Page 17 - July 2008 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Off to a Flying Start
Hastings trainer Sorrel Schoenberger
has managed to pack a variety of
experiences into her relatively short
tenure in the sport of horseracing. Her introduction to the sport came through
her stepfather, trainer and former jockey Robert White. Growing up in the British Columbia interior, Schoenberger’s early start with horses came from her Pony Club and show jumping background. Over the years she’s dabbled in everything from dressage to polo. Along the way she managed to collect a degree in business administration and even managed a stint work- ing for an international accounting rm. But climbing the corporate ladder never held much
all the sales toppers—that was kind of an eye-opener. This was a mixed sale so I saw a brood mare...she went for ten and a half million, so that was pretty exciting. I’d always wanted to see a horse sell for a million dollars and the second horse I saw went for a million ve.”
Sorrel can now look forward to spending her time in the company of some of the most valuable horses on the planet. For the next two years she’ll be working with the best and the brightest in the horse racing industry when she leaves in August as the only Canadian representative this year accepted into the prestigious Darley Flying Start Program.
She admits that at rst she didn’t believe she’d been accepted into the vaunted program, “I’m pretty new to this but I think I’ve been very lucky in my experiences. I’ve got to see all ends of the spectrum, from the very bottom ranks at the bush tracks to the top sales.”
Sorrel’s rst stop with the program will be in Ireland where she’ll start working with year- lings from the ground up. After ve months in Ireland she’ll head to Kentucky in January
The Game, July 2008 17 where she hopes the trainees get to stay around
long enough to watch the historic Derby. Af- ter Kentucky it’s off to Australia, Dubai, back
to Ireland before nally nishing up and graduating from the program in England.
One of the great advantages of the Flying Start program is that it allows trainees to choose three trainers they hope to work with, one each in
the United States, Australia and Britain. When I asked Sorrel whether she’d set her sights on working with any particular conditioner. “I haven’t made that decision yet, but I’ve always admired Richard Mandella or Nick Zito so I thought I might ask about working with one of them.”
It’s a long way from the bush tracks of the BC Interior to working with top trainers at some of the world’s elite facilities, but Sorrel Schoen- berger has come a long way in a short time and she knows she’s been blessed: “My goal one day is to race horses at Santa Anita but you have to start at the beginning. I thought it would take years and years for me to be able to get that opportunity, but with the Flying Start program, I think it might be closer than I realized.”
by evenSteven
2008
Chaplaincy Golf Tournament
Monday, July 14th, Noon
Glen Eagle Golf Course
Golf
Dinner
Auction
Special Guest:
Canadian Champion and Hall of Fame Jockey
Sandy Hawley
Golf, Dinner & Auction: $150
Dinner and Auction: $75
(registration deadline: July 7th)
All Proceeds Go To Race Track Chaplaincy of
Canada (Ontario)
Call 905.713.4783 for tickets and info
A portion of ticket price is tax deductable
Sorrel Schoenberger
appeal for Shcoen- berger, who spent days behind her desk dream- ing about working with horses. Along the way there’s been trips to Kentucky, California, and extended tours into Europe working with some of the world’s top show jumpers. Wanting to acquire more insight into the care and main- tenance of performance
horses, Sorrel also spent four years working as
a vet technician, despite knowing all along that veterinary school wasn’t her calling. Looking back, perhaps her rst hint of what the future held in store came when her parents started back into horse racing about ten years ago at the bush tracks of the BC Interior.
Sorrel began by helping her parents and pony- ing race horses, but by 2007 she was starting her own babies and learning how to gallop racehorses for the rst time. In the summer of 2007, Sorrel and stepfather Robert White brought their string of horses to Hastings
Park and returned again this spring. The past two years have represented the rst serious investment of Schoenberger’s time into the sport of horseracing. Last year only increased her interest after working and buying trips to Kentucky and California.
The latest and most exciting development in Sorrel’s burgeoning racing career has without
a doubt been her acceptance into the Darley Flying Start program. Founded in 2003 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
of Dubai, Darley Flying Start is an innovative International Management Training Programme for the thoroughbred industry. With over 300 applicants competing for only twelve annual spots, Schoenberger considers herself lucky indeed to have landed one of the coveted spots: “I actually applied last year and wasn’t ac- cepted. Then I went down to Kentucky this past winter and worked the January sales so I think that kind of helped...I had a great time
in Kentucky, it was a lot of work, but I got to see the rst two days of the sale so I got to see
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