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I don’t know much about training horses. It seems to me, from watching videos, that training is fairly routine though. You give the horses some exercise every morning, possibly cranking it up towards race day, and school them over jumps about a week before the race. Obviously, if a horse is injured or ill you might need high tech facilities, but normally it doesn’t seem too tricky to train a horse.
Yet it is clear trainers go in and out of form and some are better than others. The reasons for form fluctuations seem to be seasonal (e.g. Nicholls seems to be better in the early season whereas Henderson is better later on) and accidental like viruses. But why are Nicholls and Henderson usually better than the others? What do they do that the others don’t?
One initial advantage is having the personality to attract and keep owners who can provide good horses.
One thing you keep hearing about the very best trainers is that they all share an attention to detail.
I used to think that owners bought or bred horses and then chose a trainer to send them to. Didn’t realise that, a lot of the time, the trainer bought horses and then had to find owners for them, or were commissioned by a prospective owner to find a horse for them. Therefore they have to have an eye for a horse or know soemone who has, and then, once those people become well known the price of horses they look at goes through the roof, I’d imagine [remember Tom Costalot].
You really need to know the individual requirements for the horses, how it reacts to different exercise levels, certain foods, etc…
There is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach, well, im sure there is in plenty of situations, but there shouldn’t be.
You do need a decent grasp of physiology of equines, and having a human physiology background, helps immensely.
Then there is the different forms of exercise in order to utilise and progress the different systems within the equine, i.e. easy exercise, harder exercise, etc… and how those different forms of intensity, affect the horses’ fitness levels for different functional systems.
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When you say skill I can only assume you are taking it the trainer already has all the knowledge required like the points Gaz has put up. Very knowlegable Gaz I should add.
Michael Dickinson had more knowledge in that head of his than half the trainers in the country put together.
I can remember an equine lecture by one the worlds leading Professional Animal Scientist was held in London and only one trainer in the entire country bothered to go…..Michael Dickinson.
His main and most important skills though was he had a terrific eye for a horse and although he was regarded in some quarters as a bit of a snob he was an exceptionally polite person that made him very popular with the right people.
Something two posters have already pointed out and they coudn’t be more right.
My fav trainers Nicky Henderson and Jonjo, and I’m sure it’s safe to assume the same can be said for PN and Alan King , have the same things in common: They know a good horse when they see them, They are instantly likeable with great people skills, treat their staff with respect and realise a happy yard is a successful yard/buisness.
Those are the real skills that separate the men from the boys IMO.
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Ask Peter Grayson
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So many little details go towards making a top class racehorse trainer. There are no shortcuts and those that take them invariably fail at some point. Second generation trainers often slip back thinking they know it all and don’t want to work as hard as mum or dad.
Diplomacy is one of the more modern additions to a trainers repertoire. Since the arrival of mobile phones and the internet the importance of good diplomatic skills has been paramount to success. Gone are the days when trainers would rarely speak to owners and visits to the stables by same were almost non existant.
Over the years the one skill that I found to be very important to all trainers is the ability to recognise, employ and retain the very best staff available. Top class work riders are vital to any stable. Diligent ground staff are also invaluable. You cannot do the job alone unless you have a very small team. Even then you’ll need help from time to time. Mind you a good trainer needs to be swift to act when a bad egg slips through the cracks and enters the yard. One fool can ruin a lot of hard work from the many.
A quality trainer must also be able to recognise the quality of feed they are purchasing as well as the important variants required for each individual horse’s diet. This is the fuel that runs the engine and without the best going in you cannot expect top flight results. Legendary Australian trainer Bart Cummings swears by top quality feed. He knew he could achieve better results from many animals in other yards simply by improving their diet. His results speak for themselves.
Minor details go a long way towards the end results at every yard. The best trainers generally have well cared for horses, equipment and stables without a straw out of place. Routines are followed to a mind numbing degree.
Knowing when a horse needs less or more work is also vital. Again I’ll refer to Bart Cummings. He has never been averse to galloping a horse the morning of a big race if he felt it was required. Others haven’t worked a horse at all for significant periods before a win. You do not gain this sort of knowledge overnight.
Injury treatment and horse management are also significant factors to success. Knowing what works and doesn’t saves a lot of time and horseflesh. Employing the best vets, dentists, farriers, chiropractors, clippers etc can make a big difference at the end of any season. Putting in the long hours for repetitive and monotonous treatments can make the difference between a big winner and a broken down maiden.
At the end of the day the very best trainers for mine are those that can gain more for less. Anyone can get winners from a large yard full of 50K+ purchases. Very few can turn out consistent high level success with a stable full of thirty or less middle of the road home breds, rejects from other yards and horses purchased for less than 10K. Those that do succeed in this area quickly find owners of much better stock banging on the door.
Then there’s the ability to recognise a thoroughbreds potential and be ruthless enough to cull liabilities swiftly. Dead wood is dead wood even if the owner is a good payer. Owners who are bad payers are the deadest wood of all.
Placement and form recognition are also important. Put your best horses in the worst company and build from there. You must be aware of what’s going on around you in the industry not just behind the walls of your own establishment.
It’s a lot of hard work but those that are prepared to focus on every important detail no matter how minor do succeed. Best of luck to anyone taking up the challenge.
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I don’t know. I imagine it’s a similar question to "does having a certain manager make a difference to how a football team plays?".
Ferguson, Mourinho, Nicholls, Henderson always do the job regardless of talent at their disposal.
Thanks for those comprehensive answers. However, one irony of yesterday’s racing is that the trainers apparently didn’t know quite a lot about some key horses. Kauto Star’s below form performance is not fully explained yet, Riverside Theatre’s stamina was apparently doubtful but he stayed, the Nightingale had an unexpected heart condition, Binocular performed better than comments prior to the race suggested. I don’t think the trainers are being dishonest – they just don’t know how a horse will perform on the day. And to be fair to P Nicholls, he did attempt to deflate the hype around Brampour prior to his race.
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Binocular performed better than comments prior to the race suggested. I don’t think the trainers are being dishonest – they just don’t know how a horse will perform on the day.
It would seem that it’s best to take anything with a pinch of salt that Nicky Henderson says about JP’s horses?
Last year, we were all informed that Binocular was at the top of his game – until the Champion Hurdle.
This year, we were told he was in good form for the Fighting Fifth, and then (despite the sparkling galllop reports to the contrary), they were all despondent yesterday.
Make of that what you will.I think the comparison with football managers is a good one. Basically a racehorse trainer is a football manager for horses. You need a broad range of skills and good backroom staff to support you.
Each trainer has a different approach. Etienne Pollet, the great French trainer, for example, concentrated on quality over quantity in his yard, and would only use a specific food mixture for his horses.
I think having the better bred horses in the stable; aided by good work staff – and allied to patient and undemanding owners, helps the trainer and the training operation immensely.
They say anyone with common sense can train a very good horse but it is virtually impossible to train a donkey to go any faster than it wants to.
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The best trainers are those who excel at training all sorts of different horses. It’s what made MV O’Brien the greatest ever given the utter domination he achieved in both codes.
If I was asked to nominate the best trainer in Ireland at the moment I would say Dermot Weld. He can train horses for massive flat races like the Melbourne Cup, the Ascot Gold Cup and the Belmont Stakes as well as winning big staying handicap chases, juvenile hurdles and bumpers. I’m sure it takes vastly different training methods and schedules to prep a horse for the Galway Plate or the Paddy Power than it does for the Irish Guineas or Irish Derby. There must be a huge amount of skill required to achieve it.
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