Joss Saville has joined the Pin Oak Stud team as farm trainer, responsible for the breaking and pre-training of the Versailles, Ky., farm's young horses.
Saville was former assistant to Michael Matz – who trained multiple Grade 1 winners Barbaro, Union Rags, and Round Pond – for the last 12 years.
“It was a really hard decision to leave Michael,” Saville said. “He is a true horseman and I am grateful for all the knowledge he passed along to me. I consider myself very lucky to have spent so long a time working alongside him, his fantastic team and some really nice horses.
“Now, I am really looking forward to starting this next chapter of my career with Jim and Dana Bernhard,” Saville added. “I'm excited to join a great team of people who all share a passion for producing quality horses. I'm very thankful to the Bernhards for putting their faith in me to train and educate their young horses at such a historical facility.”
“Joss comes highly recommended and we are very fortunate and happy to have him arrive at Pin Oak,” the Bernhards said in a statement. “He brings with him a wonderful world of experience and we hope to provide him with a top-class training and rehab center where he can turn our yearlings into nice 2-year-olds ready to ship out in the spring. We welcome Joss and his lovely wife, Jo, in making Pin Oak their new home.”
Joss Saville named farm trainer for Pin Oak Stud in Versailles, Ky.
If veteran trainer Tim Hills could go back and tell a younger version of himself what to expect in the years ahead the advice would be simple.
“Be prepared for the ups and downs because it's not going to be easy most of the time,” he said. “Back when I started I thought I was a genius. I was naïve. I thought I had all the answers.”
Back when Hills started training is coming up on his 50-year anniversary, and the soon-to-be 71-year-old is still going strong with a 22-horse stable at Monmouth Park. One of his horses – Glitter Up – heads into Saturday's $100,000 Goldwood Stakes at 5½ furlongs on the turf (weather permitting) off a sharp score following a four-month layoff.
For Hills, the 50 years have flown by, he said, since he took out his trainer's license on July 20, 1973 as a 21-year-old who dropped out of the University of New Hampshire after a year to pursue the only job he has ever wanted to do.
“I didn't know that I would do anything else. All I wanted was to be a trainer,” said Hills.
Born and raised in Hollis, New Hampshire, Hills grew up on a 100-acre apple farm that also housed thoroughbreds. He began riding at 8 and still gets up on a pony most mornings on the Monmouth Park backstretch.
“I think better on the back of a horse,” he said. “There's a saying that `there's no time wasted on the back of a horse.' ”
Hills, who has been stabled at Monmouth Park since 1988, has had his share of success over the past half-century with 2,084 career winners.
His best year was 2004 when he set personal bests in starts (585), wins (103) and earnings ($3,075,524).
“I was pretty naïve when I started. I looked like John Denver back then,” he said. “We had immediate success (7-for-22 his first year) and you thought it would always be like that.
“But all of these years later I can say that I still enjoy it. Winning is intoxicating.”
Hills' two best horses, San's the Shadow and Toll Taker, have produced his only graded stakes wins after nearly 14,000 career starters, with both winning Grade 3 stakes.
“It's not frustrating to have not won a Grade 1 or Grade 2 but I think about it,” he said. “It would be nice to get a Grade 1 or Grade 2 if I ever have a horse capable of running and competing at that level. I just don't have the access to that type of horse.”
So he continues to grind away, as he has done most of his career, winning with two of 10 starters so far at the Monmouth meet. Glitter Up, a 4-year-old filly who has done her best work sprinting on the grass, is his latest hope for another stakes winner this weekend. There is rain in the forecast, however.
“If the track is deep and sloppy she won't run,” said Hills, who was named the 2019 recipient of the Virgil “Buddy” Raines Distinguished Achievement Award, the most prestigious honor that Monmouth Park hands out. “She can handle an off track okay, though she is better on the turf. If it comes off and the track is sealed and not too deep or tiring, I'll probably run her.”
It's not every day a jockey loses his irons coming out of the gate when his mount stumbles and then goes on to win, but that happened to Irad Ortiz Jr. and Donegal Forever at Belmont Park in the fifth race on June 17.
Sent away the even-money favorite while making his career debut against seasoned opposition for trainer Todd Pletcher and Donegal Racing, Donegal Forever stumbled badly a few strides out of the gate, causing Ortiz to come out of his left iron. Both horse and jockey regrouped after the bad start, with Ortiz showing tremendous athleticism just by staying on the horse and then getting his boot back in the irons in a matter of strides.
They tracked the early leaders and then took command into the stretch, drawing off to win by 4 1/4 lengths, the 1 1/16 miles in a very respectable 1:43.33, getting a solid Beyer Speed Figure of 89 for the effort.
A 3-year-old colt by Pioneerof The Nile out of Flatter Up, by Flatter, Donegal Forever was bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm and purchased by Donegal Racing from Four Star Sales for $170,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Donegal Racing's Jerry Crawford said the big, long-striding colt was the stable's first starter at Belmont since Mo Donegal won the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes in 2022.
“The reason we named him Donegal Forever is I kept telling people that's how far this horse will run,” Crawford said.
“He had a couple of issues that stopped him for a while,” Crawford said, explaining why the colt was so late at getting to the races. “He got close and got knocked sideways and got close again. I kept thinking he might be our Derby horse.”
Donegal Forever grabbed a quarter from the stumble but otherwise was none the worse for fair, Crawford said on Wednesday. “He was back on the track this morning,” he said.
