Earning Their Stripes | Horse Racing Free Tips

Earning Their Stripes: Jordan Blair

Last year, we conducted a popular Q and A series called 'Smaller But Still Super,' where we featured veteran trainers who have built a competitive racing stable with relatively small numbers (click here to view the archive). This year, we will highlight trainers who have already cut their teeth as novice trainers, but now have a few years of experience under their belt and are looking to make a name for themselves as they grow their stable. We'll talk about the challenges that come with hanging out your single, advice for trainers setting out on their own, how the incoming class of young trainers differs from previous generations and more.

A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Jordan Blair grew up immersed in the Thoroughbred industry of the Bluegrass, but he didn't find his way onto the racetrack until later on his career. He spent his high school and college days working for various farms and sales consignments, from Pin Oak Stud and Dromoland Farm to Taylor Made. After graduating from the University of Kentucky, he went on to earn a Master's Degree in Agribusiness Management. Soon after, he found his true passion on the racetrack and served as an assistant for eight years, learning from the likes of Kenny McPeek and Mike Maker, before taking out his trainer's license in 2013.

Based in Louisville, Blair has steadily built his operation since and now stables around 20 horses. Last year he reached 100 career wins and celebrated his best year yet in earnings.

Blair normally heads south for the winter, but decided to race out of Turfway this year. It proved to be a lucrative decision, as his stable already has six wins on the year and is winning at a 22% clip.

What was the biggest challenge in those first few years as you were getting started?

A big part of it is financial, just paying the bills and making sure your owners are paying the bills. It's about making sure you have good-quality horses and owners in your barn. I've found that a lot of people will try to take advantage of you early on, wanting to do deals. We went through those people very quickly because I learned those lessons the hard way.

When I was first starting I didn't care if a horse was bred in Kalamazoo, I was just trying to fill stalls. Honestly, we were running horses in spots that they didn't belong in because I didn't want to lose them. Now if I have a horse in the wrong spot, I can promise you that it's not my idea. Now we just want to win and I'm not worried if we lose a horse in the claim box.

Debut winner Midnight Rising runs in Saturday's Rushaway S. At Turfway Park | Coady

What do you think makes your stable or your training style unique?

Training is not rocket science. It's paying attention to details and focusing on the little things. When I was younger, I had to learn about work ethic. One of my old bosses from Pin Oak Stud Clifford Barry told me, as he was kicking my tail end every day, focus on the little things and the big things will take care of themselves. I've kind of lived by that as a trainer as I've grown my business.

As I've evolved as a trainer and rules have changed and the veterinary inspections have gotten more rigorous, I've made a focus on the soundness of the horse. Not that I didn't pay attention to that before, but it's more important now than it has ever been. We're constantly going over the horse and I'm hyper-focused on the details and the health of the horse.

This is your first winter at Turfway. What went into that decision to stay in Kentucky?

Tampa Bay Downs was the first place I went and I went there every winter. I knew it was a good surface, a great turf course and a circuit where I knew I could win races down there. Most owners are just looking at numbers, so I wanted to keep our numbers decent. But then I had a family and leaving them every year was awful.

I really hadn't had the opportunity to stay until this year. The first year that Turfway started to get better and purses went up a bit, my owners were not on board yet. Last year I really wanted to stay but I didn't get any stalls at Turfway. This year the facility we stay at all year, Trackside, stayed open. So it was an easy decision.

It has gone really well. We've won our share of races, purses are significantly better, and I've been able to see my kids every day. We had a relatively mild winter with only a few days of jogging in the shedrow, but overall it's been a delight and we've saved a ton of money not having to ship a stable south.

Is a trainer's success defined more by the quality of the horses they receive or their abilities as a trainer?

If you're a college basketball coach, you can be Rick Pitino and be one of the best coaches in history, but you can't win a national championship at Iona. If you're talking about the top of the game, you need the right type of quality of horses to get you there. You can't make a horse faster than their potential unless you're doing something illegal. You can't get to the top without the right horse.

Who is your favorite horse that you've trained?

I have one in the barn now that could be something for Surfside Stables. Midnight Rising (Mendelssohn) broke his maiden at Turfway impressively. He runs in a stake at Turfway this weekend. His last breeze was just amazing. He acts like he's very special.

