Page 22 - The Game November 2006

22 The Game, November 2006 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Martin Drexler: How Hard Work And Earnest Conversation Leads to Success
By Peter Gross
If Martin Drexler’s career as a thoroughbred trainer were depicted as a horse race, he wouldn’t even be at the quarter pole yet. Hardly the time to write the 1000 page biography or to shoot the Hollywood epic of his life.
Drexler’s story, so far, however, is about how hard work, inflexible dedication and meeting people gets you in the game and closer to your dreams.
Drexler was born in Slovakia and his family moved to Winnipeg in 1983, just before he was 13. There was no connection to horseracing in his upbringing, but there would be soon.
“My dad Jaroslav is a family doctor,” says Drexler, “And Assiniboia Downs was looking for a track physician. He started taking shifts as a track doctor for the jockeys a couple times a week. I was hanging out with my dad. I just loved it.”
Drexler was 17 and it was his first exposure to horse racing. For the next four years, he worked punching tickets in the mutuels at the Winnipeg track. Some of the trainers placed bets at his window and Drexler discovered he was very good at something – networking.
“There was a guy by the name of Bill Beamer,” relates Drexler, “He had a string of about 15 or 20 horses and I got to work with him.”
Like most rookies in the racing business, Drexler started, literally, from the ground up, mucking stalls, filling buckets, anything that wasn’t fun.
“I did whatever was needed to be done,” he recalls almost nostalgically, “It was the most tiring year of my life, but I liked it.”
Barely out of his teens, Drexler was certain how he would spend the productive years of his life.
“I wanted to train horses. At the time it was just a dream, like how boys say I want to play in the NHL. Everybody laughed at me.”
Even his father didn’t take the idea very seriously.
“My dad said, ‘You wait until a horse bites you - you’ll be out of there. You’ll never be able to get up in the mornings.’”
As the story progresses, you will see how the elder Drexler completely embraced his son’s calling.
Drexler didn’t feel he learned much as a backstretch janitor, but his next connection would give him the equivalent of Horse Training 101.
“In 1991, I got a job grooming for Cam Ziprick,” says Drexler, “And that was my first opportunity to groom horses. He taught me a lot. I started paddocking, bandages, legwork. That was fun. I had a
couple of decent ones that I looked after.”
By 1997, Drexler was working for Brian Palaniuk, one of the more successful trainers at Assiniboia Downs. That arrangement lasted a year, after which Drexler was assistant trainer to Chad Torevel. In 2000, Drexler got his trainer’s licence, but it wasn’t until 2002, that he put it to use. Like most trainers, the first year was not a particularly prosperous one.
“It was difficult. A lot more of a grind than it is now,” he admits, “I claimed my first horse, Tennessee Tear for $4000.We ran him back for five and he came a decent third. Then we dropped him right back to three and we lost him.”
Drexler’s next horse, however, would give him his first win.
“When I had no horses, a guy named Joe Schaefer from North Dakota came to me with this two-year old. Her name was Magic Strike.”
Magic Strike? Did Drexler luck into the Smart Strike line?
Hardly.
“She was from Patriot Strike,” he laughs, “Some obscure North Dakota breeding.
There was nothing to her. She was a two-year-old who had never run, just 14 hands high. I thought, ‘I have to get up for this?’ We entered her, dirt cheap, in a $7500 race for two-year-olds fillies. She went off at 25-1, split horses and drew off for fun.”
So at 25-1, did Drexler cash on Patriot Strike?
“No,” he grimaces, “I actually I talked people out of betting on her.”
At the end of his first season training, Drexler had very modest numbers.
“It was nothing. I had eight starts, two wins, maybe a couple seconds for about $15000.”
But a noticeable trend had started. In 2003, Drexler trained five winners from about 40 starts. The next year he had 11 horses, and seven wins. Meanwhile, Drexler knew if he had any future in this game, he had to learn from the best. In 2003, he started coming to Toronto to exploit his networking skills.
“I just walked around the backstretch looking for work to talk to people and see if I could get some business lined up. I just wanted to around the good horses.”
Most people find that Marty Drexler makes a very good first impression. Trainer Danny O’Callaghan must have felt that way.
“Danny was nice,” says Drexler, “I stayed for two months, hot-walking,
Manitoba based Trainer Martin Drexler with his Forest Camp two-year-old, First Cavalry, at Woodbine
grooming, paddocking horses at night, whatever they needed.”
This was Drexler’s method for the next few years. Work the horses in Winnipeg until the racing season ended, then come to Woodbine for greater immersion. The acquired knowledge paid off handsomely in 2005.
