Page 26 - March 2005 The Game

26 The Game, March 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Animal Lovers Unite
What are you Reading?
Book Revire by Harlan Abbey, author of “Showing Your Horse” and “Horses and Horse Shows”
By Harlan Abbey
The past three winters, horse trainer Stacey Cooper and her partner, Nick Mileni, could be found in Ocala, Florida, "breaking" coming two- year-old Thoroughbreds to wearing a saddle and bridle and carrying a rider for the first time, the first baby steps on the way to the race track.
"This winter, we wanted to be closer to our parents," said Mileni. "Then, when the first snowflakes came down, we wondered if we'd made the right choice."
But, in the comfortable indoor Fort Erie Thoroughbred Training Centre on Thompson Road, they're avoiding the snow, wind, rain and low temperatures while getting their string of horses ready for the racing season at the Fort Erie Racetrack, which begins Sunday, May 1.
Ms. Cooper and Mileti describe themselves as two animal-lovers, but they came to horse racing from divergent backgrounds.
"My family has always been involved in racing," said Mileni. "A cousin, Joe Mileni, was a jockey in the '70s.
"My parents didn't want me anywhere near the racetrack," said Cooper. "I was planning to go to college to become a veterinarian. Then a friend brought me to the races one day and I saw how cute the horses were and how hard they worked, and soon I was walking hot horses after exercise and feeding carrots."
Mileni's ambition as a teen was to be a National Hockey League player. He received an athletic scholarship to Hamilton College in New York, and after graduation was working at the casino as a black jack dealer, "in the smoking section." He and Cooper met while both were walking hots for trainer Armand Concessi and soon decided to make racing their lives work.
"We bought two horses of our own at first," said Cooper, who has held a trainer's license for five years. Swift Attention had two seconds and then got claimed in her next start. But Semper Fidelis never won and we later sold him as a riding horse."
Last season, they had ten horses in their stable and have applied for ten stalls again. In 30 starts in 2003, the stable won at a 22 percent rate. Last year it was 18 percent.
"Our star was Lady Builder, which we own in partnership," said Mileni. "We got her in July and she won three of five starts, one each at the Fort, at Finger Lakes (in New York) and at Mountaineer, in West Virginia. JT's Gem we owned outright. We bought her from Cathy Patton and in five starts she had four seconds and a third before being claimed. She was very profitable. Rebuffed won at the Fort and had a second and third at Woodbine. He's ten years old and we're not sure if he'll be able to make a comeback this year."
While the horses they train race in the lower claiming classifications, they were handling a different caliber of Thoroughbred in Ocala.
After breaking the horses they would get them ready for the two-year-old in training sales, which involved timed workouts. Some stables push the youngsters for impressive work-out times, which lead to higher sale prices. Many horsemen feel this is "too much, too soon."
"That's why we liked working for Adena Springs," said Stacey. "They work them, but it's very controlled. They aren't pushed on. Some of the horses I rode sold for $300,000 or $400,000, but they aren't named then, so you don't know how good they go on to become.The best young
Trainer Stacey Cooper & Nick Mileti with Bubba
horse I probably rode was Silver Bird, who went on to win stake races."
Despite the lack of warm weather and sun, Cooper and Mileni again are working with youngsters in Fort Erie. Stashes of Ashes is owned by Circle J Ranch and Vinnie's Law is owned by Vince Fazzini. "Both are intelligent and seem talented," said Mileni. They gallop a mile or two on most days on the training centre's covered training track, which involves eight circuits in each direction. "They're eager to learn and they're coming along right on schedule. But until we work them in company with another horse, we won't be able to determine their talent level, to see if they'll start off at Fort Erie or Woodbine."
Cooper said what she loves about racing is "the excitement, the love for the horses and the little bit of danger in riding them. We both just love animals. We have two Jack Russel terriers, Jasmine and Smudge, and we've 'adopted' two of the barn cats. I did think about being a jockey, but I'm very comfortable with my weight at 130 pounds. I decided I didn't want to go through the rigors of trying to keep my weight at 110 pounds for my whole life. And if I have trouble riding one of my horses, I'm not too proud to get one of the big, strong men weighing 150-160 to ride them."