One of my first horses was a Donegal horse named Oatfield (Candy Ride {Arg}). I thought he was awesome, but he bowed a tenon at the beginning of his 4-year-old year. At the time he was the best horse I had ever had.

Oceanic gets his first stakes win in the 2022 Woodford Reserve Da Hoss S. | Coady

Do you have a horse that you had to overcome obstacles with that you are most proud of getting to the starting gate?

Oceanic (Constitution) is my first and only stakes winner and he is pretty special. He has been in our care since he was two, but he didn't win a stake until he was five. He had immense potential early on, but he was a thumper. Thumping is an electrolyte imbalance that causes a flutter in their diaphragm when they run. It's almost like a hiccup, so it makes running as fast as you can impossible. Figuring that out was a long process and it was frustrating, but his owners and I were patient and kept on with it. He's that horse that overcame obstacles and we had the patience and wherewithal to figure it out with the help of a lot of people along the way.

If one change was made to racing that would make your life as a trainer easier, what would it be?

I'm not a big fan of HISA, and it's not because it's a governing body. I don't think what they're doing is improving the game because it's putting unnecessary pressure on people who follow the rules. If they really wanted to clean it up, all this money should be put into investigations like those that were done with the Navarro and Servis case. That's what's going to clean up the game. It's not catching guys with a small overage on bute or something like that, it's getting rid of this off-market clenbuterol and all this other crap that people are using to cheat and win. We know who they are now and we knew who they were before they proved it with Servis and Navarro. If I was a governing body of horseracing, I would put my resources into these investigations.

I thought HISA was supposed to make uniform rules across the board, but it does not. Tracks or states can make their own rules as long as they are more stringent than HISA. I thought HISA would make all that the same and it hasn't, which is really frustrating.

If you could spend one afternoon at the track enjoying the day (i.e. not working), which track would you be at and where would we find you hanging out?

It's gotta be Keeneland. It's close between Keeneland and Saratoga. Back in college, we were in row 20 tailgating. They didn't have tailgating on the Hill back then. We would be there at nine in the morning and tailgate until the second or third race. Now I don't think I have a spot because I don't really go unless I'm running.

If you aren't at the racetrack, what can you be found doing?

I would be either with my family or working out. My kids are into sports, gymnastics and horseback riding. My hobby is exercise, so I'd be at the gym or the gym in my garage.

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Earning Their Stripes: Dan Blacker

Dan Blacker said he always knew that he wanted to be a trainer. His first job was with British jump racing champion trainer Nicky Henderson and he spent school holidays riding out in his native England and in France. But it wasn't until a trip to the U. S. during the Godolphin Flying Start program that he fell in love with the racetrack way of life.

As part of the Flying Start program, the horseman spent time learning from Richard Mandella and he returned to work for the Hall of Fame trainer in 2007.

After working under Mandella for two years, Blacker spent two years with Tom Albertrani on the East Coast. In 2011, he jumped at the opportunity to launch his own stable.

Since then, Blacker has made a name for himself within the training ranks in California. Last year he not only reached 100 career wins, but he also celebrated his best season yet with 16 wins on the year and over $880,000 in earnings.

Blacker's name has long been associated with his leading earner Hit the Road (Medaglia d'Oro). After going through the ring unsold during Book 1 of the 2018 Keeneland September Sale, Hit the Road was picked out by Blacker and associate Craig (Boomer) Rounsefell for $160,000. Hit the Road took Blacker to his first Breeders' Cup at two and then gave his conditioner his first Grade I victory as a 3-year-old in the 2021 Frank E. Kilroe Mile S.

How did you ultimately take the plunge in going out on your own?

Jamie Lloyd, a bloodstock agent in England now, was training here in California and he was going back to England. He asked me if I wanted to start up, but I wasn't sure if I was ready financially. But Jamie got me a few owners and I started with three horses.

I had met Gary Stevens when I was working in France for Jonathan Pease. When I was starting out, Gary had just finished training. I asked if I could borrow some equipment. He told me to go to this container in Sierra Madra and take whatever I needed. I opened it up and grabbed two saddles, some webbings, all the stuff I needed, and took it back to Hollywood Park. I went and got my first three horses from Jamie and then found two grooms and asked if they wanted to work for me. I didn't have a whole lot of money, but thankfully I had some friends who helped me get going.

We've built it up from there and now 10 years later, we have 30 horses.