Drexler had bought a horse called Ola Docura from Roger Attfield. Ola Docura gave Drexler his first stakes win, taking the Canada Day Stakes on July 1, 2006 at Assiniboia Downs. First place was worth $24,000. Ola Docura earned $54,000 while running for Drexler, but a damaged suspensory ended her racing career. Drexler took her to Keeneland, where she sold for $32,000US.
This is where Drexler’s networking skills helped kick his career up a significant notch.
“In Keeneland, I met this guyed named Stuart Hyman,” he says, “And we became friends. This year, he sent me a couple of horses and he won three stakes races in Winnipeg. He has this horse called First Cavalry who won the Winnipeg Futurity at six furlongs. Then he sent me a filly up from Kentucky - she’s by Fusiachi Pegasus out of a really nice mare. She’s named Empress Pegasus and she’s by far the best horse I’ve ever trained.”
In 2006, Drexler found himself preparing horses from three sources; Stuart Hyman, who owns Shyman Stables, Hardball Stables, a small syndicate of individuals from Winnipeg and Equinox Stable, which is owned by Jaroslav Drexler, Martin’s dad. And the man who once teased his son about the chosen career had quite the year in 2006 thanks to horses trained by his offspring.
Martin Drexler won 28 races from 110 starts and his horses earned $283,812. Equinox stable was responsible for 18 of those wins and dad is now getting into the game in a very serious way
“He’s got a Smoke Glacken mare,”
reports Drexler, “She’s in foal to a horse called Tomahawk who stands here in Ontario at Park Stud. He’s try- ing to get into the Ontario market, so hopefully we’ll have some horses to run here in the future.”
This year, Drexler’s trek to Ontario is not to help other trainers with their stock. Thanks to Stuart Hyman, Drexler has four nice horses that he’s planning to enter in Woodbine’s fall races.
“This First Cavalry is a Forest Camp colt,” he says, “Empress Pegasus is a really nice horse, then we have Culpeper Moon who used to be trained by Mike Keogh and the other
little filly that we claimed from Winnipeg is Say Maybe Baby.”
Without a Woodbine victory under his belt (as of this column) Martin Drexler is still in the grateful stage of his embryonic training career.
“I really feel privileged to get stalls here and be able to train horses here,” he says buoyantly, “Three or four years ago, this was just a dream. This is the place in Canada where you want to be. With Stuart’s backing, I’m able to do this.”
Drexler also makes a point of embracing the people who have stuck with him, like his assistant, Tony Cizik.
“Tony Cizik has been a really big part of this year. He galloped the whole barn for me in Winnipeg and now he has come to Toronto with me. He rides the horses every morning, so he definitely has a lot to say as far as what goes on.”
Drexler also intends to give a Winnipeg-based jock a few chances this fall at Woodbine.
“Alan Cuthbertson is a good rider,” he says, “He won ten or eleven races and two stakes for me this year. Cuthbertson won with First Cavalry. I will definitely give him a shot on some.”
The 59 year-old Cuthbertson justified Drexler’s faith with a fine ride on Culpeper Moon in the $79,900 Ontario Fashion Prep on October 15. Culpeper Moon started slowly but was flying past horses in the stretch to finish a vigorous second to the favourite Count to Three. This was Drexler’s first horse to race at Woodbine and a second place cheque for $15,980 is a very nice start.
At 36, Drexler is still, as trainers go, on the young side and he realizes he still has a lot of work to do to crack the standings at Woodbine. But be warned, he sure knows how to engage a stranger into conversation about the horses. If you start talking with him, he just might end up training a winner or two for you.
Alan Cuthbertson: Not Mellowing With Age
Jockey Alan Cuthbertson leaving the paddock at Woodbine
By Peter Gross
Every forty years or so, jockey Alan Cuthbertson comes to Woodbine to kick his career up a notch or two. Cuthbertson, now three months past his 59th birthday is working the fall meet at the Toronto track after what has to be considered an historic summer at Assiniboia Downs. In Winnipeg, Cuthbertson showed the rest of the jockey community that nothing beats experience as he ended up leading rider with 81 wins in 381 rides.
“It got pretty dramatic,” says Cuthbertson, whose contagious charisma flows easily from a warm smile and
bright eyes that have seen more than most racetrackers, “There was a three-way tie for leading rider until the last weekend. I was two behind going into the second last day and I won four and the last day I won the Gold Breeders’ Cup, worth $65,000 on Elite Mercedes.”
Cuthbertson and his agent Bonnie Eshelman, who used to ride in Toronto when she was Bonnie Csuzdi, decided that being a top rider in Winnipeg looked good enough on the resume to bring the tack to Woodbine for the rest of the year.
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