Trainers are usually adept judges of stallion prospects.
Those who labor daily on the backstretch often know things about horses that people on the other side of the track don’t know. They know which horses were patched together by a vet due to lameness; the know which horses will curl up if they take too much air in a race; and they know that stallion prospects from some stables must prove themselves first.
That’s the lesson I learned from interviewing horsemen a few years back on rookie stallions. If they like the way a stallion performed on the track, they’ll step up to the plate and buy yearlings from his first crop. If the person who trained the stallion has a record or reputation of using some high-octane substances, they will let the stallion prove himself before they take the plunge.
Some trainers simply aren’t able to determine if the horse was getting an edge from conditioners with a questionable record. Many top racing performers developed by some of these trainers have been miserable failures as sires, which makes you wonder. But some stallions from these stables have been successful. There is no hard and fast rule.
I’m always amazed at how some trainers have exercised enormous influence on the breed with the stallions that they have trained. The classic example, of course, is Stanley Dancer. He trained Most Happy Fella, Albatross, Super Bowl, Nevele Pride, Bonefish, and Noble Victory for starters. Just think for a moment how important those stallions were in building modern pedigrees.
Go back a generation further and you get guys like Delvin Miller, who developed Tar Heel and Meadow Skipper. Or Harry Pownall who trained Star’s Pride, Florican, and Titan Hanover.
Then you had Howard Beissinger who bred, raised, trained and drove Speedy Crown and trained and drove his son Speedy Somolli.
Today we see the influence of guys like Gene Riegle and Bob McIntosh. Riegle developed Western Hanover, Life Sign, and Artsplace, although Artsplace was conditioned for his championship four-year-old season by McIntosh. Bob, of course, was also the man who made Camluck.
Bob Stewart of Kentucky developed and trained the “Band of Brothers”----Conway, Angus, and Andover, all with the surname Hall.
Through a few influential stallions, select trainers have earned immortality.