It’s all about family for horseman Dan Altmeyer
by Murray Brown
Seventy-one seems to be too young to be referred to as a patriarch. Nevertheless, that is what I look upon Dan Altmeyer as being. Altmeyer has been a horseman as long as he can recall; certainly for the entirety of his adult life. As opposed to some involved in our great sport, he has always valued family above profession. That’s not to say that he hasn’t spent an inordinate amount of time in pursuing his occupation as one of the finest horsemen that Pennsylvania, in general, and specifically, Western Pennsylvania and The Meadows, has ever produced.
“My wife Ruth and I are exceptionally proud of our two daughters Julie and Heather,” Dan said. “Julie is a doctor, a family practitioner and is the wife of fellow doctor Aaron, whose practice deals with sports medicine. They are the parents of Grace, 16, and Luke, 12. Heather, known to many in harness racing as one of its best communicators in the sport, is the wife of outstanding horseman Mike Wilder. They in turn are the parents of Lauren, a student at the Penn State School of Medicine and Scarlett, already a well-known equestrienne in barrel racing and more recently involved in our great sport of harness racing.”
But this column involves harness racing, so that is what we will concentrate on.
You’ve been doing this for a very long time. You’ve been involved since the beginning of pari-mutuel racing in Pennsylvania, most specifically at The Meadows. Would you care to comment on what you’ve seen and been through in all of those years?
“I think back to when I was younger, listening to veteran horsemen talking about the so called ‘good old days’ and complaining about the way things were now. I thought to myself, ‘I hope I never get to be that way.’ Now here I am doing exactly what they were doing. But things have changed significantly and, in my opinion, very few of them have changed for the better.”
Would you please be more specific?
“I’ll first comment on what is better. The horses are better. They are more athletic, much easier to train, and bring along towards becoming useful racehorses, if not stakes horses. The majority of the drivers are better and certainly deeper in terms of the number of good ones. In some cases, they are much better. I’m not too sure about the trainers. Some are undoubtedly excellent. There are some who might not be worthy of being licensed, but I suppose that is the grumpy old man in me speaking.”
What about the negatives?
“Where shall I begin. From my perspective, it has never been near as difficult for the so-called small horseman to succeed. One of the main reasons is that there are a handful of the so-called super stables that sort of rule the roost in the sport. Right on top are the Burke Stable overall and the Melander Stable when it comes to trotters. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve earned all the success that they’ve achieved in the sport. They work exceptionally hard. They have built up an extraordinary team of good horsemen and business people as well as a seemingly unlimited war chest which enables them to buy pretty much anything that interests them. Most importantly, they win races and earn loads of money, an inordinately significant number. But at what point is this overwhelming success too much? I really don’t know the answer to that. But there is obviously something wrong, when in some cases the majority of the horses in our stakes and fast class races come from one, two or even three stables. It not only stifles competition, but it is also not good for the sport in general and to the few fans we still have and hopefully for the ones we hope to attract.
“I am in a very fortunate position in that we have stuck to the plan which got us to the point where we now are. Most importantly, my son in law Mike Wilder is not only a great person and family man, but is also a superior horseman as a trainer and one of the very best drivers in the sport. Others are not near as fortunate as to have someone like Mike on their team.”
How do we overcome these problems?
“I think I’d begin by limiting the number of horses coming from one stable in any stakes race to two and just one in overnight races. I understand that the tracks would be opposed because short fields adversely affect handle. Certainly, the stables affected by the limited eligibility would be. But I feel that if that were carried to a logical conclusion, the number of horses in these events would rise because the number of competitive horses in most events would increase because of more stables becoming involved. Would it be easy? Undeniably not. Very few good things are. But I see the problem getting worse as time goes on.”
Let’s switch from the negative to the positive and speak of the success through the years of the Altmeyer Stable.
“For as long as I’ve been racing here at The Meadows, we’ve had a business plan from which we’ve rarely, if ever abandoned. We buy and occasionally raise yearlings to train and then sell at the conclusion of their 3-year-old season. Occasionally if a horse doesn’t live up to expectations, we might sell it before. But in all cases, they stay in the stable no longer than two seasons. We’ve sold some good horses for reasonably good prices in doing so. It is a policy which has benefitted both us and the buyers. In all cases, they know that what they see is what they are buying. I’m not about to suggest that I’m a sort of saint, but I’ve always believed and tried to live with the credo that honesty is the best policy. If someone asks me about one of my horses, all they have to do is ask and they will get the truth, at least the truth as I see it.”
Let’s speak of a couple of the graduates from the Altmeyer Stable:
CAMBEST — “He was one of the best horses we’ve ever trained through the years, probably when it came to pure talent, the very best. You’ve told me that Bill O’Donnell and Wally Hennessey have told you that for a piece of ground he might have been for pure speed, the very best they’ve ever sat behind. Freddie Grant says the same about him in his stable. Those are big statements and I’m not about to disagree. We bought him at the 1989 Tattersalls sale for $40,000. Through the years, that’s a price point at which we’ve been fairly comfortable. He showed talent from the very beginning. But he was no kid’s horse. He was all man from the very start. I probably came close to gelding him more than once. I’m certainly glad that I didn’t. As a racehorse, he was fantastic. His biggest negative was that as a 2- and 3-year-old he had to race against that strong trio of Artsplace, Precious Bunny, and Die Laughing.”
THAT WOMAN HANOVER — “We bought her at Harrisburg in 2012 for that same price of $40,000 that we paid for Cambest. She was a wonderful training filly with a long stride who paced effortlessly. I thought she would become a stakes filly. She did, but only a minor one. I look upon her as having been an underachiever. She never became what I thought she might become. Of course, we sold her at the conclusion of her 3-year-old season. She went on to become a decent racehorse earning over $220,000. In all the time I had her, she never showed any inclination to trot. If you had ever told me that she would ever become the dam of a trotter, let alone a Hambletonian winner in last year’s winner Nordic Catcher S, I probably would have told you that you were out of your mind. She had been bred to pacers previously to having been bred to Six Pack to produce Nordic Catcher S, but with only average results.”
The Altmeyer Stable has now transitioned to becoming the Altmeyer-Wilder Stable.
“It has. I’ve also transitioned from being its head trainer to a position of elder citizen. Mike and Heather run the stable on a day-to-day basis. I’m there regularly and I am available for advice or to give my opinion when I am asked. I used to ride every day, but this last year my back and legs have given me problems when sitting in a jog cart. I still get up early each day, take a long walk and hang around the stable and watch the horses. The 3-year-olds have just shipped to The Meadows. In a couple of weeks, they will be followed by the 2-year-olds. Spring is a wonderful time of year. We will soon find out how good a job we’ve done in choosing our yearlings and seeing how good they are as 2- and 3-year-old racehorses. Ruth and I are in the enviable position of being able to choose whether we want to stay with the stable through the racing season or as we sometimes decide to take a long drive through this great country that we live in.”