Blacker got to spend plenty of time with future supersire Into Mischief during his time with Richard Mandella | Horsephotos

What was the biggest challenge in those first few years as you were getting started?

The first major challenge is going from an assistant to a head trainer. As an assistant, you always have an idea of how you want to do things when you're the boss. You take a piece of the routine from everyone you work for and then formulate your own routine that's unique to you. So you have this idea in your head, but then when you do take the plunge, it's a massive difference when you don't have that person to ask what to do. You're the person that has to make the decisions for everything and ultimately if something doesn't work out, you're the one that has to answer to it with the owners. You never really deal with owners when you're an assistant, but when you go out on your own, all of a sudden you have all this responsibility. There are a lot of things you don't think about when you're an assistant that you now have to do on a day-to-day basis.

You have to learn to wear many hats. You have to be a good communicator, a good horseman and you have to be good with finances. I started my business having no real background in running a business and I had to learn as I went. I opened a QuickBooks program and started learning.

Is there anything the industry as a whole should do to make it easier for trainers starting out?

That's what is really unique about America. It's one of the best places for young trainers to start without a huge amount of financial backing. Back home in England, it's so hard to get going as a trainer. You need a lot of financial backing because you need your own private yard. Here you can have three horses and three stalls and away you go.

In general, I think young people in America are given opportunities much more readily, especially compared to where I'm from back home in England. I think Americans in general are much more open to giving young people a chance if you prove that you work hard and you're passionate about what you do. You don't need a well-known last name and it doesn't matter what you look like. If you have a bit of success, people will give you a chance.

I think the finances are the hardest point. Running a business in any industry takes a lot of planning. I was really winging it in the beginning and it would have been nice to have some sort of guidance in terms of setting up a viable business.

What do you think makes your stable or your training style unique?

We really focus on individual routines for each horse when it comes to training and feed.

We put a lot of emphasis on communication. We send out weekly updates. We film every workout and send workout reports. Most of my owners are not local, so it's great for them to be able to see the works. I think that's one of the most important things. It's why we're here. If I can get the owners more involved with the process of getting a horse ready for a race, I think I'm doing my job. The more you can get them involved, I think the more they enjoy it and the more likely they are to be longtime owners.

I like to think that in terms of training horses, I can train any type of horse. I know I have a British accent but ironically, my statistics are actually a little bit better on the dirt just because we've had a run of decent dirt horses lately. I worked for Richard Mandella and he has won Grade I races on every distance on every surface. I hope that one day I can get close to his kind of record.

Hit the Road gives Blacker his first Grade I victory in the 2021 Frank E. Kilroe Mile | Benoit

What was the main takeaway from your time working for Richard Mandella?

There are so many different things I learned from him that I still think about today. He's the best horseman I've ever been around.

The main thing would be attention to detail and really focusing on each horse. Training a horse is not just about what they're doing on the track. It's their whole life–how they behave in the barn, how they behave in the paddock, how they're eating. The whole package of a horse's life can impact the outcome of a race.

As assistants for Mandella, we spent our entire time in the barn watching how they were behaving. It was about all the little things that I don't think a lot of people think about. Winning and losing is a matter of inches sometimes, so for Mandella it was about trying to tweak these horses and their routines to gain every kind of advantage.

What is something that this incoming generation of trainers does better or different than previous generations?

The obvious one is communication. There is a lot more emphasis on communication these days.

In terms of training, I think training horses has evolved everywhere around the world. There is a lot of talk about how horses race less often than they used to. I think it's a combination of many different things at play. Maybe the breed has been bred over generations to run faster and possibly the breed might have become tougher to keep sound. But more likely, with statistics and numbers being analyzed more these days, trainers have been able to see that horses run better with more time between races. When you're spacing out races more, horses tend to run bigger and have better performances. If you're running against a trainer that spaces his races out, you're going to be at a disadvantage.

That's not always the case. You can get a horse that runs well every two weeks. But statistically on the whole, I think that trainers have learned over the years that horses run a much bigger race when the races are more spread out. It's difficult to compete with the guys that do that unless you're doing the same thing, so I think it's just the way that training styles have developed over the years.

Could you tell us a bit about the Keeneland Files you did with Boomer Bloodstock? Will we see those again this year?

