Tag: Connections

How does a young horse lover with no familial ties break into the racing industry?

If you're British-born Alice Haynes, you simply write a letter to one of the top trainers around and get to work.

A strong work ethic and an aversion to the word “no” have led Haynes, 31, to bring her first runner to the Breeders' Cup World Championships in just her second year with a trainer's license. She will saddle Group 3 winner Lady Hollywood in the Juvenile Turf Sprint on Nov. 4 at Keeneland, attempting to become just the eighth female trainer to send out a winner in the World Championships*.

“We've been very fortunate to get this far,” Haynes said. “This is my first proper season training and to be having a runner at the Breeders' Cup is unbelievable. It's all very exciting. We hope for a good draw and that the rain stays away!”

Haynes grew up outside of Ascot, but rode in Pony Club and three-day eventing competitions (eventually to the international three-star standard) throughout her youth.

“I've always liked to go fast,” Haynes joked. “If in doubt, go long! I enjoyed cross country very much, but eventing was very time consuming, especially up the levels. It was an expensive hobby!”

At just 15 years of age, she opted to ignore school advisors who'd warned against a career in horses, and instead wrote to prominent English trainer Henrietta Knight asking for a job. Knight, best known for her conditioning of three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Best Mate (2002-2004), gave Haynes a shot.

Haynes began working for Knight shortly thereafter, and was soon riding alongside the best of the best.

“She would be a woman who is probably a role model to anyone, whether you're male or female,” Haynes said. “At 16, I thought I'd made it. I was riding a horse named Cruising River upsides (20-time champion jockey Sir AP) McCoy, schooling, and thought, 'Yeah, this is it. Life's easy.'

“I was soon to think that it wasn't when she sent me off to Mick Channon's and I realized that I had to work a lot harder.”

For additional experience, Haynes spent a spell in Australia. She wound up deciding to pursue a career as a jockey and joined David Simcock's team at Newmarket with her amateur license. 

“I traveled the world for him with horses, which was a fabulous experience,” said Haynes. 

She rode 11 winners, but quickly realized that career path was not what she wanted. Instead, she pivoted to begin a breaking and pre-training business, building up a clientele including Varian Stable, William Haggas and Blue Diamond Stud, among others.

Four years later, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to ravage the industry in early 2021, Haynes rented a yard at the bottom of Newmarket's famous Warren Hill and launched her training career.

Haynes admitted: “Maybe it wasn't the cleverest, but it was sort of one of those deals where, 'Well, if not now, when?'” 

Her philosophy through the struggles of those earliest days was that determination, the ability to learn, and hard work can take her anywhere she wants to go.

“My advice to anyone getting into racing, especially girls, is to ask as many questions as possible,” Haynes told Girls In Racing. “You might annoy people, but you're always learning. Stick by your guns; if you think you're right about something, just keep on pursuing what you want. Boss it, basically. In a world where we can be anything, we should be better.”

She wound up saddling 20 winners in her first year; this season, Haynes has saddled a total of 43 winners.

While Haynes is particularly active on social media, it was ultimately a connection with football agent Kia Joorabchian and his Amo Racing that has helped bring her career to the next level.

Joorabchian sent the young trainer a then-2-year-old named Mr Professor, who Haynes promptly sent out to win his first two races under her banner. By Profitable, Mr Professor won a listed stakes race at the end of 2021, and went on to run second and third in Dubai.

This year, after Joorabchian's annual forays through the 2-year-old breeze-up sales, Haynes gravitated toward a plain chestnut daughter of Havana Grey. A relatively inexpensive purchase from the Tattersalls Craven sale, the filly didn't stand out on her looks.

“She wasn't that much to look at,” Haynes said. “She's very plain Jane, but she's also very professional. She's not an extravagant work horse, but she just got beat first time out, then second time she had an excuse, then she went on to win both her maiden and her novice back to back.”

