How a trainer treats his stable stars is important, of course, but it's equally as important how he treats the racehorses that are not quite so talented.
Racehorse owner Rick Gold explains that's one of the qualities he most respects about up-and-coming trainer Dan Blacker. The English-born horseman, now based in Southern California, earned his first graded stakes victory last weekend in Santa Anita's Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes with Hit The Road, a 4-year-old Gold co-owns.
“It's easy to talk about Hit the Road, right,” Gold mused. “It's one thing to train a horse like Hit the Road who has the mental and physical ability… Meanwhile, a horse like Sir Eddie had none of those things.”
A California-bred gelding by Square Eddie, Sir Eddie required 13 tries to break his maiden. The $35,000 yearling purchase wound up earning over $130,000 on the track, but he definitely did it the hard way. From 18 starts, Sir Eddie entered the winner's circle just once.
“He had six seconds and three thirds, and he was the favorite eight times, and he just couldn't do the job,” Gold said, laughing.
“He was an absolute oil painting of a Thoroughbred, but he just didn't want to try very hard,” Blacker remembered. “He kept running second or third, but he just didn't really care to win. I think most of it is in the genes. People talk about what makes a good stallion, and physically what they see, what attributes are passed down. But I think the great stallions, the most important thing they pass down is that mental toughness, that will to win, that attribute that they just want to try hard.”
Sir Eddie may not have had a strong will to win, but that didn't mean Blacker treated him any differently than the rest of the racehorses in his barn.
“Dan tried everything with Eddie, short, long, turf, dirt; he was committed to getting that horse over the wire first,” said Gold. “I was so impressed, because the horse kept paying his bills because Dan kept him sound. The horse was a happy, healthy horse, he retired sound, and he has a great second career. Dan put his heart and his soul into Sir Eddie just the way he's doing Hit The Road. We, as owners, we loved Sir Eddie. I was as happy when he broke his maiden as any time I've been at the racetrack. That's what it's all about.”
“That's really why we're here, for the owners,” echoed Blacker. “The more you're part of the process, the more enjoyable it is.”
Blacker's regular communication with his owners includes weekly voice notes on each horse's progress, as well as video footage and reports on each workout, and recent photographs whenever possible.
“I think when people hear my voice it's easy to get my point across how the horse is doing,” said Blacker. “It's much easier for me to record a one-minute voice note on how the horse is doing than to write all that down… Emails and text messages are easily misconstrued when you read them, but when I send out a voice note, you can hear in my voice when the horse is really doing well.”
“I get so much more color; it's kind of taken the communication to the next level,” Gold said. “it's so gratifying to me to see that the last couple years he's really started to come into his own, and the results have started to catch up with the hard work I've seen.”
Gold and Blacker were introduced via the Bourbon Lane Stables partnership group in the early 2010s, and Gold was immediately impressed by the young horseman.
“I was a limited partner at the time, but I got to know him and I really got to just admire the way he dealt with horses, the way he dealt with people,” said Gold. “He's got an analytical mind in addition to being an intuitive horseman. I've never ridden a horse faster than a trot, so when a trainer tells me, 'I feel it,' it's hard for me to understand that. But he can explain things in a way that I can understand.”
Blacker's father is the famed equine sculptor and former jockey Phillip Blacker, so perhaps that's where he got his analytical mind. The horsemanship, however, Blacker credits mostly to his two year stint working for Hall of Famer Richard Mandella.
The Blacker family often revolved around horses, from his father's time at the racetracks to Dan's hours in a show jumping saddle. After attending university for environmental science, the younger Blacker was selected as part of the third intake for the very new Darley Flying Start Program.
“I think it was a case of mistaken identity,” Blacker joked. “They were still experimenting with the curriculum, and it was just an incredible experience. I'm so thankful to Sheikh Mohammed for his foresight to create a program like that, and for the chance to be with a group of people who were like-minded.