I really owe all of that to Vicky Leonard and Boomer [Craig Rounsefell]. They came up with the idea and I was just along for the ride. I was a little skeptical at first as I'm not one to jump in front of the camera. But once we got going, I realized that what they were trying to achieve was great and it was crazy how much positive feedback we got from it. So many people were coming up and saying how much they loved the videos. If it can shed some light on the process that we go through with buying horses, then I think we're doing our job. Boomer really does his homework leading up to it and in the videos you can see how much work he puts in. I had some calls afterwards and people were interested in coming in, so I think we definitely got some new partners from it.

Who is your favorite horse that you've trained?

That's a pretty easy one–Hit the Road (More Than Ready).

He had some minor injuries after the Pegasus last year so we gave him some time off. He has come back and was a bit disappointing, but after his last race a splint bone became inflamed so we've been going easy with him recently. This will be his last year of training. Hopefully we will have him back to the races before Del Mar this summer.

I genuinely believe he deserves a shot as a stallion. He has a great pedigree, he was precocious and he has always had a great mind. As a trainer, those are the kind of horses I want to train. He had a spotty racing career, but that was mostly due to the pandemic. He really has everything that I would hope to have in a racehorse. He's so competitive and he's won a stakes race at two, three and four. I hope he gets a chance to be a stallion because has all the attributes you look for in a racehorse.

Is there an up-and-coming horse in your barn that we should know about?

A horse called Arrowthegreat (Arrogate). He ran second in a straight maiden last summer at Del Mar. After a little issue we ran him back and he was a bit disappointing here last month, but was really sick after the race. He's a really beautiful horse and I have high hopes for him for the second half of the year. He'll be getting back on the work tab next week.

We have some exciting 2-year-olds arriving soon, including one by Good Magic. We've heard good reports about him from Ocala.

If you aren't at the racetrack, what can you be found doing?

I have three daughters. I spend a lot of time with them. They're all active in softball and soccer.

What is your favorite restaurant to go to after celebrating a win?

My wife [TVG host Christina Blacker] and I like to go out and try new places. There's a good one in Pasadena, a new Italian place called Piccolo. But all you Breeders' Cup people, don't be taking up my reservations.

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Earning Their Stripes: Tom Morley

Tom Morley won his first race at Aqueduct in the spring of 2013 and has been a fixture on the New York circuit since.

Hailing from Yorkshire, the conditioner was born into a racing family. Not only was his father an owner and breeder, but his uncle David Morley was a Group I-winning trainer and his other uncle Christopher Spence was a senior steward at the Jockey Club in England. Among his cousins still involved in the sport, Henry Daly is a multiple Grade-I winning jump trainer.

Growing up, Morley spent his summer with David in Newmarket. Before graduating from Newcastle, he spent time as an assistant to Ed Dunlop at Gainsborough Stable and at the Lloyd Webber family's Watership Down Stud.

After graduating from the Godolphin Flying Start program, he worked as assistant to Jeremy Noseda for over four years. It was a busy time to be involved with Noseda's stable, with 14 Group I winners going through the barn while Morley was there including European champion sprinter Fleeting Spirit (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Breeders' Cup champion Wilko (Awesome Again).

From there, Morley made the move to the States to work for Eddie Kenneally, where he eventually helped open and develop Kenneally's New York operation.

As his stable celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year, Morley has surpassed $13.5 million in career earnings. Graduates of his operation include Grade I victors Haveyougoneaway (Congrats) and Carrick (Giant's Causeway). Morley and his wife, NYRA racing analyst and Team Morley assistant/exercise rider Maggie Wolfendale Morley, have two daughters.

Morley celebrated his first career Grade I win with Haveyougoneaway in the 2016 GI Ballerina S. | Brittlan Wall

When you came to America, was the plan always to stay in the States and eventually train here?

Steve Hillen and Jeremy Noseda both suggested I come to America to get experience. A lot of trainers in the UK like John Gosden and Jeremy himself spent time here before going home.

That was the original game plan, but when I got here I felt like the American industry gave me the opportunity not only to travel, but also I felt like young people were given more of an opportunity to get going here. It's quite hard to get going in the UK. You have to have a lot of capital behind you. You need to be able to rent property and then you need to be able to fill the stalls immediately. Whereas here, you can literally start with one horse, a saddle and a bridle.

