Page 71 - 2020 Stallion Register

Fred and Kim Danley have known each other for many years. She says they met back in the ‘70s
Danley won the 2019 All American Derby-G1 with Rustys Miracle.
her late husband John at Ruidoso Downs and their partnership is a study in mutual respect and admiration.
“He’s honest, he’s an excellent horseman, he’s a straight shooter,” said Doug May. “He’s a grinder. He knows all his horses and what their strengths and weaknesses are. He’s at the track every morning by 5:30.”
Horse racing was certainly not part of Ike and Fred Danley’s DNA back when the family settled in Alamogordo, N.M.
Ike Danley was in construction when Ike, his older sister Diane and brother John were growing up. Ike started training horses as a second job to help support his family and it was a freak accident that turned Ike into a full-time trainer.
Fred says he was about six years old when the family was living in Raton, where his dad was working on a construction crew that was building the interstate through Raton Pass.
“He (Ike) was running a roller and it went off the side of a mountain and broke his back,” says Fred. “He was in the hospital for six months and when he got out, he never went back to construction. He started training, picked up horses and trained full-time after the accident.”
Fred says once he began training he knew he had found his calling. Much of what he does with his horses today he learned from trainer Newt Keck and owner Hugh Huntley. Those two teamed up to win three of the first five All American futurities.
Danley went to work for Keck soon after Merry Go’s run in the 1964 All American. It was a difficult time for Danley, who took
the loss of Mr Tinky Bar to another trainer especially hard.
“It really tore me up when they moved that horse. I didn’t have much going for me and going to work with Newt gave me a chance to get back on my feet.”
Fred and Rita spent less than a year at Keck and Huntley’s racing complex in California but the experience proved to be invaluable for a young trainer eager to learn from one of the best trainers of that era. Fred also learned Keck was not only a brilliant trainer but also a tough taskmaster.
“Newt Keck was one of the best trainers ever, but he was hard-nosed,” says Danley. “At 3:30 every morning the light in his kitchen would go on and you’d better be at work at 4:00. He put me through what I needed to learn.”
Keck, says Fred, was meticulous, demanding and very much aware of the racing fans’ interest in his horses.
“When I was working for dad, we’d brush the horses and clean them up every day. When
I went to work for Newt, you’d take them out of the shed row, you cross-tied ‘em and you didn’t just brush them, you rubbed on them. You saddled them while they were tied up in
the shed row and put bandages on them. Then you’d do the same thing when they came back from the track. He wanted them spotless because he said whenever he pulled up (at Los Alamitos) and unloaded, there were people there watching. They wanted to see what he was bringing.”
Fred says he and Keck got along “great” and their relationship helped open some doors for Danley with horse owners.
Fred and Kim Danley have known each other for many years. She says they met back in the in the ‘70s, when Ike and Fred were running horses at the Downs at Santa Fe and Ike was training for her grandfather, Fred Sganini, an entreprenuer whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Sicily.
Fred says as his partner, Kim provides both advice and support.
“She’s taken over where Rita left off,” said Fred. “She takes care of the books and she takes care of me. It’s been a good situation.”
“He does the training, but we have a relationship where I can tell him what’s going on and he doesn’t take it personally,” said Kim. “He values my opinion and I’m very comfortable giving my opinion.”
So what lies ahead? Retirement isn’t among the options. That horse has left the barn.
“I’m never going to retire,” says Fred. “I’ve lost too many people who went downhill after they retired.”
And while it’s hard to imagine the Danley racing team having a better year than the
one that’s about to end, in horse racing the unimaginable can become reality in a hurry. After all, Spring is a time to renew and reload. Already at the Danley farm in Anthony, N.M., are seven “babies” that Fred will be training for Doug May and his mom. His stable of upcoming 2-year-olds is the strongest he’s had in years.
That window of opportunity that seemed certain to close on a temperamental, high- strung young man in Phoenix so long ago remains wide open.
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