So Trainer's and/or former Trainer's...when one of your largest Clients

[sammy the sage]

ask you to do something different in a certain race with their horse...than what you planned to do....did you comply???

Ie...send when you were gonna have the jock rate the horse or vica versa?

Mind you...said Client might be 30% of your business...and VERY rarely if every asks you do this....but all of sudden...this one time they do/did???

[Ruffian1]

ask you to do something different in a certain race with their horse...than what you planned to do....did you comply???

Ie...send when you were gonna have the jock rate the horse or vica versa?

Mind you...said Client might be 30% of your business...and VERY rarely if every asks you do this....but all of sudden...this one time they do/did???


No matter the size of the owners stable, I would always be happy to talk about strategy if they requested to do so. Over the years though I vaguely recall more than a few such requests. I do get your question about the size of the stable.

Plenty of owners, if they were present for the race might ask what the strategy was or what we hoped to see unfold. Not always though and if they did I certainly never had a problem with that.
I don't recall more than one or two that wanted any more than a very brief description though.
If an owner was adamant about instructions I would further discuss in more detail what my plans were. I explained to the owner that my instructions were not so much what I wanted the rider to do. It was more about where the other speeds were leaving the gate, like being pinned inside and the horses right eye being covered up, or wanting to be sure and cover up an inside speeds right eye by the 3/8ths pole. That sort of thing. Reminding the jocks about likes and dislikes at the gate like don't grab their ears, warming up, like plenty of jogging to loosen them up behind, while during the running like preferences to running inside, in between or outside, very little whip, no whip but show it to them only, ride left handed ( start left handed 1st if they had room to do so and it was feasible), if they hang, if they hold their breath, problems switching leads, lugging in or bearing out and if so, I would remind them of the bit the horse has on and or the blinkers so as to emphasize that.

Then I would let the owner explain their thoughts and would be ok with implementing their thoughts if they made sense and it fit the horse, the race, the equipment the horse was wearing that day and the training I put in leading up to the race. If it did not make sense and not just too me but have some common sense within it based on the makeup of the race and what I just spoke about, I would say with all respect to my owner, not this time but we can try that next time if you still wish to do so. Doing it that way would allow me to maybe train the horse a bit differently to aid the next strategy as well with things I stated above. Once I explained that, the owner was always good with waiting until next time to possibly try if that was the best course of action. All and all I got along with my owners very well. I respected them and they respected my efforts to maximize their chances of winning.

I know for sure that I turned down a few owners offers to train for them because I knew that they would want to basically train them and call all the shots. I just told them that I was not that guy.

Please follow up if I missed a point to your question.

[jay68802]

I can give you a little different view. I have never been involved in training but our family have owned a few horses. The first trainer we had could not communicate to save his life. The only thing we ever heard was the horse was "doing well". We never had a say in how a horse should run in a race. The second trainer was the other way. Kept in touch with us, told us his thinking about the upcoming race, went out of his way to find us on race days. Asked what we thought about the race. We only had one horse that we were having a hard time with. Finally we sat down with the trainer and he asked what should we do? My cousin said we have tried every thing but sending to the lead, why not just send a pray. The trainer said he really did not train the horse that way but would give it a try. Horse ran a close second then won next out.

I can see the worry of loosing a large client. As owners we never wanted to put a trainer in that situation. And I have to say, am sorry you might be in that situation. I would sit down and just hash it out, maybe they are seeing something you are not, or maybe they are missing something that you see. Either way, voice your concerns about what you see with the horse and not wanting to loose them as a client. Just the fact you would be willing to have a conversation about this should help. Things that go unsaid tend to be the things that end relationships. That last thing is the thing I am very familiar with.

Good luck.

[Ruffian1]

I can give you a little different view. I have never been involved in training but our family have owned a few horses. The first trainer we had could not communicate to save his life. The only thing we ever heard was the horse was "doing well". We never had a say in how a horse should run in a race. The second trainer was the other way. Kept in touch with us, told us his thinking about the upcoming race, went out of his way to find us on race days. Asked what we thought about the race. We only had one horse that we were having a hard time with. Finally we sat down with the trainer and he asked what should we do? My cousin said we have tried every thing but sending to the lead, why not just send a pray. The trainer said he really did not train the horse that way but would give it a try. Horse ran a close second then won next out.

I can see the worry of loosing a large client. As owners we never wanted to put a trainer in that situation. And I have to say, am sorry you might be in that situation. I would sit down and just hash it out, maybe they are seeing something you are not, or maybe they are missing something that you see. Either way, voice your concerns about what you see with the horse and not wanting to loose them as a client. Just the fact you would be willing to have a conversation about this should help. Things that go unsaid tend to be the things that end relationships. That last thing is the thing I am very familiar with.

Good luck.

Great advise Jay.