From the ground up - Preakness Stakes winning trainer Michael McCarthy worked his way into the training ranks, forming a solid foundation of success along the way.
By Annie Lambert
Trainer Michael McCarthy felt an immediate connection to the racing industry after attending the races with a few high school buddies. Following graduation, he found his way to the backside, working a variety of jobs while attending college at night. His most prominent employment was spending more than a decade as assistant to Todd Pletcher, a seven-time Eclipse Award winning Trainer of the Year.
McCarthy, now 50, attained his trainer’s license in 2006 and began training his own stable of horses in 2014. Since then, the Southern California-based horseman has saddled 1,063 starters with 174 wins, 138 seconds and 172 thirds, earning $18,083,294—including multiple graded stakes.
Pletcher once called his former protégé “reliable, confident and capable.” McCarthy has also proven himself to be responsible and patient with perseverance.
• Racing intrigue
At the age of six, McCarthy moved to Arcadia, Calif., with his family. The family home was near enough to Santa Anita to hear the races being called. Although McCarthy’s parents were not horse racing enthusiasts, he became smitten by the industry. His father, a high-end office furniture dealer (now semi- retired), was always a big sports fan—“a basketball, football kind of guy,” who was not initially into racing but now closely follows his son’s career. Young McCarthy’s first job at Santa Anita was working for trainer John O’Hara. He was at the track during the day and attending his freshman year at Cal Poly Pomona with night classes in animal husbandry. He also worked for veterinarian Dr. Wade Byrd and got handy with a stopwatch with help from Santa Anita clocker Gary Young.
Michael with Proud Accolade at Hollywood Park, 2004.
In about 1994, McCarthy had the opportunity to spend four months at a training center in Japan as well as several months at The National Stud in England. He worked as an intern in a variety of jobs, including breeding to training aspects of the racing business. While still in college, McCarthy soaked up experience working for trainer Doug Peterson and was an assistant at Santa Anita for Ben Cecil.
• Upward mobility
Working for Cecil was his final job prior to heading east to work for Todd Pletcher. Jockey agent Ron Anderson negotiated a meeting between McCarthy and Pletcher, who was looking for an assistant trainer to replace George Weaver who was leaving to start his own public stable. After some phone calls back and forth, McCarthy headed to Belmont Park in July of 2002 for an introduction of sorts. He began his new job on August 25, 2002—a date he has no trouble recalling.
Michael with Friendly Island after winning the Palos Verdes Handicap at Santa Anita Park, 2007.
“Moving east was certainly an adjustment period,” McCarthy admitted. “But when you’re young and single, it’s easy to do.” There was a learning curve going to work in an expansive stable like Pletcher’s—a fast-moving organization with many horses and a lot of moving parts. McCarthy quickly caught up to speed, and by November of that year, he found himself traveling to Hong Kong with Texas Glitter.
Texas Glitter was a six-year-old when he headed to Southeast Asia with McCarthy. Their first stop was at California’s Hollywood Park, where the son of Glitterman won the Gr3 Hollywood Turf Express Handicap. Sixteen days later, the multiple graded stakes winner found no luck in the Gp1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin— the final race of his career. …
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Terry Knight - a mainstay of the Northern California circuit
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First published in North American Trainer issue 42 - November '16 to January '17
David Hofmans - trainer of Melatonin in profile
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This article appeared in - North American Trainer Issue 41
Hector Palma - A Californian training legend
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This article appeared in North American Trainer - issue 40 (May to July 2016)
Keith Desormeaux - Trainer of the 141st Preakness Stakes winner - Exaggerator
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Barry Abrams - overcoming adversity
An old man goes to a doctor. “What’s the problem?” the doctor says. “I can’t pee,” the old man says. “How old are you?” the doctor says. “Eighty-four,” the old man says.
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David Bernstein: rising above adversity
David Bernstein has suffered two tragedies: one a game changer, the other a life changer.
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Sean McCarthy comes out form under the radar
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Ron McAnally - Still pumping out Gr1 winners
Described as the poster boy for the geriatric set and like a fine wine we meet Ron McAnally, the trainer that will never give up. Ron McAnally has just celebrated his 82yrs old and still churning out Gr 1 winners and here we find out about how it all began in 1948 working as a groom, lifelong long friends and owners.
“Like fine wine…” flowed the words from emcee Ted Bassett at the annual Eclipse Awards Dinner to announce that John Henry had been named 1984 Horse of the Year at the advanced age of 9. The same words today could describe octogenarian Ron McAnally, John Henry’s Hall of Fame trainer and poster boy for the geriatric set. McAnally, who celebrated his 82nd birthday on July 11, ages gracefully while continuing to pump out Grade 1 stakes winners. Seated at a Clocker’s Corner table one morning in June near the end of the extended Santa Anita Park meet and looking forward to Del Mar, McAnally made only a few minor concessions to Father Time while continuing his lifelong love affair with his job.
“As long as I’m alive, that’s all I know how to do,” said the soft-spoken trainer of the regimen that keeps him young: showing up at the track early every morning seven days a week. “I don’t play golf, tennis, or cards.” McAnally admitted that he does not move as smoothly as he did when he was 41, largely the result of partial knee replacement surgery in 2012, but the anticipation of his next stakes win keeps a bounce in his step and a glint in his eye. “Dan Landers, my assistant since 1995, has been my right arm, especially since the knee surgery,” said McAnally, who conditions 15 horses at Santa Anita and another four at Pomona with Jose Miranda, an employee for 42 years. Landers walked by and alerted McAnally to the arrival of Miss Serendipity on the track. The 6-year-old Argentine-bred mare had given McAnally his most recent Grade 1 score with a 13-to-1 upset in the $300,000 Gamely Stakes on the Santa Anita turf on May 26. McAnally has not lost his touch with South American imports, who gave him a series of earlier career highlights and have provided most of his success the past two years.
In addition to Miss Serendipity, the McAnally stable also boasts Quick Casablanca, a 6-year-old Chilean-bred horse which two days before the Gamely missed winning the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Stakes on grass by two necks in a three-way photo. In 2013, McAnally won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile with Suggestive Boy, a 6-year-old Argentine-bred who remains in training, and the Grade II San Juan Capistrano Stakes with Interaction, another Argentine-bred who was retired to stud in his native land. McAnally said the secret to Miss Serendipity was the same as most of the two dozen other South American imports he has turned into graded stakes winners: patience. “Miss Serendipity took longer than most,” explained McAnally of the mare who arrived last summer at Del Mar but did not make her U.S. debut until January at Santa Anita. “She had a skin rash that we used medicated shampoo on to clear up.”
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THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN - NORTH AMERICAN TRAINER - ISSUE 33
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THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN - NORTH AMERICAN TRAINER - ISSUE 31
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THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN - NORTH AMERICAN TRAINER - ISSUE 29
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My Best Brother continues the Currin tradition of success
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Momentum raises Eurton to Grade 1 stardom
TRAINER Peter Eurton can only hope that the Del Mar meet this summer can approach that of 2011.
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Popular “Mr. Cho” enjoys big results from his small stable
Aplethora of thoughts and emotions will flood trainer-owner-breeder Myung Kwon Cho when he watches the Kentucky Derby from his California home on television this year. Cho will remember the excitement of his first two trips to the Run for the Roses with a pair of longshots. He will agonize briefly over what might have been with Premier Pegasus, a homebred colt who was considered a leading contender before being sidelined with an injury a month before the race.
By Steve Schuelein
First Published (20 April 2011 - Issue Number: 20)