 

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Lady Hollywood won a listed stakes over five furlongs at Naas in her fifth career start, then attempted to step up to six furlongs in a Group 2 at York but didn't see out the trip. In her final start before the Breeders' Cup, Lady Hollywood returned to five furlongs and won Longchamp's Group 3 Prix d'Arenberg by 1 ¼ lengths.

Now, Lady Hollywood is scheduled to fly overseas on Saturday, Oct. 29, and take her first steps over the Keeneland soil on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Haynes will be aboard the filly, who is likely to go out alongside the charge of another young British female trainer, Amy Murphy. Murphy, 24, has Manhattan Jungle on the also-eligible list for the Juvenile Turf Sprint.

“It will be a great trip for both of us,” Haynes said. “We're friendly rivals.”

Haynes' primary hope for her first trip to the Breeders' Cup is that it doesn't wind up like her first trip to Keeneland. She traveled with Amazonas to the Lexington, Ky., track for trainer Ed Dunlop in the fall of 2013, saddling her in the G1 First Lady Stakes.

“Keeneland is so picturesque, just the heartland, so it was a great experience,” Haynes recalled. “Unfortunately, it poured down rain right before the race (Amazonas finished eighth and last on the yielding ground). I'd like it to stay dry and fast this time, please!”

Umberto Rispoli will ride Lady Hollywood for the first time in the Breeders' Cup, thanks to his familiarity with the course and style of American racing.

After the race, Lady Hollywood holds an entry in the Fasig-Tipton November sale, and if she does not sell, the filly will remain stateside to pursue the more lucrative opportunities for 3-year-old turf sprinters.

Thus, Haynes' focus is all-in for the Breeders' Cup.

“I do get quite nervous, but all at different stages,” she said. “There's her final work this week, then the flight there, then the last few days of training, but once we get to Friday morning (Nov. 4) and everything is good, it'll be a big relief.”

*Seven female trainers have won Breeders' Cup races, the first in 1986 when Hall of Famer Janet Elliot won the Steeplechase with Census (she won it again with Flat Top in 2002). In 1996, Jenine Sahadi won the Breeders' Cup Sprint with Lit de Justice. In 2009, Carla Gaines also won the Sprint with Dancing in Silks. In 2010, Diane Morici saddled Marathon winner Eldaafer. In 2013, Jo Hughes sent out Marathon winner London Bridge and Kathy Ritvo became the first woman to train a Classic winner, Mucho Macho Man. Most recently, Maria Borell saddled 2015 Sprint winner Runhappy.

 

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The first time Gerardo Corrales breezed 2-year-old filly American Apple in the morning, the jockey returned to trainer Daniel Leitch's barn with a big grin on his face.

“He's loved her since the first time he got on her,” Leitch said. “He said it then: 'This is going to be our Breeders' Cup horse.' Me and (owner/breeder) Larry (Doyle) just kind of laughed and looked at each other, like he was just saying that because he wanted to ride the horse. Well come to find out, he was right!”

American Apple shipped up to New York from Leitch's Keeneland base last week, powering to a 47-1 upset in the Grade 3, $150,000 Matron Stakes to earn a career best Beyer Speed Figure of 87. The daughter of American Pharoah completed six furlongs over Aqueduct's good-rated turf course in 1:09.59.

It was the first stakes win and 11th lifetime victory for 28-year-old Leitch, who began his training career in September of 2021. Plans now call for American Apple to target the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint against males, scheduled for 5 ½ furlongs on Nov. 4 at Keeneland.

“I think she can really win it,” Leitch said, full of confidence in the speedy filly. “She's a really nice filly, and she trains like a monster. I think if she can repeat Saturday's effort she'll be really tough.”

Bred in Kentucky by her owners, Larry and Karen Doyle of KatieRich Farms, American Apple is the final foal out of the graded stakes-placed Clever Trick mare Miss Mary Apples. Miss Mary Apples is also the dam of multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Lady Apple, who thrived in dirt routes for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Miss Mary Apples died when American Apple was a weanling, right around the same time that Lady Apple retired from racing. The Doyles thus decided to retain American Apple to race, rather than taking her to the sales.