So after 18 months of being here, I pretty much made my mind up that I was going to stay. Now I have a business, a house, a wife and two children, so I'm not going anywhere.

Q: How has your stable evolved since it first opened?

We started with the one horse, Treblemaker (Read The Footnotes). Anthony Grey was very kind to send us a homebred of his. He won his second start on the 13^th of April in 2013. I groomed and hotwalked the horse, and my girlfriend at the time who is now my wife rode him every morning.

It's grown from there over the years. Now in the middle of the summer we get up to about 50 horses. We'd love more and we're always looking for better-quality horses. That's part of growing into the training ranks. It's tough to attract the top-quality horses. I've always said that as a trainer starting out, the model should be to survive the first 10 years, grow the second 10 years and hopefully by the time you're getting into the third part of it, you're getting some top-quality horses.

When I started training in New York in 2013, seven people took their license out that year. I'm the only one that is still in business. That shows how tough it is as a young trainer to survive on a circuit like New York.

What is the biggest thing you have learned since going out on your own?

I think the biggest thing I've learned–and I'm still learning it–is to be patient with these horses. In this industry in America, we ask an awful lot of our young horses. I see a lot of talented horses not fulfill their potential because of an over-eagerness to get them to the races at a young age. I think if you can train for people who are willing to give them the time to mature, the horses will reward you in the long run. There is nothing better than having a really good 2-year-old, but just because a horse shows that he has an above-average level of ability, it doesn't mean that the right thing to do is try to win a maiden at Saratoga with him.

What do you think makes your stable and your training style unique?

It's very individual. Every horse does something different than what they did the day before.

We've certainly shown over the last few years that we can win races on both surfaces at every level. We've done very well getting older horses from other outfits and improving their careers. There are many facets to training horses and I think we're always trying to improve in every department as much as possible.

Tom and Maggie celebrate Dynadrive's win in the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Lure S. | Coglianese

Q: Do you think a trainer's success is defined more by their ability or by the quality of horses that they receive?

Without a doubt, it's about the quality of horses that they're receiving. There are plenty of very talented, capable horsemen out there. It's something that the American industry is really struggling with at the moment with super trainers. I take nothing away from these guys. It's not their fault that they train a vast number of horses. The reason they do is because they win the big races and they get the results. But I genuinely believe that there are plenty of trainers out there that could do just as good of a job with the number and quality of stock that those other trainers get. The industry needs to do more things, like this kind of series, to promote younger trainers.

If you aren't at the racetrack, what can you be found doing?

I have two daughters, Grace and Willow, who take up plenty of time. With Maggie doing her work for NYRA and Fox Sports, we're also both full-time parents as well. Between the children, our dogs and the retired racehorses, that seems to take up most of our free time but when we have the opportunity, we're a traveling family. The girls have plenty of stamps in their passports already.

With your hectic trainer's schedule and Maggie busy as one of the faces of America's Day at the Races, what is the juggling act like for you between your family and your stable?

It can be tough, especially in Saratoga when Maggie works enormously long hours. It can be tough on the girls as well because I have to be at the barn in the morning and the races in the afternoon. They go to Faith's House, which is an amazing Belmont Child Care Association school and playgroup. There's nothing I enjoy more than when I'm finished at the barn in the morning, to go pick them up and take them racing. They love going racing in Saratoga. I think it's mainly due to the popcorn and lemonade.

We try not to push horses on the girls at all because it would be very easy for them to be totally swamped with a father who trains and a mother who is incredibly active in the media. They do have a little pony called Snickers who they enjoy going to see, but it's nothing that we actively push upon them.

Obviously I'm enormously proud of my wife. She has become one of the very best around the world at what she does and she deserves all the applause that she gets because her results speak for themselves.

What is your favorite racetrack? I'm guessing Saratoga, but maybe not?

It's York, actually. I was born and raised in Yorkshire and the May and August meeting at York are two extremely special meetings for me. I really look forward to maybe one day having a horse run at York. It would be a homecoming for me.

I have a number of favorite tracks around the world. During the Flying Start program, I thought that Randwick was just the most spectacular place to go racing in Australia. There were always huge crowds of young, enthusiastic people.

I'm a huge jumps racing fan too. Maggie and I try to go to Cheltenham during the March festival whenever we can. There's no better racing atmosphere in my opinion anywhere on earth.

