred portion of the racecard is capped by a $14,000 maiden special weight. “Oklahoma is the perfect place. Pretty good purses. Run year round, from February to December. The purses are getting better every year. Makes the competition harder, so you’ve got to have a better horse.” In Oklahoma alone, there are three racetracks within a two-hour drive of Back’s farm, though he will go as far as he needs to. “If I can win a race I’ll go across the country, if I could win a race and it was worth it. I’ll drive across the country for a minute and a half of racing! It’s ten hours to Fonner in Grand Island, Nebraska; that’s a long drive and there’s not much to see across the canvas, long and boring, but the people are great. Drove to Retama down in San Antonio a couple years ago, got there in 11 hours and they cancelled the races because of rain. That was a nice long drive back home!”

Back was introduced to racing when his father bought a racehorse for $500 in 1990. The horse won three races for them and Back had a first taste of what he would grow to love, admitting that horseracing “is just a very addicting sport.” Still, he didn’t get more involved until six or seven years ago. He had bred a few foals out of a mare and was having trouble finding a trainer. “I put an ad in the Tulsa paper, in the horse classifieds. And this guy called me, he worked the railroad and trained horses. He lived in Arch City, Kansas, so I drove up there one weekend, took the horse up and met him.” In a twist of irony, airplane and train joined together in their passion for the original mode of transport: the horse.

 
That railroad engineer, George Blatchford, trained for Back before encouraging him to apply for a trainer’s license. Blatchford had by then retired from the railroad and moved farther away to Oklahoma City, and while continuing to train horses off his farm was not always able to saddle Back’s starters, many of whom were now trained by Back in all but name. “George has been just like a dad to me. He told me I could do it myself, that I could do what he’s doing and not pay somebody $40 or $50 a day. And he was right.” When Back became a licensed trainer in October, 2005, he won his very first race, with Dr T’s Miracle. “Should have quit,” he says, full of logic but short on sincerity. “I’d have been ahead. I should have said, ‘hey, I’m 100%, what more could you want?’”


In the nearly two years since his maiden victory, breaking into the training ranks has proved a challenge. “A lot of your trainers at the track don’t give up much information. They think it’s a big secret. I kind of have to learn on the fly, you know?” But Blatchford steps in to give a hand or a push in the right direction whenever possible. “He really is a big help,” says Back. “Why do I like him?” asks Blatchford. “Well, because I know he enjoys the horseracing. I mean, it’s nice to make money with them but he does it as a sport. He does good and he tries hard. He’s always willing to learn. We’re so helpful to each other. He goes out of his way to help me and I go out of my way to help him. He’s just a great person to work with. He doesn’t have as good horses as I’ve got. You’ve got to have the horses. We’re at the bottom of the pole here, and we’re doing it because we enjoy it. Most people, it’s a business to them.”


Turning into Fair Meadows for the second time that Friday, Back heads for the two stalls that Blatchford has saved across the shedrow from his own pair of runners. As the sun sets over Tulsa, Irishrunaway settles into his stall like the veteran he is – this will be his 40th lifetime start, fourth for Back – but Bagadiamonds gets riled up. The upper half of the stalls have bars on three sides like a cage to give the horses plenty of socialization, and the sorrel Quarter Horse gelding next to her is acting coltish. Blatchford immediately pulls out one of his laid-back geldings and switches stalls with Back’s filly. The swap has helped; the filly, while still on her toes, quiets down, if only a little. Blatchford’s horse ignores the hysterics of the gelding beside him.


Blatchford’s presence at Tulsa tonight was a lucky break for Back. In Oklahoma, no one is allowed in the paddock without a license, so finding help is a chore. “You got a license?” he asks while we’re in his truck. “It’s like that, I just have to ask. If one of my buddies like George isn’t here I have to find somebody and pay them, especially if the races are back-to-back. It’s almost a nightmare, but I make it work. Once my oldest son, Taylor, turned 16 we got him a license, and that’s been a big help. He always goes with me and helps me anyway but until this year he couldn’t go in the paddock. I just kind of make do with whoever I can find.” Sometimes, he has to make do without. “A lot of times I’ll saddle them by myself just because I don’t have any help. It’s not real easy but you have to do it. I can’t do that with all of them.”


