NEWS
Training: Graham Motion on planning ahead
Posted: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 2:59 PM
GRAHAM MOTION ON TRAINING
Wendy Wooley/EquiSport
Training is a monthly feature and joint venture between Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Graham Motion and THOROUGHBRED TIMES brought to you by Cosequin. This month’s feature takes a look at training problem horses.
by Denise Steffanus
Many factors are involved when planning a horse’s racing campaign. Timing a horse’s preparation for a target race is the first consideration. Correctly judging the ability of the horse also is important. Racing below the horse’s level of competition is a waste of talent; repeatedly putting a horse in races it cannot win may be so discouraging that the horse may stop trying. When to ship and what jockey to name on a horse also are important.
Trainer H. Graham Motion, recent recipient of the 2011 Big Sport of Turfdom Award from the Turf Publicists of America and trainer of champion three-year-old male Animal Kingdom, offers tips on planning a racing campaign.
Maiden starters
A maiden starter is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. A horse that trains like a stakes winner may not race like one, and vice versa. So the type of race and the level of competition for its first start is always a question.
“I don’t start a maiden until I really feel like it’s ready to run,” Motion said. Next he must decide what distance is best for that first start.
“Often you’ll run a horse six furlongs because you feel the education will do it well,” he said. “Perhaps you feel that down the road it’s going to be more of a two-turn horse, but it’s not quite ready to do two turns. But you’re certainly not going into that first start thinking, ‘I’m just going to run this horse for the sake of running it.’ If you’re running it, you feel like you’ve got a shot, and you expect the horse to be ready to run.”
With his home base at Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland, Motion has the advantage of being able to choose from a variety of nearby racetracks in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland to start a horse for the first time.
“Obviously, if I want to try the more conservative spot, I’ll look in the Laurel Park condition book,” he said. “If I feel like I’ve got a horse that really shows some ability, I would look at the New York books. Then I have Monmouth Park and Philadelphia [Parx Racing] in between.”
There’s an app for that
In the old days, a trainer had to have a flow chart in his head when mapping out a campaign for a particular horse. Today, computers make the job easier.
Motion relies on TLore.net as a database and Google spreadsheets to share future race plans with his staff. TLore.net is a management tool for Thoroughbred racing stables that enables them to maintain training charts, racing history, health records, racing medication history, stakes nominations, and other administrative functions.
Each assistant also has access to a shared Google spreadsheet that stable manager John Panagot compiles. A separate shared spreadsheet, which is always kept current, has set lists (daily training plans for each horse) for each division of Motion’s Herringswell Stables.
“Everything we do revolves around our information stored on TLore.net and Google spreadsheets,” Motion said.
Panagot also keeps an eye on a slew of condition books for tracks throughout North America and the seven or eight extra races that are added to each of those books on a daily basis, Motion said.
Dealing with owners
In an industry based on hope, most owners believe their maiden starters will become champions. The trainer might have a more realistic view. This could lead to a difference of opinion about where to enter the horse for its first start.
“When owners have the kind of investment in a horse that’s needed by the time you get it to the races, I feel [that decision] is somewhat theirs,” Motion said. “It’s up to them. If they feel like a horse has a shot in a maiden special weight race and I might not, I’m going along with it—within reason—unless it’s somebody that I’m really going to advise, ‘I just don’t think your horse is going to be competitive at that level.’ ”
Owners who do not want to lose a horse to a claim, for business or sentimental reasons, may refuse to enter the horse in a claiming race, which could complicate the trainer’s efforts to map out a successful campaign.
“Because I train mostly for breeders, these people tend to be looking more at the long haul, perhaps, than the quick moneymaker,” Motion said. “Maybe I deal with that a little more than somebody else.
“I’m fortunate because my owners have an understanding of the game and how it works. And what’s so fortunate about having a good owner-trainer relationship is the owner has the confidence in you to make those kind of decisions, because you’re seeing the horse every day.
“Certainly, I have talked owners into entering a horse in a particular race. The flip side of that is I’ve also been talked into winning pretty nice races where I possibly wouldn’t have taken a shot with a horse. If it wouldn’t have been for some of the owners of Better Talk Now, I’m not sure I would have gone to the Breeders’ Cup [Turf (G1)] the first year [2004], when he was [27.90-to-1], and he won. That was something that [Bushwood Stables managing partner] Brent [Johnson] and I really talked through, and he kind of twisted my arm a little bit, and, honestly, I’m glad he did.”
Planning a campaign
Top horses need to amass impressive wins and adequate earnings to gain a berth in Triple Crown races, the Breeders’ Cup, and other lucrative races. Their campaigns will identify four or five key races the trainer hopes to win.
“With a stakes horse that I’m going to gear toward a certain stakes, for example Aruna, who just ran in the Breeders’ Cup, I’m going to pick out a race for her in the spring and I’m going to work backward from that race to decide when she should start breezing. With an allowance horse or perhaps a maiden, it’s going to be more about me working them until I feel like they’re getting close to a race, and then you start looking around to see what the options are.”
A horse with less ability or less experience might have a campaign that progresses based on how it performed in the prior race, rather than a long-range plan.
“I tend to try not to get too far ahead of myself,” Motion said. “Part of that is because so many things can go wrong, as far as sickness or lameness or any other issue, so that your plans often get changed, and it’s very hard to stick by the book.
“Certainly, if we have a horse run well and the next day he seems to be doing well, I’ll be looking ahead to a race for him in three or four weeks. Perhaps in the meantime, if he shows me he’s not particularly doing as well as I thought, I might get off that idea.”
To ship or not to ship
When a horse is suited for two different races at the same time, the decision where to place it could be difficult. Logistics often help Motion make that decision.
“There is a lot to consider—the timing and what’s going on,” Motion said. “For example, we weren’t necessarily looking to run Sanagas (Ger) in a Grade 1 [the Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes], but John [Panagot] had been keeping an eye out on the races in California. We realized that this race wasn’t going to come up as competitive as some of the other Grade 1s that we’d seen, so it seemed like a great opportunity to take a shot. It’s so easy nowadays to do that. Pretty much, you call the shipping agent and you can be on a plane the next day.”
Jockeys
Naming a jockey that fits the horse is the last crucial decision at entry time. The trainer must be familiar with each rider’s style and forte. Some riders are excellent at getting a horse out of the gate, some are better on grass than on dirt, some are patient masters of racing strategy for route races.
“It’s about developing confidence in a jockey,” Motion said.
He maintains a rapport with the riders he uses on a regular basis and their agents—a relationship he calls mutually rewarding.
“If you really have confidence in the riders you’re using, you probably don’t need to be giving a lot of instruction before a race.”
For more Graham Motion on Training:
On problem horses, click here.
On schooling, click here.
On breaking to a lead pony, click here.
On choosing a distance, click here.
On relaxing and winning, click here.
On gate training, click here.
Denise Steffanus is a contributing editor of THOROUGHBRED TIMES who writes frequently on veterinary and farm management topics.