Leitch has been a part of American Apple's life since the beginning; he started working for KatieRich on weekends when he was 17, and transitioned to full-time shortly after finishing school. 

Prior to that, Leitch had gotten his horse experience at the racetrack, a passion nurtured thanks to his mother's job as an exercise rider for John Ward and others.

“As soon as I was old enough, maybe 8 or 9 years old, I started cleaning water buckets and raking the barn for trainer Alice Cohn, whatever job I could do,” said Leitch. “Eventually I started hot walking, then grooming, just working my way up through the ranks.”

After working at KatieRich for several years doing sales prep and breaking young horses, Leitch wanted to learn more about the racetrack side of the business. He spent time with trainer Ray Handal, and then Doyle suggested Leitch go to work for KatieRich trainer Mark Hubley.

After 4 ½ years under Hubley's tutelage, Leitch was ready to step out on his own.

“I'm so thankful to Larry (Doyle) for giving me the opportunity,” said Leitch. “He had confidence in me from the start.”

Leitch won with his first starter, a filly named Midway's Angel in a $30,000 maiden claimer on Sept. 21 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Through his first year conditioning horses, Leitch has maintained a 50 percent in-the-money ratio with a record of 11-7-8 from his 52 starts, with purse earnings of $462,448

“The last year has just flown by,” Leitch reflected. “I was just trying to figure everything out, and then I had a lot of luck and learned a lot. I really can't appreciate Larry enough. He's all for it, to see me do better; he's given me my big chance with nice horses that can really run.

“I'm still thinking this is a dream and I'll wake up from it… Last year, I didn't think I'd even have a winner but to have a winner in your first year and now to have a horse for the Breeders' Cup, it's unbelievable.”

Besides American Apple, Leitch has nine other horses stabled at Keeneland. One of those is his own, a 2-year-old Indiana-sired gelding named Conquered. The son of Greeley's Conquest came from trainer Laura Wohlers and owner James McIngvale, for whom Leitch's mother used to gallop. Conquered is currently nominated to an Indiana-sired stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis after breaking his maiden in his fourth lifetime start.

Leitch has been particularly enjoying the progression of Conquered and his other 2-year-old trainees. Another such case has been Zapple, a 9 ¼-length maiden winner at Ellis Park in her first outing after working alongside American Apple. Zapple, a Ghostzapper filly out of American Apple's half-sister, Miss Red Delicious, was then banged up in her second start in the seven-furlong Ellis Park Debutante.

“She got pinched real bad and stumbled. We had to put three stitches in her leg,” Leitch said. “She's at the farm right now. Hopefully, we get her back in the next month and see where we go with her.”

American Apple is the stable star, of course, even if it took the filly four starts to break her maiden. Her first two efforts were fifth-place finishes on the dirt, then in her third start she ran third going a mile on the turf at Ellis Park. The maiden-breaking effort came over 6 ½ furlongs at Kentucky Downs: American Apple prevailed by a nose in a driving finish.

“We started looking at what the Pharoah offspring were doing and they were doing really well on the turf sprinting,” said Leitch. “We tried her (going) long first time and she got a little headstrong and didn't really settle. She was right there at seven-eighths but just didn't finish up that last eighth. That's why we shortened her back up at Kentucky Downs and she really ran well there.”

Leitch and Doyle specifically avoided the “Win and You're In” juvenile turf sprint race at Keeneland on the same weekend, choosing not to take on male rivals until their filly had proven herself against her own gender. Now that she has, Leitch readily acknowledges that it's a big step up for American Apple to take on males in the World Championships, but he remains confident in her chances.

“She's a filly going against the boys. If she runs good, it's a big thing,” he said. “If not, we'll go back against the fillies somewhere else. You have to go for it when you can.”

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It was just a regular afternoon in the South Florida barber shop: young Cuban immigrant Andy Hernandez was preparing to give a customer a haircut as he had done nearly every day since the age of 15, but Hernandez couldn't have known that the man in his chair would change his life forever.

