The Doug O'Neill Interview

The Doug O'Neill Interview, or, more accurately the interview as it might go if we actually talked to the trainer.

RR: Doug, RR, KCMO.

DO: Howdy!

RR: Just fine. What happened to Doggie Bear 11/16?

DO: Doggie who?

RR: Ha, ha ha, ... ha ha ha...Doggie Bear, finished 8th at Hollywood 11/16?

DO: We had high hopes.

RR: As did I. Doggie showed a decent pre-race tab.

DO: The chart comment was "no speed".

RR: Morning glory?.

DO: Headed for Pleasanton.

RR: The best to Doggie.

DO: In behalf of Doggie, thanks very much. You're calling and you want us to train a horse?

RR: Ummm......

DO: We've cut our day rate...

RR: I'm calling about your nice website.

DO: Ohhhh. Did you notice our win% is up to 14.4%.

RR: Yes, you should be very proud of that, and...

DO: And did you see Azul Leon Sunday close on those pigs?

RR: Yavol. Derby horse for sure. But...

DO: I've had a hundred calls wanting me to train since that race. I thought this might be one.

RR: Well...actually DO this call is about your 50% every three month injury rate.

DO: RR you must be from the FBI.

RR. Ha, ha, ha...seriously DO, what's up with the 50% injuries.

DO: Deceptive stat. Guarantee we never injure anything close to that.

RR: Explain please.

DO: Number 1 remember we take all stock that they want us to train. Nobody gets turned away.

RR: You're saying that some of your trainees have pre-existing conditions.

DO: A lot of them do. We'll get a two year old from the farm and we're nursing it already, and then the owner wants to race in two months. You can train, but you know the percentages on that kind?

RR: Indeed.

DO: Plus we try to keep our owners happy. Within our parameters if the owner insists we'll keep on with an injury we think we can deal with even if we advise the owner the horse needs a rest. Than, bammm, because the fellow demands we keep running, it's all over. And, we test a lot of horses for owners. Train 'em, enter 'em to see if they'll hold up. We control some of what goes on, but ultimately within certain constraints a lot of this is the owner's call.

RR: Hmmm....this might also explain why Bill O'Gorman's website shows that he only gets about 2/3 to the races?
http://www.racinghorsesbook.com/does_it_work.htm

DO: Yup. But there's more.

RR: All ears, DO.

DO: This year we've had trouble adjusting to the astro turf. Our soft tissue injuries are way up. We're playing around with trying to figure what to do.

RR: Sounds very reasonable. And no 'roids.

DO: They took our steroids and Sarah Palin got beat. Damm!

DO: + there's the rider problem. You'd never believe it.

RR: I might.

DO: Honestly, we'd like to do a lot more training, but finding somebody in the morning to get on 110 horses, well, you can imagine. Half of them get here at 8:30 am and you just hope that one or two of them is sober when you throw 'em up. We might schedule 20 to work and be lucky if we get 7 or 8 done.

RR: So, you're blaming part of your injury rate on your rider problem.

DO: Definitely. And then there's money.

RR: What do you mean by that.

DO: We have to pay these riders but we can't get half these owners to pay their bills. A lot of time we have zero cash in the kitty to pay.

RR: So, again you're blaming the owners.

DO: No, not all. And then there's the vets. Jeez. Avoid getting me started on that one.

RR: DO, think I'm getting the picture. Anything else.

DO: One more thing that's really important.

RR: Shoot.

DO: Remember that we take horses out of training to rest, recuperate and heal minor injuries. We're very careful with that, and this affects the percentages. And, there's non-performance retirements and plain retirements.

RR: DO I'm impressed. Thanks for the interview.

DO. Nothing of it. If you have a horse you want trained, let us know.

RR: Definitely. DO. Txs very much.

Training:
Tues. 11/25 The planned work was scotched for non-horse reasons. But they worked fast yesterday, so we're ok. Off.