I do love going to Saratoga, but it's hard to call it my favorite because it is when we are under the most pressure. I don't think I can really enjoy it for what it is because it is such an important part of our year.

Who is your favorite horse that you've trained?

You never forget your first winner. I'll never forget the feeling of standing on the outside rail at Aqueduct as a field of maiden claiming $25,000 New York-breds were coming down the lane and Treblemaker cleared from the rest. He was in my barn for a while and then went on to Finger Lakes, but eventually came back to us as a pony for a while. He will always be special for us.

The first really good horse that I was lucky enough to train was Haveyougoneaway (Congrats). She seemed to really thrive in our program. She was my first stakes winner, my first graded stakes winner, my first Grade I winner and my first Breeders' Cup horse. At our house I have a photograph of her taken by Barbara Livingston from the day after the Ballerina. She was an extremely talented, very sweet filly. She will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Do you have any up-and-coming horses in your barn that we should know about?

I'm really looking forward to our group of 2-year-olds this year. We have an Arrogate colt that we bought at the Keeneland Sale for a lot of money coming to us. Steven Roco has bought an Upstart filly and an Into Mischief that are both training very well in Florida.

With the turf season coming up soon, it's going to be exciting to get some horses back like Dynadrive (Temple City), who won the Lure S. in Saratoga last year. His half-brother Tell Your Daddy (Scat Daddy), who won the GII Bernard Baruch H. in Saratoga the year before for us, is back breezing now in Florida. It's going to be fun having the brothers back here for turf season. I'm kind of dreading the idea that they might have to run against each other at some point. It would make an unbelievably cool story, but I'd like to try and keep them separate.

Click here for more from our 'Earning Their Stripes' series.

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Earning Their Stripes: Chris Davis

Arlington Park was one of Chris Davis' first loves and the 34-year-old conditioner is still quick to say that the now-closed historic track will always be his favorite place to watch racing. Davis developed a passion for the sport by following his parents, conditioner Liane Davis and assistant starter Hershell Davis, around the Chicago racing circuit. He worked for local trainers as a teenager and eventually ventured to other tracks across the country to serve as assistant for Wayne Catalano, Michael Stidham and Philip d'Amato.

Davis said that d'Amato was the one who gave him the push to go out on his own in the fall of 2016. It didn't take long for him to saddle his 100^th winner in 2021.

With around 30 horses in his stable and several graded stakes wins to his credit, Davis travels the Kentucky circuit throughout the majority of the year and races out of Gulfstream Park in the winter. Already this year, he has had two promising maiden winners on the Gulfstream turf in Dare To Dream Stable's Moon Cat (Malibu Moon) and Gary Broad's Royal Mende (Mendelssohn).

Royal Mende breaks his maiden in January at Gulfstream | Lauren King

What has been the key to your stable's growth since you first opened?

I started with two horses. Town and Country Farms gave me my first two and they've obviously had a lot of success over the years. Shannon Potter and Kiki Courtelis really jump started my career and I owe a lot to them. They gave me a lot of good quality horses from fairly early on, including my first stakes winner Moonlit Garden (Malibu Moon). She had been with Todd Pletcher in New York and they felt like she needed a bit more individual attention. I was riding basically all of my own horses and doing a lot of it myself. Her form was not very good when I got her. We individualized her and she ended up going back to New York a year and a half later and winning the Summer Colony S. She was also second in a stake at Monmouth and was beat by a nose in the GIII Houston Ladies Classic S. to none other than Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute).

It has kind of been a grind since starting out. It's hard to break through as a trainer without the really big connections or the support of a big bloodstock agent or syndicate. Being 34 and with this being our sixth full year now, we've had a fair amount of success in finding stakes horses. We do well at the 2-year-old sales. We stay within our budget and still seem to come out with maiden winners, or maybe a group or listed winner.

What do you believe makes your stable unique?

I think the fact that I've been around to a lot of places from coast to coast and the Midwest. I've worked with a wide variety of horses on the track throughout my career, from the time with my parents to with Mike, Phil and Wayne. Being around good horses, you get a good sense of a good horse and certain horses will remind you of others.

It's about individual attention and trying to fine tune what you have. Obviously you can't train on some horses in a smaller stable like some of the bigger stables because they have more waiting to come in to you. When you're a smaller trainer, you have to be able to get the most out of what you have and still be conservative and keep them sound. I think being able to individualize and keep a horse healthy so it can campaign for longer is a big benefit that we have.