Crawford said Donegal Racing has “8 1/2” 2-year-olds at the moment (the half interest is a horse co-owned with fellow Iowan Dennis Albaugh's Albaugh Family Stable). There's a similar number of older horses, divided between Pletcher and Brad Cox. Crawford looks for yearlings in the $75,000 to $300,000 range.
“We do one partnership a year and it's usually between eight and 10 yearlings,” he said. “We only buy yearlings. If you're a partner in one, you're a partner in all.”
Crawford was generous in his praise of Ortiz, and not just for his handling of of Donegal Forever.
“We love working with Irad,” he said. “The only thing better than his riding skill is his quality as a human being.
“I said to him how impressed I was (after his recovery aboard Donegal Forever)” Crawford said. “He said, 'The horse is the hero. He's terrific.'”
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and Danny Mulvihill, farm manager at Godolphin's Gainsborough Farm, were discussing Cody's Wish after he dominated the May 6 Churchill Downs Stakes in his 5-year-old debut.
“Did you know he was going to be this good?” Mott asked.
“I wish,” Mulvihill replied.
Mulvihill could not have predicted that the son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin would blossom into the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner last November at Keeneland. He could not have foreseen that the immensely popular bay horse would add the Met Mile to the Churchill Down to give him four consecutive Grade 1 triumphs and nine victories in his last 10 starts.
But when Cody Dorman visited Gainsborough in 2018 as part of its involvement with the Make-A-Wish program, Mulvihill's keen powers of observation did lead him to create what he believes was a match made in heaven.
Mulvihill had been alerted that Dorman, born with Wolf Hirsch-horn syndrome, is unable to walk. He knew the wheelchair might spook many foals, creating a potentially dangerous situation. The Curlin foal out of Dance Card was an obvious choice to him.
“As a foal, he was very, very laid back,” Mulvihill recalled. “He took everything in stride. He never fussed about anything.”
Cody's Wish with his dam, the gray Tapit mare Dance Card (photo courtesy of Danny Mulvihill)
The foal eyed Cody and began to inch forward until he was close enough to begin nuzzling the boy's hands and sniffing him. Then he gently laid his head in Cody's lap.
“The two of them just bonded for a couple of minutes,” Mulvihill said.
Mary Bourne, Gainsborough's office manager, was so struck by their instant connection that she requested permission to name the foal Cody's Wish.
No one envisioned then that Cody and his namesake would meet many more times, that Cody would credit the horse with saving his life and that the two of them would inspire many physically challenged youngsters.
Certainly, Mulvihill never saw that coming. “For all of that to line up, I've said to many people that we are just pawns in this story,” he said. “I think the man upstairs has had his hand in this and has had his hand in it from a long way back.”
At the least, the pairing was fortuitous and a vivid example of how well Mulvihill knows his horses. He has worked for Godolphin for 24 years, spending 10 years in his native Ireland and then three and a half years in Japan. He has been based in the United States since 2013.
Danny Mulvihill at Gainsborough with one of the farm's foals (courtesy of Danny Mulvihill)
Mulvihill, 47, is so passionate about horses that his wife, Carol, calls his career his “first wife.” They delight in living at 1,500-acre Gainsborough, in Versailles, Ky., as do their five children: Matthew, 21; Emma, 18; Cian, 16; and twins Daniel and Grace, 13.
Carol said of her husband's devotion to the farm, “He lives for it. It's not really a job. It's a lifestyle. I can't see him ever doing anything else. He just gets it done quietly, head down.”
Some workers cringe when breeding season approaches, knowing the grueling commitment that entails. Not Mulvihill.
“You hear many times about the long hours of the breeding season, but it's without a doubt my favorite time of year,” he said. “I'm quite happy to be up at all hours of the night and all hours of the morning to see them born and stand for the first time, to see that connection between mom and baby.
“Every time it's something different. It's hard to explain how good it is. I'm just blessed that I get to experience it year in and year out.”
Gainsborough breeds as many as 65 mares a year and raises the foals. Mulvihill looks on in wonderment when mares deliver their first foals.
“You've got this mare that doesn't know what is going on but Mother Nature takes over,” he said. “You see that foal born and it stands. They're all different, but you hear this lovely little exchange between the two of them, the little nicker from the mare welcoming the baby into the world. It just give you a fantastic feeling that this is what you get to do as a job, this is what you get to do with your life.”
Danny and Carol Mulvihill at Churchill Downs (courtesy of Carol Mulvihill)
Godolphin has won consecutive Eclipse Awards as Outstanding Breeder and Outstanding Owner. Mulvihill credited top management for its patience in allowing foals ample time to grow and never attempting to rush their development. He oversees approximately 45 workers and praised the performance of broodmare manager Gary Harlow, assistant yearling manager Benji Amezcua and Bourne, among others.
“I've got a fantastic team of people who help me look good at what I do,” Mulvihill said. “Without that team, that does not happen.”
Then, too, there is the support of his family, which grew by one not long ago. Grace persuaded them to adopt a retired Thoroughbred that competed on behalf of Godolphin from 2020-'22. He never quite broke his maiden, placing second twice and third once in four lifetime starts.
Brother in Arms, perhaps not the fiercest of competitors, is now known by a gentler name. They all call him “Mike.”
Tom Pedulla, 2022 recipient of the Walter Haight Award from the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.
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