“One thing in particular, the lightbulb for me was when we went to the Kentucky Derby with the whole group, and Barbaro won that year. That was one of the moments when I really felt like I wanted to be an American and train horses in America.”
Richard Mandella with Omaha Beach at Churchill Downs in 2019
One of his placements through the Flying Start program was in Mandella's barn, and Blacker was immediately struck by the immaculate nature of the trainer's program.
“He's just one of the greatest horsemen I've ever been around,” Blacker summarized. “When I started working for him I felt confident that i was ready to start training, but after a few months of working for him I realized that I had so much more to learn. He taught me a level of horsemanship that is way beyond what I expected to know, a way of connecting with each racehorses, and achieving what you hope to achieve with each horse. He has a program, and his way is very thorough with everything you do, so that you ultimately get the best out of each horse.”
(Mandella's barn also happens to be where Blacker met his wife, Christina Olivares, daughter of former jockey Frank Olivares and now an analyst for TVG. She came to the backside to interview the Hall of Fame trainer but met Blacker instead, and somehow that particular interview didn't happen.)
Mandella's most unique quality, Blacker explained, is that he's constantly training his horses.
“I'm not talking about working it faster,” Blacker said. “[Mandella is] training the horses around the barn, when he puts the rider up, etc. He's thinking about how to make that horse behave better, and how to get the best performance out of it. Everything about the morning is designed to try to educate the horse, to make it more calm about its day-to-day routine. He likes the horses to behave a certain way, and the employees to be a certain way. This is 'The Mandella Way,' and you fall into line when you work for him.
“He'll have horses come in that are wild, and by the time they come ready for the race they are like a show pony. He's a thinker and a problem solver. From a handicapping point of view, I'm not a particularly avid one, but when I see a Mandella horse at the races, I know that horse is ready to roll. That's something that I took from him and try to emulate. Whenever I walk a horse over, I want to make sure it's ready to fire its A-game.”
Hit the Road was certainly ready to fire his A-game in the Thunder Road, galloping to a 3 ¾-length victory to clock a mile over firm turf in 1:33.35.
Hit the Road and Umberto Rispoli winning the Thunder Road
“He ran even better than I was hoping for,” Blacker admitted. “He met every hurdle, everything we asked of him.”
The Thunder Road was also Hit the Road's first start without Lasix, since graded stakes in California are being run without the race-day medication this year.
“I'm not really for or against Lasix; I'm pro-a level playing field,” said Blacker. “I just want to walk my horse over knowing I'm on a level playing field with all the other trainers. If we have to take away Lasix to do that, so be it. It has its place and it's a useful training tool. I understand the arguments on both sides, like how it would be long-term beneficial for the breed to take it away. On the flip side, if you get a great horse, you've spent all this money, and it's got tons of talent and can really run, but it bleeds, that's really hard to explain to an owner.”
Hit the Road won a listed stakes as a 2-year-old, then ran a bang-up race in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf only to be disqualified to last for interference in the stretch. It was a bit of a disappointing result, co-owner Gold admitted, but the horse hadn't been disgraced in crossing the wire seventh, beaten just 2 ½ lengths in total.
“I won't say we were happy just to be there, because he really made a great run and it was encouraging,” Gold remembered. “He came back strong last year and he's off to an even better start this year.”
After a vacation from his strong juvenile campaign, Hit the Road returned to win an allowance race at Santa Anita and the Oceanside Stakes on the opening day of the Del Mar summer season. The colt came out of the Oceanside with a minor issue, and Blacker immediately told his owners he'd need some time.
That decision was rewarded when Hit the Road returned seven months later to win the G3 Thunder Road. Up next, the son of More Than Ready is expected to tackle the G1 Kilroe Mile on March 6.
“Hit the Road has such a great mind, he's very calm and collected, so when he goes over to race I don't have to worry about anything,” Blacker said. “He came out of this race in good shape, carrying good weight. He's got three works between now and then, and he needs to be doing well, but we'd like to take a shot in that race.”
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