Page 125 - April 2017

Q. Do you prefer to be a part of the owner’s decision making process when they are looking to purchase a horse?
A. Oh yes. I prefer to be a part of that process. There is a major difference when someone sends you a horse that they bred or purchased versus one that you choose. There is the tendency to stereotype certain horses based off of their bloodline, whether you like it or not. You have to be honest with your owners and let them know that you’ll try them and see how it goes. Educating owners is an everyday process. A lot of owners don’t hang out at the track like people think.
I have, for example, an owner that I see quite often, and we sit down and he asks my opinion on what to breed his mares to, and we make
a decision based off of what we talk about. I have another owner that I’ve been training for
a long time that I went almost 4 years training for before I ever even met him. The trust that you have with your owners and vice versa is like no-other. There has to be trust to have a good relationship.
Q. When selecting a horse to bid on, which would you say is the most important thing to consider-the pedigree or the conformation?
A. They are both important. As soon as
you find out what the bloodline is on a horse, it makes you look at them differently. You might say, “Well, okay we’ll try it,” and go from there, or you might say, “It’s what? Oh, gosh.” You can
look at a horse that has an awesome bloodline, but doesn’t have the right conformation, and all you can do is maybe take a chance on him if you can afford it. Or you can have a horse with perfect conformation, but his bloodline is not very well known or maybe just middle of the road. All of that plays into it, and if you go look at a horse that has the best bloodline and outstanding conformation, but you don’t have a blank check, you might as well move along and look at something else down the road. So, budget plays a big part as well.
Q. Which race meet is your favorite and why?
A. Remington Park is my favorite. It
is 100% Quarter Horse meet versus the
mixed meets in New Mexico where it’s about 50%/50% to 60%/40% between Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. Remington Park is it for me. There is no equal because the facilities and the track are great. And the people who work there are genuinely good people and you can’t beat that.
Q. What do you love most about training racehorses?
A. I love watching the horses go on and be successful. To see an owner watch a horse that they’ve bred and has become successful, there’s nothing like it. To see the look on their face when they win, maybe that’s the competitive part of it. It drives me to move on to the next day and try for that next win. Sometimes, a horse doesn’t have to win a race in order for you
to be successful. That horse might have limita- tions or reasons that keep them from a win, and you’re happy with a second or even a fourth.
Q. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be? A. Just one thing? Well, I think one thing
that would make it easier to train would be a nationwide medication ruling. You have some states that allow medications that other states don’t, and it makes it a little more difficult
to go to different tracks and race. An overall ruling would make it a lot easier to go to the different meets.
Q. What advice would you give someone who wants to become a trainer?
A. I would tell them that they need to go work for a licensed trainer at the track at least for a minimum of two years so they can see exactly what all it involves before they take on the responsibility of billing for their services. A lot of people can go take the test and get their license, but don’t know how to run a business. A lot of people don’t know that this is a busi- ness, and that’s what catches them in a pinch. They need to be able to know how to bill their owners so when they call and ask about their horse, the trainer doesn’t start crying to them that they haven’t been paid, only for the owner to let them know they haven’t gotten a bill. Upcoming trainers need to understand that this is a business, and they do have to bill for their services and pay their grooms.
Harvey Baeza with a filly by Van Zant and out of Viva La Vicky
SPEEDHORSE, April 2017 123
THE BACKSIDE