Steve Elliott still believes great trainers make fewer mistakes
by Murray Brown
Years ago, I recall Steve Elliott saying to me, “The chief job and responsibility of the horse trainer is not to screw things up. I believe the great horse trainer is the person who makes the least number of mistakes with his horse. Great horses are born, not made. There have likely been many ‘meant to be’ great horses who you and I have probably never heard of, who were messed up by trainers. I’m not necessarily excusing myself from that statement. I’ve had a few, who in retrospect I look back upon, who I think might have been better, perhaps much better, if I had done or not done something differently with them.”
This past week, I spoke with Elliott and asked him, among other questions, if he still felt that way.
Are you still of the opinion that so called great horse trainers are such because they make fewer mistakes in training their horses, that there is no such thing as a trainer “making” a horse great?
“Absolutely. If anything, I think it applies more today than it did then. The reason is that today’s horse is so much more advanced and free from faults than those from years ago. I think the greatest factor is in their breeding. The breeders have bred out so many of the faults that used to be so commonplace. It used to be that many of the yearlings were plain headed and coarse boned. It’s fairly rare that I find that in a yearling today. I cannot remember the last time I saw a yearling with a curb. They are much more refined and athletic than they used to be. Another factor lies with those who are raising them and today’s advancements in veterinary science. If a foal today is born with a physical fault, it often can be remedied. In the past, such problems grew with the horse and were very much in evidence at the yearling sales. Today, in many cases, they have disappeared or the breeders have done an amazing job of covering them up.”
You have had a great career in developing and training numerous champions. Let’s talk about a few of them:
SWEET REFLECTION — “She was the first of my good horses. She was perhaps the least likely of them to succeed. She was a homebred raised by Tom D’Altrui. As a yearling she had severe sesamoiditis in all four ankles. The chances of her becoming a racehorse at all, let alone a champion were dim. But like they say, you can’t look inside of them to see how much heart they have. But this little filly had a whole lot of it. She went on to become a Breeders Crown winner and earned $1,004,639.”
VALLEY VICTORY — “What a marvelous trotter he was. He might have had more quick speed than any horse, trotter or pacer, that I’ve ever had in my stable. In becoming as great a racehorse and influence on the breed as he became, he overcame a whole bunch of obstacles. He was originally picked out for Arlene Traub by Pat Waldo. He was broke and first trained in the Continental Farms Stable. He developed colic and had to be operated on in removing several feet of intestine. Arlene asked me to take him about a month or so after the operation. We didn’t start him racing until that August. In Lexington, he won in an eye-popping 1:57.2, amazing for the era. He went on to win the Breeders Crown and became 2-Year-Old Trotter of the Year.”
ARTISTIC FELLA — “He was only a $13,000 yearling purchase but showed great talent almost from the very beginning. That’s what most of my good horses did. With just about all of them, I felt pretty certain that they would be good. Not necessarily great. Because you don’t know if they are going to become great until they start butting heads against some of the other good horses that other people had. Like Mike Tyson said, ‘Tell me how good you are when someone punches you in the mouth.’ He was a big powerful horse. He won the Meadowlands Pace and went on to win $2,604,855.”
DONATO HANOVER — “He was as perfect a horse in every respect as any I’ve ever had in the stable, almost from day one. When you visited the stable about this time of year in his 2-year-old season, I told you that I thought he was special. I felt he could be exceptional. That is, if I didn’t screw him up. There was something undefinable about him that separated him from any other horse that I’ve ever had. In addition to his exceptional ability, he was as smart a horse as I’ve ever been around. He had the great ability to relax when he needed to, but when race day came around and the circuits needed to be turned on, he could do it almost instantly.
“Here’s the great puzzle with ‘Donato,’ not with his race career, but rather with his stud career. As I said, he was the smartest and most amenable horse that I’ve ever been around. In the stud his fillies were darn good, if not excellent. His colts were dunderheads and blockheads, if not downright stupid. How do I explain it? I cannot.”
WELL SAID — “He was as perfect a pacer as I’ve ever known. He was as beautiful a colt as the Good Lord ever created. At first, he caused me to lose a few of the hairs that I still had remaining. He wouldn’t go straight and acted goofy when we first broke him. But when he caught on, he was as perfect thereafter as you could find. He was my second Meadowlands Pace and first Little Brown Jug winner. I had a heck of a time convincing Jeff Snyder and Sue Grange to enter him in the Jug. I told them he was the best of the bunch and deserved to be in the race. They both didn’t like heat racing and thought the race might be too tough. I said to them, ‘If he doesn’t win the first heat, we can scratch him in the second.’ Wouldn’t you know, he drew the dreaded 8-hole at Delaware. He won easy as can be and then went on to win the race in straight heats. He was the Pacer of the Year at 3 and earned $2,569,342.”
MIRAGE HANOVER — “He might very well have been the fastest, and maybe at his best, the best pacer I’ve ever had. He wasn’t as quick to blossom as Artistic Fella and Well Said, but when he came on later in his 3-year-old year, he came on like gangbusters.
“I don’t like to second guess, but in this instance I’m afraid I will. The decision was made to leave him up north instead of bringing him south to Florida at the end of his 3-year-old season. I was opposed, but I don’t pay the bills, so I was over ruled. He just didn’t do what I expected him to do at 4. Perhaps, I’m wrong, but I’ve always felt that if he hadn’t remained up north, we would have seen a different horse.”
You are 72. You’ve lived through several generations of great trainers and drivers. Let’s talk about them. Trainers first. Who is the best trainer/horseman that you’ve ever known?
“This might surprise you. The very best I’ve had personal experience with is my cousin Dave Elliott. Very few people today have even heard of him. But he was good, very good! He was kind of quiet and even going and never had much power. But he was the leading trainer at The Meadowlands in two of the greatest years of that track’s heyday. Billy Haughton and Stanley Dancer were each in their own way fantastic horseman. They were very different, but the end results for both of them was the same. They were winners. Ronnie Burke is absolutely amazing. I don’t know how he does what he does — year, after year, after year. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my dear friend Chuck Sylvester who still, at the age of 86, continues to do it and do it well.”
Drivers?
“I don’t think it’s fair to rate drivers over all time. I think that they come in different eras. I started in Michigan and Windsor where the best drivers were Greg Wright and Bill Gale. We’d see Keith Waples and his cousin Ronnie occasionally. John Campbell was there, but he wasn’t yet the John Campbell that he was to become. I then moved to The Meadowlands where the best ones became Bill O’Donnell, John Campbell, Mike Lachance, Ronnie Waples, and Lew Williams. I think that maybe the most natural and most instinctive great driver ever was Ronnie Pierce. It’s hard to leave Brian Sears off any list. There are a lot of good ones today, but Dexter Dunn continues to lead the lists.”
Where do you find yourself today?
“I like to think I’m in a good place. I spend my winters training a stable of mostly 2-year-olds here at Spring Garden Ranch where I have a home nearby. I anticipate racing mostly in Kentucky this summer. I have 18 in training. I would prefer to have 12, but there are some people and horses that it is difficult to turn down. Life is pretty decent.”