What has been the biggest thing you have learned since going out on your own?

Probably client management. The horses are easy for the most part. They do make fools out of all of us, there's no question about that, but client management is the biggest thing. Richard Mandella told me years ago that people are going to try to tell you what to do. Being able to work with clients is the toughest transition from going to an assistant to being on your own. It's about dealing with the clients on a daily basis, not just the horses.

I do try to work with everyone's needs on a very personal level. We're pretty respectful of what the client wants. Obviously I won't run one for a tag if an owner doesn't want to run for a tag. If we were able to place every horse where they needed to belong, we would all win a lot more races and you would see a lot more 25-30% trainers out there–not just a certain five guys.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone going out on their own this year, what would it be?

Be patient. It's going to test you physically and mentally. The stress level of a Thoroughbred trainer, especially one starting out, is no joke.

Mike told me when I was struggling with two to four horses that you have to keep showing up and keep grinding. I took a lot of weight from his interview that he gave after winning the Dubai World Cup when he said, “It was finally my time.” He had been training horses for 40 years.

People will say, “That trainer came from out of nowhere,” when in all actuality he has been training for 20 years. Or people will say, “This guy is untouchable,” when maybe he wasn't five years ago, but now all of a sudden people are flocking to him. That's what happens because numbers breed success. You have more options, more liberty and you have a different clientele.

What is something that you think this incoming generation of trainers does better than the generations before them?

That's hard to say. Every generation has had to overcome certain things. You think back to when D. Wayne Lukas and Jack Van Berg really started the era of super trainers. Now it's just kind of keeping up with the Joneses as far as when you don't have that many horses coming in like the bigger stables, you have to be able to individualize.

I think the trainers just coming in like myself are facing a lot more medication overhaul than what was previously imposed. There is a lot more veterinary regulations.

Also the expense of owning a racehorse has gone up tremendously, which has caused some of the little owners who would potentially give a startup guy a horse or two to kind of just fizzle out. We're kind of seeing it go back to the “Sport of Kings” in that it's the super wealthy or the big syndicates that are really taking over. That's good and bad. If you're churning for those guys, it's great. If you're not, you're on the outside looking in. When you go to a sale, you know the guys you're going to go up against and you know the money behind them, so you're hoping you can get lucky.

Moonlit Garden wins the 2018 Summer Colony S. | Sarah Andrew

Who is your favorite horse that you've ever had in your stable?

I have a horse named City Drifter (Temple City) who is one of my all-time favorites. He's a barn favorite. He's a very honest horse. I've won six allowance races with him. He's won eight out of 26 starts. He seems like he always shows up and gives us what we have. He's a beautiful, stocky horse and is very easy to be around.

I also just retired a horse named Jimmy D (Haynesfield) who was the definition of a war horse. I got him when he was running for $5,000 in California. Subsequently as a 7-year-old after almost 70 starts, he won his first allowance race. He ended up winning 11 in his lifetime. I just retired him sound because he was at the end of his career and we hope to make him a stable pony.

If you could spend one afternoon at the track enjoying the day (i.e. not working), which track would you go to?

Well they closed it. Arlington Park. That's home and it was one of the best facilities to watch racing. I've been to most places in the country at some point or another and Arlington was probably the premier spot to go watch racing.

Del Mar, Santa Anita and Keeneland are up there with Arlington in terms of aesthetics, but as a patron, the accessability and layout of Arlington was probably the best.

If you aren't at the track, what can you be found doing?

Playing golf and taking care of a six-month-old baby.

If one change was made to racing that would make your life easier, what would it be?

There are a lot of things. In terms of medication reform, higher surveillance in the barns would be key to level the playing field. We had the Servis and Navarro scandal, but that stuff is still very prevalent today in my opinion. I would never be opposed to them putting cameras in every stall at every racetrack throughout the country.

What is your biggest hot take? It can be racing-related or completely random.

Time is only relevant in prison. A horse may work fast or maybe run a race slow, but you might have caught a fast track or a slow track or your horse might have just preferred the surface that day. There might have been a speed bias or a closing bias. I think people overestimate times.

Click here for more from our 'Earning Their Stripes' series.

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