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his horses and he knows his horses. His horses are the most important thing in his life.”
Although to reach more distant venues, cli- ents have had to go to trainers at those tracks, Kelly and Yearsley emphasize the quality of the foundation that Charley and Charlton have laid with their horses.
“Answer The Dream had most of her suc- cess while Paul Jones had her,” Kelly said, “but the Hunts have been the guys who handled these young horses so carefully so that no matter where we went, no matter who we gave them to after that, they’d had the best start.”
“Charley gives each horse an honest shot,” added Yearsley. “He develops their natural talent in a way that will give the horse every benefit. He takes care of our horses for their long-term careers and that makes me feel good.”
exCepTional Work eThiC
What was nearly a trainer-hiring deal breaker for client Mike Teel turned out to
be what attracted him and his wife, Suzie, to the Hunts’ operation. Teel was looking for a new trainer 10 or 12 years ago, and Richard Galley, DVM, recommended Charley. One day while on the road with Suzie, Teel stopped by Charley’s place to get acquainted.
“It was December and there was about a foot of snow, and it was blowing and cold,” Teel said. “I stood around for about an hour and never did get to talk to him. He was busy with some horses and just couldn’t break away. I told Suzie, ‘There’s no sense in this; he’s not got time to talk to me.’
“But Suzie said, ‘Maybe that’s good—he’s busy with the horses!’”
So they sent him four youngsters—and he sent three of them back home because they weren’t good enough.
“That’s another thing about Charley—if you have a horse he doesn’t think will work out, he’ll tell you,” Teel said.
Recent AQHA Hall of Fame inductee Walt Fletcher agreed. “He tells you straight up what’s going on. You don’t have to worry whether you’re getting all the facts,” said Fletcher, who currently has multiple stakes winner Believers Gathering in training with Charlton.
“And,” Teel adds, “he won’t build your expectations up and then let you be disap- pointed. He might say, ‘I think we’re gonna keep him,’ but he won’t ever say, ‘You’ve got a great horse.’”
Among the Hunt-trained winners the Teels have raised since that cold and snowy day at the Hunt farm is 2001 Iowa Double Gold Derby winner Mister Easy Leader.
“I’m glad my wife talked me into calling him back!” Teel said. “And Charlton’s follow- ing right in Charley’s footsteps.”
Forging his oWn paTh
Although Charlton learned Charley’s training methods and values while growing up at the family farm in Kansas, he has become his own person. While Charley stays mainly at Remington Park, Prairie Meadows, and other mid-state tracks, Charlton now travels
a circuit that, in 2011, included Hialeah Park in Florida, Remington Park, Fair Meadows and Will Rogers in Oklahoma, and Prairie Meadows in Iowa.
While at Remington Park and Prairie Meadows, Charlton enjoys working along- side his dad. Yet he has developed his own leadership style to ensure that everyone on his team takes the job seriously. “There are a lot of people involved,” Charlton said of their responsibility to make every run the best that they can produce for their horses’ owners.
“He pumps up his guys as if they were a football team,” Yearsley said.
And being among the younger generation, Charlton has helped bring the Hunt busi-
ness current with technology. “He brought
a modern-day skill to the business to help Charley with some of the benefits the computer brings—such as being on top of entries and standings,” Yearsley said.
WhaT The FuTure holDs
In addition to the runners that Charley and Charlton have brought to the winner’s circle for their clients, they run a small breeding operation themselves at the family’s Augusta, Kansas, farm, where Charley’s wife, Starlet, takes care of the office work for both the training and breeding ends of the business, and their daughter, Charlet, keeps things running when everyone else is on the road.
They keep a few broodmares and have acquired a young stud—the unraced Mr Jess Perry son Jess Racy, out of stakes winner Racy Runner, by Sixarun.
Charley thought about retiring—briefly. “There’s no retirement in this game,” he said. “I’ll keep on training and maybe cut back a little on the numbers. And we’ll try to produce some babies to send Charlton’s way.”
Those babies are in for quite a ride. Charlton wrapped up the 2011-2012 Hialeah Park season by saddling Nancy McCoy’s geld- ing Valiant Corona to win the $20,000-added AQHA Maiden Stakes. The win carved the 25th notch on Charlton’s Hialeah win tally, securing the meet’s Top Trainer title.
“He’s proving himself to be as good as his father,” Yearsley said. “He has the outward burn to be number one.”
Putting his personal spin on his father’s techniques has added to the longevity of the horses he trains. And it’s sure to add to his own longevity as a top trainer as well.
Champion Rare Bar earned more than a quarter of a million dollars under Charley Hunt’s tutelage.
Wearing the blinkers of Charlton Hunt, Valiant Corona was one of 25 winners for the young trainer during the 2011-2012 Hialeah Park meet.
Believers Gathering is one of several horses the Hunts have trained for AQHA Hall of Fame inductee Walt Fletcher and his wife, Pat.
The Hunts travel to several racetracks each year including Canterbury Park, where First To Ramble won the Mean Competitor Stakes in 2008.
SPEEDHORSE, March 30, 2012 29
INDUSTRY PRofIle
Beth rutzebeck, Canterbury Park Jack Coady, Coady Photography Coady Photography Speedhorse files