Over the course of the day it has dawned on me that when Back does his taxes there is not enough space on the “occupation” line: airplane mechanic/owner/trainer/psychologist/groom/hotwalker/van driver. It is easy to see why, for every Mike Back, there are countless people who can’t make it work. “It’s tough,” he says. “It’s a tough thing to break into, for a little person. And the politics of the track, they’ll just kill you!”
Once when Blatchford was listed as the trainer they had a horse leading the race into the last turn. “He was a dead winner,” says Blatchford – until the jockey pulled him up. Unsaddling, the rider told them the horse couldn’t breathe and Back couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I said, ‘there’s nothing wrong with that horse.’ I went to the stewards – I was so mad – the next morning I went back over there and said, ‘What do you want this horse to work?’ He said to work him 3/8’s and I said, ‘I’m going to work him a half.’ And he had a bullet work. Brought him back two weeks later and won a race with him. But if it hadn’t been for George pulling some strings I’d have never gotten anybody to ride him.”


Another of Back’s charges got a DNF not long ago. “Why? Well come to find out later the jockey had gotten thrown that morning, his back was hurting. I didn’t know that. The steward had had four complaints that day. The horse was going to run in the money. Instead, it put me on the vet’s list. I had to go work the horse, I had to take the horse in front of the vet, for nothing wrong with him. I can not afford for that to happen. So now I have a horse that’s got a DNF, and I’ve got to find somebody to ride him. What are they going to think? They’re going to think there’s something wrong with this horse.” With effort, he convinced a jock agent his horse was sound, the jockey took the mount and rode him to two consecutive third-place finishes. Back felt vindicated but the sting of what he might have lost remains. “It’s out of your hands once you put them on a horse. They could be costing me a race that I need to keep going through next week. That’s the whole killer, is they don’t realize how much I have riding on every race. It’s not a life-or-death deal but it’s a trying-to-get-by-to-next-week deal. Next week’s $200 feed bill and next week’s $150 this-and-that. It all quickly adds up.”


Back searches for new horses regularly. “I’m just looking for the next good horse that I could win a race with.” When studying claimers, he keys in on entries from “the bigger trainers, a horse that they’ve dropped to the bottom, that’s not working in their program,” but who’ve shown a little bit of ability in the past. “It’s so hard when you claim one. That could make or break you right there. You’ve got to be willing to lose your money. It’s an investment for the long term. I look for a horse that’s sour from the track, take one that’s not happy and just let him be a horse.” He singles out the gray Irishrunaway, who came to him through a trainer friend in Louisiana. “When I got him, I gave him some feed, a little TLC, a little time out, just to make him happy. He’d done absolutely nothing in his life. But now he’ll try, he’ll give it everything he’s got. I’ve run a second and a third with him in three outs.” His fondness for the horse – for all his horses – and for using his good instincts to learn what makes each one tick is plain to see.


He found Hard Bargain, a winner of three races for her previous owner, on HandRide.com, a website he visits frequently. “I called a guy and swung a deal with him. It was the only horse he had. She’d won a bit of money and won races last year but he had a new baby and he just couldn’t afford it anymore. And I said, ‘Yeah, I know what you mean!’” The married father of four (with a very supportive wife) drove to Henderson, Kentucky, looked the filly over and bought her. Back has pursued the online angle aggressively, e-mailing the representatives for many of the racehorses listed for sale, offering to train them unless he spots an obvious red flag indicating that there’s something wrong with their horses. “I’ll just shoot them an e-mail and they’ll either say yes or no. Most of them write back saying ‘you’re too far’ or ‘we’ll see what happens if we don’t get him sold.’ My ultimate goal is to be hooked up with somebody that wants to send horses that don’t fit the bigger circuits. I’m working on it. I just haven’t got that connection yet.”

