Bring On 2014

With the closing to 2013 right around the corner it brings the close to my first year as a trainer and all in all it has gone relatively well I hope you would agree. We have broken through 350,000 dollars earned for our clients through the year and will finish the year with at least 6 winners. We started in April with one horse and have built steadily through the year to have 15 in training at the moment. The first year of training is always the toughest, trying to attract new clients and horses that are worth their while having, especially in New York as it is the toughest place to race horses in the US. You try to place you horses correctly but inevitably there are moments when you get it wrong or are faced with having to run horses in spots where they are competitive but not good enough to win. This means your statistics can take a bit of a hit. In 2014 this is something I will aim to rectify.

The highlights of 2013 have allowed me as a trainer to manage several firsts but as a trainer I don’t know if there is anyone out there who cannot remember their first winner. This came with our second starter as Treblemaker dominated a maiden field at Aqueduct to run out a convincing winner, going wire to wire. I have to say I hardly remember any of the race as at all stages I was convinced someone was going to come out of the pack and beat him, I remember my legs shaking as I ran out onto the track to meet him and wandering around in disbelief for hours after the race. The sad part was Maggie couldn’t be there for it as she was at a seminar in Connecticut and it came while we still didn’t have our own tack, webbings etc!!!

Having my first winners at Belmont and Saratoga were very special and Saratoga was vitally important to the progression of the business, to prove we could mix it with the best in America. After our first four runners at Saratoga yielded three seconds I was beginning to get a little frustrated but it showed we were placing the horses correctly and then Tony Grey, who sent me Treblemaker as my first horses, had a winner with Scribbling Sarah as she burst through horses to win her maiden special at the Spa, all in all we had an excellent meet up state and it made people sit up and take notice of us.

2014 will be a new year and a new game plan. Having run several horses through the year who couldn’t be competitive in their races this is something I am aiming to eliminate as much as possible. I don’t like taking horses to race where they can’t realistically have a chance of running in the first three. It does nothing for the horse’s confidence to be beaten consistently and have a rough racing experience. We all ideally would like to have a 20-25% win to runners ratio and have 60% of horses running in the first three. That is something I certainly will be aiming for in the coming year. I would like to break through the ten winner mark for the year AT LEAST and win over 500,000 dollars for my clients. Another aim for the year is to win a stake race and with the quality of the stock I hope to have next year I think this a realistic aim. We also need to keep building our client base and numbers and quality of horses in the barn. We have several two year olds for next year and some grass horses that are out on the farm so I do think 30 horses by the end of next year is attainable.

I am a deeply ambitious young man who wants to go right to the top of this game and so setting targets for the year is always something I will do.  I would like to get to the stage where we are training for big owner breeders as well as purchasing nice horses at the sales, but I will always be open to the claiming aspect of the game as I do enjoy the challenge. Bring on 2014 and I look forward to reading this back this time next year to see how many of the goals I have set have been reached…

Tom Morley