When Hernandez happened to mention that he liked horse racing, the patron offered to broker an introduction to Diosdado Iglesias, a Thoroughbred trainer in Florida who'd emigrated from Cuba after the downturn of the country's Oriental Park Racetrack in the late 1950s. 

Iglesias, also a former jockey, took Hernandez under his wing and taught him everything he knew about the Thoroughbred horse.

Five years after that fateful meeting, Hernandez is now a top apprentice jockey based at Parx. Last weekend, Hernandez was filled with emotion when he won his first graded stakes race aboard That's Right, pumping his fist in the air as he crossed the wire in front. It was also the first graded stakes win for the 3-year-old's trainer, Michael Moore.

“It was unbelievable,” Hernandez said. “I just want to thank the trainer with all my heart, not only for the opportunity to ride the horse, but also for the trust they had in me.” 

That trust, and Hernandez' subsequent ability to deliver on the connections' faith, must have felt surreal to the 22-year-old apprentice.

Hernandez grew up the youngest of four children supported by a single mother in Cuba, so though he'd always liked horses, he was never able to spend much time around them. His job as a barber helped his mother pay the bills, and when he moved to the United States in 2018, that skill helped Hernandez keep food on the table.

Still, the horses were like a siren song, constantly playing in the background.

When the connection from the barber shop was first made, Iglesias must have recognized that passion in Hernandez. He made the offer: if Hernandez was willing to put in the work, Iglesias would share his knowledge.

“[Iglesias] taught me everything about horses,” Hernandez said. “He taught me how to train them, how to race them, everything that is going to happen in a race, how to come out of the gates, everything. The most important thing he taught me was honesty; he's a very honest man.”

When Hernandez was ready, his mentor helped him get a job galloping at Gulfstream Park for trainer David Brownlee.

“It's funny because when I first galloped for him on the racetrack, I didn't understand so much English,” Hernandez admitted. “He would tell me to back the horse up to the eighth pole, then gallop around to the six furlong pole and then jog home. Well, I didn't understand, and he looked at my face and knew right away. 

“He didn't get mad. He would lean down and draw in the dirt where to go and how to do it, so every day since it was pretty much the same thing, that's how I started learning English.”

Brownlee gave Hernandez his first mount as a jockey at Gulfstream in April of 2021, but Hernandez would only wind up riding three races at the Hallandale Beach oval due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions: Hernandez wasn't riding enough races to make a living as a jockey just yet, but jockeys were not allowed to gallop horses on the backstretch at that time. 

It was an extremely difficult situation for an up-and-coming apprentice jockey, especially considering the fact that Hernandez' English was spotty at best and he hadn't made a ton of other friends around the racetrack.

Hernandez could have fallen back on his barbershop skills, but he really wanted to pursue his riding career full time. Iglesias offered Hernandez a spot to continue learning at Delaware Park, and helped the young rider with a place to stay until he got on his feet.

Agent Jim Boulmetis doesn't remember who suggested he watch an apprentice ride at Delaware, but he was impressed by what he saw. 

Hernandez remembers the introduction differently: “The day Jimmy saw me race, I only rode one horse that day. Luckily I won it!”

Boulmetis, the son of a Hall of Fame jockey and a former-trainer-turned-jockey's agent, invited Hernandez to join him at Parx.

“I had no money to rent myself a spot, so I came from Delaware without anything,” Hernandez said. “I could have been living in the stables. I was scared and excited all at the same time, but Jimmy has become more like a friend than an agent.”

Trainer Leslye Bouchard and her husband Oclide Mino took Hernandez into their home until he could get a place of his own, and the couple were some of his biggest supporters in the beginning.

It is Hernandez' talent and personality that have since allowed his career to blossom at the Pennsylvania track.

“He has all the attributes, the personality, the work ethic, and the drive,” said Boulmetis. “His personality carries him a long way; he's very likable. He's just the same every day, always happy, always in a good mood, always positive. That attitude is his biggest thing, other than his ability.”