Years ago, before he was training, Back was involved in the private purchase of an A.P. Indy colt out of Wayne Lukas’ stable. “He was my pride and joy. People would just ooh and aah when they’d see him at the track,” he says, and from the catch in his throat you know you don’t want to hear what comes next, that the horse died in a barn fire at a friend’s nearby farm. “I almost got out of it then, cause I just loved him. I wish I had him knowing what I know now, which is not a lot – but knowing what I know now and how I do it, I’d win a bunch of races with him.” His leather halter is hanging up in Back’s house.


Blatchford accompanies him to the paddock and helps with the saddling. At Fair Meadows the owners don’t use their own silks; the house silks match the numbered saddlecloths. The only statement Back is allowed are the crimson blinkers emblazoned with his initials in white – the color scheme of the University of Oklahoma Sooners. After putting Mario Galvan up into the saddle, Back and Blatchford join friends in the stands. They are easy to find; the cool weather and free admission have failed to attract many people, and the crowd is remarkably sparse. The regulars are surprised at the low turnout. Irishrunaway was left at the gate on his previous outing, and Back is worried tonight before the start of the 6½-furlong, $7,500 claiming event. He has the gelding’s owner, Linda Searles, on the phone to give her the play-by-play. His share of the $3,564 winner’s purse would make a huge difference to Back; he has “never had a paying owner” and Searles and Back have a purse-splitting agreement in place, where she has no out-of-pocket expenses. “It helps her out and gives me a horse to run so I can get my feet wet.” Searles, who lives in Louisiana, is the kind of person whovoluntarily offered to pay for half the gas when Back took Irishrunaway to Nebraska in May, where he was second. She says, “Mike is a hard-working young man, and he’s honest, which is very important to me. I hope he will get that big one so that he doesn’t have to work two jobs.”

 
For all practical purposes, Irishrunaway’s race is over as soon as it begins: he spots the field too many lengths at the start, and must make up ground going around two very tight turns on the bullring. The announcer gives him an optimistic call on the backstretch: “Irishrunaway is eating up ground!” His long stride carries him wide around the second turn and it almost as soon as they straighten out of it they hit the wire. With so much going against him, Irishrunaway finishes a creditable third. Back is encouraged. “When I run third I’m happy. I’m disappointed that I’ve run third but I’m just tickled to death, I’m the happiest guy in the world. I don’t like to get beat but if my horse runs hard, I’m happy, I’m satisfied.” More than that, this check will pay for fuel: oats and diesel, horses and horsepower. That genuine effort provides Back with what will be the highlight of his evening as he leads the gelding off to cool him out on the Equiciser. Hours later, in the maiden special over a mile, Bagadiamonds is a passive observer under Galvan and the bright lights. She fretted her race away in the stall, and as they walk down the track her dark coat blends into the blackness of night. Only the white of her right hind leg, star, shadow roll and tall trainer give her away. Blatchford has gone one better: the gelding who had the studdish horse in the next stall over (he finished fourth in his 300 yard dash) has run second in his race.


Irishrunaway is wound up, as though he were mad at himself for not being able to get there. He will, one day. For now, he squeals at Bagadiamonds…in the stall, through the barn, in the trailer. They leave for home; it will be close to midnight before they are tucked up in their stalls beneath the sleepy chickens and roosters perched in the rafters.

A window into the day of the trainer whose story is seldom told: to wonder why he does it is to be immune to the thrill of horses thundering into the homestretch, to not get goosebumps when Dave Johnson roars, “And DOWN the stretch they come!” Mike Back does not hesitate for a fraction of a second when asked if he would like to train horses full time: “Yes. Definitely. If you’re not getting excited about it, you’re in the wrong business.”

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