Page 108 - August 2021

THE BACKSIDE
WILLIAM LEECH
“I just loved the horses. I just loved Quarter Horses and the speed of it. ... I find it very rewarding.”
by John Moorehouse
HOME BASE: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: 43
ASSOCIATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:
Winner of the 2020 Wrangler Champion Trainer award, given to the trainer who earned the most AQHA Challenge points during the year. Five-time winner of the Canada Cup Futurity. Trained Free Thought, who holds the Quarter Horse record for consecutive wins with 18.
HOBBIES: “Mostly we just spend a lot of time at home. We’ve got an acreage there and do a lot of yard work. It’s not like we go traveling anywhere, though we’ll do that for a little bit, too—visit with family.”
In the 1970s, William Leech got into the horse racing business when his father did. When William was 15, his father decided to buy
a few racehorses. Once he was 18, he got his trainer’s license... and more than four decades later, family remains at the center of what he does for a living.
“It’s kind of small scale, but our big thing, my owners, we’re good friends and it’s a family-run kind of a deal,” Leech said. “We’re not getting rich at it, so we better be enjoying it, right?”
Leech has enjoyed plenty of success with Quarter Horses. Through July 20, he had accumulated 817 victories and nearly $4.7 million in prize money running competitors of that breed. That includes seven Grade
3 stakes winners and Free Thought, the aforementioned world record holder for consecutive victories.
Leech prefers to keep his stable of starters between 12 and 20 horses in any given
year. And he’s gotten the next generation involved. His daughter, Haley, helps with running the barn and other aspects of organizing the operation. Her husband, Ricardo Moreno, is a professional jockey and rides many of Leech’s mounts.
“Heck, I could pull out and leave for a month and my wife could take over the whole thing,” Leech said. “Same with my daughter and son-in-law. It’s enjoyable that way.”
Leech reflected on his 40-plus years as a trainer and much more in the latest installment of our Backside feature series.
WHEN YOU WERE 18, WHAT WAS IT THAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO TAKE THAT STEP AND GET YOUR TRAINER’S LICENSE?
“I just loved the horses. I just loved Quarter Horses and the speed of it. ... I find it very rewarding: watching, bringing a young horse along, watching them improve and win their first race. That’s what got me started. When I was a kid there, I spent a summer with Guy and Jane Hopkins and worked with them and learned a lot. Then they moved on to Texas and they had pretty good success down there.”
YOU’VE CHOSEN TO KEEP YOUR OPERATION PRETTY SMALL. WHY?
“For a few years we were running 30 head of horses. Up here in Alberta where we’re mostly running, we’re pretty limited on the number of horses you can run, right? And we were having a lot of trouble, too, with hiring people to help out and stuff. I figured, just better off to scale her back a little bit, you know? Now we can enjoy it a little more.
If you’re down there at one of those bigger tracks or you’ve got 2-3 tracks pretty close together, you can run more horses. Up here, it’s pretty limited.”
HOW CHALLENGING HAS IT BEEN RUNNING DURING THE PANDEMIC?
“Last year I don’t think we started running until the last part of July, and we weren’t sure if we were going to be running then. With
“My biggest philosophy is, they’ll let you know when they’ll get ready to run.
Try not to overrun them.”
106 SPEEDHORSE August 2021
Susan Bachelor, Speedhorse