Mileni says the couple prefers to work with younger horses, explaining "The older ones are set in their ways. If you handle a young horse the right way they'll always be gentle to work around. The worst feeling is when you claim a horse and the next morning you go into their stall with a halter to put on their heads... and they run into a corner and put his rear end closest to you, you wonder if he's been mistreated and lost his confidence in people."
Bay Lake Bound was "claimer of the year" in 2001 for the couple and won six races. "We would have liked to keep her," said Cooper. "She was the most talented horse we've trained, she ran in the $10,000 claiming class, but she wasn't the most valuable horse we've ever had."
Cooper feels it's hard to be a young female trainer: "You don't seem to get the respect you deserve, especially from the owners who've been around racing for many years. They try to tell you what to do. But if a horse is run against horses out of his class, he runs harder than he needs to and develops soundness problems. There's no excuse for that, except that the horse is entered where he doesn't belong. But being on 'em (riding) or under 'em (working on their legs) every day -- I know more about that horse than anyone else!"
SARATOGA TALES:
Great Horses, Fearless Jockeys, Shocking Upsets and Incredible Blunders at America's Legendary Race Track. By Bill Heller.Whitston Publishing Co. Albany, NY. 196 pp. $36.00 (Cdn).
Bill Heller lives in Albany, near North America's oldest racetrack Saratoga, has written 16 previous books (including "The Will To Win: The Ron Turcotte Story"), won eight national awards for magazine writing, and writes regularly for several publications, including Canadian Sportsman. There have been many great Thoroughbreds who have appeared at Saratoga since the Civil War, and many of them have lost races there, which led to Saratoga's nickname "Graveyard of Champions, "which is also the title of Heller's previous book.
This book contains some unexpected losses, of course, but some other incidents are equally puzzling -- such as one of racing history's greatest starter twice having one horse behind the starting gate when the bell sent the rest of the field on its way; one was a $100,000 stake race. And then there was the day the stewards disqualified the wrong horse. Another chapter tells of the ONE time that the great Secretariat was NOT the favorite in a race -- and it was at Saratoga, of course.
Then there was the "worst ride" of jockey great Lafitt Pincay's career, in the 1978 Travers Stakes, the final meeting of the great rivals Affirmed and Alydar. On the other side of the coin was Angel Cordero being the champion rider at Saratoga for 11 years in a row, and 13 times in 14 years. Other streaks were those of Fourstardave (usually ridden by Richard Migliore), who captured a race at Saratoga for eight consecutive years (1987-1994) and that of the late trainer Phil "P.G." Johnson, who won at least once race at Saratoga from 1962 to 2003.
Summer weather in upstate New York usually is mild, but sometimes the heavens open up and the rain comes down in torrents...cancelling racing at least once and playing a major part in other stake races.One chapter, that really demanded a photo of the action involved, describes how steeplechase jockey Sean Clancy tried to hang onto his mount, who was leading after the last fence in a race despite a slipping saddle. The photo finish had to decide not only the winner of the race but also
whether Clancy was still in the saddle when his mount crossed the finish line.
Many great trainers, owners and riders gallop through other chapters, including Roger Attfield, who sent L'Carriere to trainer James Bond, the first good horse the young conditioner saddled. There are nose finishes, unexpected wins, surprising losses and just plain "funny" occurrences at Saratoga, and Heller was there for most of them. He was even involved in a "race" at the track, involving members of the media. It's a light-hearted ending to a most enjoyable read.
Heller's previous book about Saratoga, highly-recom- mended, is "Graveyard of Champions," and he also has authored "Thoroughbred Legends" series books on Go for Wand, Forego, and Personal Ensign.
Did You Know....
That in Persian folklore, there once was an enchanted isle named Serendip. The kingdom was
ruled by three Princes whose many adventures often brought them in contact with fascinating people, knowledge and treasures quite by chance. The Princes’ amazing good fortune eventually gave rise to our modern-day term “serendipity,” which means: The gift of finding valuable and agreeable things
not sought.