After winning just two races in Delaware and moving to Parx in September, Hernandez wound up winning 23 races in 2021. This year, the apprentice has added 96 more winners to his tally, including the graded stakes victory with That's Right.

Trainer Mike Moore talked to the Parx media office about the decision to stick with Hernandez on such a big day.

“Believe me, you get people saying, 'All these good riders coming in here, you don't want to use one of these guys?'” Moore said. “He has done nothing wrong on him, and he helps me a lot in the morning. We stuck with him.”

“Mike has been a supporter of Andy from the beginning,” Boulmetis explained. “I've been friends with Mike for a few years, and he's always helped me out as an agent, so when I brought Andy there it just clicked. Andy's won with 25 or 30 percent of the mounts that he's ridden for Mike. 

“The other thing that I'd like to say is how much Andy and I appreciate that owner and Mike for giving Andy the opportunity to ride in a Grade 3 race when most of the better riders in the country were there that day. They stuck with him – that was huge. We talked about it after, and Mike said it just wouldn't have meant as much if somebody else had ridden the horse; it was more or less like a family affair. There aren't many apprentices that win graded stakes.”

From a South Florida barber shop to the winner's circle of a $300,000 race in Pennsylvania, Hernandez remains cognizant of all the help he's gotten along the way.

“Maybe some trainers would think that race was too difficult for an apprentice rider, and the horse was like the second favorite in the race,” Hernandez said. “It meant so much because (the trainer) still trusted me to do the right thing, and he let me ride that horse.”

Special thanks to Liset Almora for her help with the interview for this feature.

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It's always exciting to have a Grade 1-winning 2-year-old in the barn, but it is perhaps more so when it's your first graded stakes winner in 11 years and first Grade 1 winner since 1993.

“It's great. We are really, really happy for the people who own this horse,” said trainer Phil Serpe after Leave No Trace captured Saratoga's G1 Spinaway for owner Dr. Robert Vukovich, founder of the WellSpring pharmaceutical corporation. “They're great people, they're deserving, and it's all around a great feeling for everyone.”

Serpe is well-acquainted with the ups and downs of the Thoroughbred business. He's gone from the highs of winning training titles in New Jersey and training for New York's leading owners, all the way down to having just a handful of mid-level horses in the barn.

The tides began to turn when Serpe's longtime owner Carl Lizza (Flying Zee Stable) died suddenly in 2011, and turned further when owner/breeders Chester and Mary Broman decided to cut back on their stock several years ago.

The lowest point was as recent as 2020: aided in part by the cessation of racing caused by the pandemic, Serpe's trainees earned just $406,785, the smallest total since he began training in the mid-1980s. 

It has been Vukovich and his wife Laura's support that has helped to keep Serpe in business for the past five years; he and his wife send the trainer four to five 2-year-olds each year. In 2021, Serpe sent out just four winners, though one of those was Vukovich's Safe Conduct to win the prestigious $1 million Queen's Plate at Woodbine, boosting Serpe's annual earnings to $889,785.

With just over three months remaining in 2022, Serpe has already sent out 11 winners for earnings of $747,677.

“My friend, Jim Ryerson, he doesn't go to Florida, so he had a filly for the Vukovichs that he asked me to take to Florida,” Serpe explained. “They send horses to both of us now, and they are just incredibly nice, really down to earth people. As successful as they both are, they're really enjoying the racing success.

“Currently the stable has like 22 horses, so we're still trying to build back the numbers.”

Serpe began riding horses at eight years old and worked for a show farm in his mid-teens. The farm had a few racehorses, and he would sometimes accompany them to Monmouth Park to watch them race. Serpe really got his start on the track shortly after the opening of the Meadowlands in 1976.

“That was a huge thing in its early years,” Serpe said. “When I was a teenager, I would go down there and walk horses for free at night, just for the chance to be around them.”

Serpe started as a groom, then progressed to assistant trainer, and eventually took out his training license with four horses at Monmouth Park in 1984.

