Page 26 - February 2005 The Game
P. 26

26 The Game, February 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Cold, snow and ice pose no problems for those at Fort Erie Training Centre
By Harlan Abbey
Wind, cold, snow, ice, and rain are all nasty components of Winter weather in Canada.... and those elements have even more effect on horsemen, often leaving them with snow-covered, icy or muddy paddocks and paths to the stables and frozen water pipes.
But those factors don't exist for those who use the Fort Erie Training Centre, across Thompson Road from the racetrack's backstretch.
Veteran owner-trainer Jack Wilson came back from an annual Florida vacation in 1990 and decided he was going to do something about the chilling weather that made preparing his Thoroughbreds for the up-coming season such a trial. He constructed the facility that has a covered eighth of a mile gallop surrounding 41stalls. At the upper end of the facility is a swimming pool, Exerciser that doubles as a hot walker, and three wash stalls.
"In the winter, if you turn horses out in a field," he said, "they just turn their rear ends against the wind and don't move around very much. And even if you have the use of an indoor riding arena, it probably isn't harrowed every day, as is our track. It's better that they have a route to gallop around and our surface isn't just sawdust and dirt, which can break under their hooves. Our track has a fly ash base."
Although Wilson sold the training centre at the end of October to Judith Adams, who owns a similar facility near Mountaineer Park in West Virginia, he continues to keep his stable boarded there over the Winter. Other trainers there this past Winter included Jim Woods, Dan Wills, Raymond Pion and Stacey Cooper.
"We're filled all Winter long and most of the rest of the year, too," Wilson added.
"It's the best facility in the area," said Woods. "Nothing ever freezes. Our horses get an hour a day on the walker to maintain their muscle tone. We start riding them the first week in January, two days in a row, then miss a day. Some horses go on the walker twice a day. And some go from the centre back to the farm if they get too
aggressive. And some horses don't do as well on the farm as they do here. Once the racetrack opens, if the weather turns bad we keep the good 'bottom' on them by galloping indoors."
The trainers all cut back on their charges' feed once the racing season ends. Said Woods:"We cut back from ten or twelve quarts a day to six or eight, and use a feed with less protein. We don't change the amount of hay we feed."
Woods and his wife Sissy ("My best claim ever," he jokes) are unusual in that they don't use the centre's swimming pool. "Swimming is not just for horses too sore to train on the track," Wilson emphasized, "although a little problem that develops can be helped immediately by swimming.
"But horses aren't natural swimmers, as many believe. You have to teach them slowly at first, so they get to like it and walk into the pool like they own it. Horses that swim get up to ten to twelve laps a day. I think any Thoroughbred can benefit. The mental change is as
important as the physical."
Most of the centre's horsemen cut
their stables back during the Winter, perhaps none as much as Pion. "My dad is in Florida right now, attending sales and looking for horses," said his son Sylvain. "We had 15 head during the season, but we only keep three: My mother's pet, Glitter Cat; a 4-year- old maiden, Mr. Babu; and a filly we claimed, Skip All The Way, who won a maiden special weight and an allowance at Mountaineer -- which made the year for us.
"We've been here a few years and in the early spring you're ready to start training. There are no worries about rain or freeze or snow. If no one else can train because of weather, you're at a decided advantage. And the hot water hoses never freeze. If you're on a farm that doesn't have an indoor arena, you're lucky to get your horses out at all."
Woods, when interviewed, was still puzzled but happy to hear that a yearling half - sister to his Fighting Justice recently had sold for $82,000 (US) at Keeneland.
"Our horse is a steady $7,500
claimer who also has won for $14,00 and $10,000," Woods said. "None of the mare's other foals were significantly classier than Fighting Justice, so I really can't understand the filly's price. But I'm very happy for her breeders."
Woods' "big horse" is Lady Actor, who won a maiden race and was second in a stakes as a 2-year-old. The winner of that stakes went on to win and place in two other stakes. Most of their horses are a partnership of their Running Gold Racing Stable and James Sabiston's Longview Farm. "It's good to be a partner in the horses you race," he explained, "because the ten percent of the winning purse and your daily training charges really don't add up to very much. If you hit a 'home run' you and your partners are happy. And if they're your own horses, you don't mind staying around all day to take care of them."
Woods' stable name, Running Gold, came via his father, longtime trainer Walter Woods, who had the nicknames of "One Horse Woodsy" and then "Walter The Halter." His son, who began hot-walking at ten and galloping racers at 12, recalled: "For some years Dad only had one horse. Then in 1959 he bought Running Gold for exactly one dollar. That horse went on to win 14 races. Then Dad began claiming horses, and it seemed like every one he claimed won and moved up, although he did the best with young horses."
The one change Woods has noticed over the years is that a slow but kind Thoroughbred is no longer easy to sell as a prospective show horse: "A few years ago you could sell those kind of horses to a show horse trainer for $5,000-$6,000 and after they were retrained they could sell them for $10,000-$15,000. But now the show riders want Warmbloods, which seem to be easier to ride, so it isn't that easy to sell the slow Thoroughbreds.
"How do you decide which ones to keep over the Winter? You have to try to decide if they can at least break even -- win enough to cover their training expenses. And the other factor is, how much do you like them?"
Above - Nick Mileni leads 2-year-old Speedy Comet to the indoor galloping ring at the Fort Erie Training Centre. His partner, trainer Stacey Cooper, is in the saddle.
Top right - Trainer Raymond Pion walks Glitter Cat in one of the aisles of the
Fort Erie Training Centre.
Right - “Sissy Woods, wife of trainer Jimmy Woods, with two-year-old Whiskey Star, owned by James Sabiston’s Longview Farms and the Running Gold Stable.
Did You Know....
That Churchill Downs Inc. and
Magna Entertainment Corp teamed up on a TV simulcast deal that will send North American
horseracing to Europe.
The racing signal from 18 of the two companies’
operations will be sent to Britain, Ireland, Austria and Germany through Magna Entertainment’s Austrian subsidiary, MEC Sport and Entertainment.
The racetracks include Arlington Park, Churchill Downs, Fair Grounds Race Course, Gulfstream Park,
Hollywood Park, Lone Star Park, the Maryland Jockey Club and Santa Anita Park.
Did You Know...
That the Breeders’ Cup Limited Board of Directors approved a weight-for-age condition for all
Grade 1 races receiving Breeders’ Cup purse funds.
The recommendation was put forth by the Racing and Nominations Committee and approved on January
9. The weight-for-age conditions will begin July 1, 2005 stating that the board feels that there should be a level playing field in all Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup program races.
Did You Know....
That Churchill Downs announced that effective this year, the Gr.1 Kentucky Derby purse will increase
from $1 million guaranteed to $2 million guaranteed. The 2005 Kentucky Derby is slated for Saturday, May 7, and is now the richest North American race
for 3-year-olds. (Another $2 million event for 3-year-olds is offered in the Dubai World Cup).
The Kentucky Derby has not fallen victim to any competition however with the increase in purses
throughout North America, Churchill Downs president Steve Sexton was quoted as saying, “We just felt it was time to raise the purse. It was time to show our commitment to what the Derby really is.”


































































































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