NEWS
Coyle helps young assistant Sitzler develop training skills
Posted: Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Eighteen-year-old has career goal of opening own stable
Before Anna Sitzler wanted to train a Triple Crown winner, she thought she wanted to ride one, but the 18-year-old assistant trainer has learned to refocus her career goals while working for Vernon Coyle.
Now, she would be happy just to develop her own stable while also helping to place retired Thoroughbreds in second homes.
"I don't want a big stable. I don't want a ton of owners. I don't want a ton of drama going around," Sitzler said. "I just want it to be me and the horses and doing what I think is best for them. Unless something catastrophic happens, I think I'll be doing that for the rest of my life."
For the past 2 1/2 years, Sitzler has rescued Thoroughbreds while working at Turfway Park and two other tracks. Her first trip to River Downs was all it took for Sitzler, the daughter of Turfway Director of Communications Sherry Pinson, to realize she had an unfilled fondness for horses.
"Some people just don't have horse sense. She's definitely got horse sense," Coyle said. "Some people can be around it for 30 years. It just doesn't come to them, [but] she's definitely got horse sense. She's very dependable, and she cares. A lot of people don't. They're just there to get their check."
Sitzler spent six weeks learning the finer points of race riding while working at Dreamfields Training Center in Verona, Kentucky, which Racing Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen owns. She switched career paths after realizing that jockeys do not get many chances to know their mounts.
"Being a jockey seems really impersonal to me. You get on a horse; you ride it in the race. Then you get on another horse, and maybe it's a horse you've never seen before," Sitzler said. "I like to know my horses. I like to know every bump and goofy hair on their body. I want them to be my friends, too."
Coyle's shedrow includes six horses that receive personal care from Sitzler. She started out as hot walker and now tends to daily chores that range from cleaning stalls to grooming and wrapping legs.
"She deserves it because you can depend on her," Coyle said. "She gets a lot of opportunity. I give her free rein pretty much. She usually holds her end of the bargain up."
On race days, Sitzler eagerly returns to the track after completing her chores to see one of the stable's horses run. She spends most afternoons tending to her three pleasure horses and finishing her senior year of high school through an online school based in Pennsylvania.
Sitzler also has found new homes for seven former racehorses fortunate enough to begin second careers.
"Thoroughbreds off the track are typically pretty cheap. You can get some super nice horses to be show horses," Sitzler said. "I have people coming to me all the time that want a horse that has this particular build or this particular look. I can kind of root around and find something."
Sitzler's barn pet is Act Nice, a Lord Avie gelding who, despite his name, likes to bite. Her all-time favorite horse is Champali, a multiple Grade 3 winner who concluded a three-year racing career in 2004 with 11 wins and $1,073,794 in earnings.
Sitzler became a Champali fan after watching the Glitterman horse win his second career start in 2002 at Keeneland Race Course. Her username on Internet forums is Champali Chick.
"I used to love prominent, big- name horses. Then they retire at three. It's hard to get excited about that," Sitzler said. "I can't get excited about horses like Bernardini who probably won't run as a four-year-old because he is so good. I just can't get into that, and I don't want horses like that, either. I want horses that I'm going to be able to train for years and years and years."--Jeff Apel