“Several years later I had 50 horses at Monmouth and was leading trainer both there and at the Meadowlands,” said Serpe. “Then I got the opportunity to make the move to New York.”

He first trained for multiple Eclipse Award-winning breeder Fred Hooper, then was introduced to Lizza, another owner-breeder.

“You have to understand that when you're training for breeders, the horses don't come along as easily as they do when you're hand-picking 2-year-olds, so that can hurt your percentages a little bit,” said Serpe. “I feel very successful at what I've done for them.”

A few years into the partnership, Lizza made a strange request.

“Mr. Lizza was having serious health issues, and he asked me to come to the hospital to see him one day,” Serpe remembered. “I was thinking, 'Well, this can't be good,' but he told me he wanted to upgrade his stable and change his whole breeding operation. So myself and my partner, Lisa Bartkowski, went to work.

“The first thing was to upgrade his broodmare band, to move on some horses that we didn't want to keep. The hard thing was to make sure they ended up in a good spot; there wasn't such a focus on aftercare back then, so it was a bit tougher finding homes for older mares and ones with not-so-great pedigrees, but we were able to get it done.

“Five years into the breeding operation, we started winning a lot of races. Carlos Martin also trained for them, as did my friend Jimmy Jerkens, and when all was said and done, Flying Zee Stable had won like 13 owner titles, which included the most coveted Saratoga leading owner title and the year-end New York owner title.

“Just as the thing had gotten rolling along, Carl unexpectedly passed away one night in his sleep. That left a big void, both emotionally and in the business, because we would have 25-30 new horses for him every year.

“We were fortunate enough to then get horses for Chester and Mary Broman. We did very well with them because they really do an incredible job breeding them, but now he's scaled way back so that was another void.”

The acquaintance with Vukovich was the latest to fill the void in Serpe's barn.

“We kept going and we're still going,” Serpe said. “The thing about this business is that there's a lot of good guys out there like myself with not a lot of horses. We know what we're doing, but trainers are only as good as the horses in their barns.”

Horses like Safe Conduct and Leave No Trace have certainly buoyed Serpe's hopes in the past two years. Vukovich prefers to select the horses himself: Safe Conduct was a $45,000 weanling at the Keeneland November sale, and Leave No Trace was a $40,000 yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall sale.

“We have a lot of great conversations about his programs and theories, and he's willing to take a shot on horses that other people might pass over,” said Serpe. “He's not going to spend 200 or 300 thousand on a yearling; he likes to have horses as a pet project, and he likes coming to the races and watching his horses run.”

That pet project has been a success thus far. Leave No Trace first showed her talent to the world with a big maiden win at Saratoga on July 20, which was a bit of a surprise because Serpe's stable isn't known for winning with first-time starters.

“I think we really don't wind our 2-year-olds up or our first-time starters up, at all. We have them fit and ready to run,” Serpe said. “When she won that day like that, she was impressive and that shows something in our barn. So, she was impressive and she's been impressive since before we ever left Belmont. She was working well, easily 47 and change, and you have to be impressed with a horse like that. If you look at her, she's gorgeous. She went through a growth spurt in the spring. She's grown six inches in every direction which is what you want a horse to do in August going into September. It was everything you would like.”

The filly could provide the stable with its first Breeders' Cup starter: the filly earned a $30,000 credit via the “Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen” program towards entry fees for the Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies in November at the Lexington oval.

It would be Serpe's third starter at the World Championships, following Birdonthewire in the 1994 Sprint and Pure Gossip in the 2011 Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“I'm more settled than I used to be, so I try to keep my feet on the ground,” Serpe said. “But Leave No Trace didn't just win: she seemed pretty dominating to me. We'll probably take her to the Frizette next, moving from seven furlongs to the one-turn mile, and go to the two-turn Breeders' Cup from there. She's bred for ground, so I think the distance is not really a question. It's whether we keep her the way she is right now for a couple more months.

“She's answered all the calls so far.”

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