2009 Trainee Views

July, Kentucky 2010

The last six weeks have seen the Darley Flying Start team scattered all over the United States on our first individual work placements. From California to New York to right here in Lexington, we’ve been stationed with trainers, bloodstock agents and sales agencies, getting an in-depth look at the specific areas of the industry in which we are interested as individuals, acquiring some hands-on experience, and learning from some of the top individuals and businesses in the industry.

Ludovic spent his placement with bloodstock agent Pete Bradley. He was engaged in a number of tasks from valuing horses to looking for European prospects to buy and run in America. He spent his days monitoring racing results, going through publications, investigating potential purchases, inspecting yearlings, and helping Mr. Bradley fill his orders through empirical and statistical research.

Will was busy at Fasig-Tipton working on several different projects in preparation for the upcoming summer yearling sales. He was responsible for creating a number of buyer recruitment brochures for the July sale and attended regular meetings of the sales team. In addition to his sales team responsibilities, he was involved in producing materials for the Fasig-Tipton Racing Club. He also spent time researching horses to run for the next Racing Club which will be launched in the coming weeks. Will learned a great deal from the Fasig-Tipton staff including Darley Flying Start graduate, Duncan Hinkle, with whom he worked for several weeks.

Katie spent her placement across town at Keeneland. She divided her time equally between inspecting and grading yearlings for the September sale with Keeneland inspection team members and working on an extended research project regarding Keeneland’s Polytrack surface. Compiling data from the RTO InCompass system, she produced a report that analyzed the past performances of horses that had run on the Keeneland surface.

While on his placement with D. Wayne Lukas, Mike learned the values of true professionalism, attention to detail, and hard work in the Lukas operation. Waking up every morning at 3 A.M., he saw what has made the stable so successful over the years. He spent his days checking legs, treating injuries, assisting with medications accompanying horses to the races, and grazing horses such as Dublin and Mine That Bird. He also had plenty of discussion with Mr. Lukas about horse selection and conformation and training horses for major events. Viewing Mr. Lukas’ operation was an eye opening experience for him.

Chris spent his placement at Belmont Park with trainer Christophe Clement. Chris rode out the first set or two every morning before spending the rest of the morning watching work outs with Mr. Clement and assisting in the barn. One of the highlights was observing the training of last year’s Champion Turf Horse Gio Ponti. After morning exercise Chris went around the barn doing medications and treatment. During his placement he had the opportunity to go to the picturesque Saratoga to watch the training of Christophe’s other string and numerous days racing at Belmont Park. Particularly exciting was the chance to see Drosselmeyer win a thrilling rendition of the Belmont Stakes.

John was also in New York, working with Tom Albertrani. He was involved in checking legs and assisting with medications in the morning. He assisted in tacking up and watched the horses train with Tom. He took care of the feeding in the morning and the afternoon, along with assisting the vet with any work that needed to be done. During race days, he helped with pre-race preparations and saddling horses in the paddock. He visited Saratoga and Darley’s Greentree operation, which was one of the highlights. He worked all but one day and didn’t get much time off, but it was worth it every minute. To add to that, he also got the chance to work with DFS graduate Dan Blacker who is assistant to Tom Albertrani.

Veer travelled to California for his placement, to spend time in Bob Baffert’s barn. He assisted with feeding and medications, preparing sets for their morning work and watching exercise with Mr. Baffert. Veer learned a huge amount from Mr. Baffert, particularly on the subjects of training techniques and synthetic surfaces and the future of American racing. Highlights of the placement included working with Preakness winner Lookin at Lucky.

Jennifer worked at Kern Lillingston with Lincoln Collins and Joe Miller. She was involved in racing and breeding management for their clients, looking for 2-year-olds both in Europe and America, appraising potential racehorses, broodmares and young stallions, foal and yearling inspection, meeting trainers, and making weekly reports and business plans for clients. She also worked on a project with Three Chimneys racing partnership about racing management and marketing.

Vicky spent her six weeks working closely with Byron Rogers from Pedigree Consultants. During this period, Vicky worked on developing a business plan on an upcoming product. It provided an excellent opportunity to get out and about meeting relevant industry members around Kentucky. Other projects she was kept busy with were the launch of a new website, TrueNicks product development along with DFS graduate Ian Tapp and assisting with pedigree reports for the upcoming Fasig-Tipton July Sale.

Jenny got the chance to do her placement at WinStar, and was fortunate enough to become a very active participant at that organization. She pitched a new product development presentation to owners Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt, helped organize two breeders’ events in celebration of Super Saver’s Kentucky Derby win, conducted a client survey and presented the findings to senior management. She also participated in yearling inspections with bloodstock manager Robert Hammond and conducted fan tours around the farm.

Scott spent his time at Taylor Made Sales, splitting his day between working with the yearlings in the morning and working in the office in the afternoons. He got to see the different phases of sales preparation with yearlings being prepared for Fasig-Tipton July, Saratoga and Keeneland September. He also gained an appreciation of the organization and promotion that goes into getting such a large consignment to sell successfully by attending sales meetings with Mark Taylor.

While we all enjoyed delving into our respective placements, we continued to work on Darley Flying Start assignments. All of the trainees produced business analyses of their respective placements, and started brainstorming for our final presentations, which will take place on July 15 at the Kentucky Horse Park. Each trainee has been assigned a famous racing character and will pitch the idea for a film. The subjects cover everything from famous racehorses like Holy Bull and Cigar to legendary trainers and riders like Steve Cauthen and D. Wayne Lukas. The presentations have required that we be creative and exercise our persuasive “selling” skills.

It’s difficult to believe that the U.S. leg of the trip is almost over. We are coming to the end of our visits, the most recent of which we spent inspecting yearlings with John Williams, at the beautiful Raceland Farm. The last time we visited the farm, there was snow on the ground and most of us were wearing coveralls. This time, temperatures were up in the nineties, sparking animated discussion as those using Celsius and those using Fahrenheit tried to communicate with one another. It’s been an incredible seven months in between.

We will attend the Darley Stallion Parade at Jonabell Farm and attend the Fasig-Tipton Yearling Sale ahead of our “Selling The Magic” Conference, which marks the end of our time in the USA.

Thanks for everything, Lexington!

Will Mayer and Katie Williams

Click here for a list of all 2009 trainee views