By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Sports
Just as a child has to crawl before it can walk, a horse has to walk before it can run.
That’s where Al Cates’ horse sense pays dividends.
A full-time trainer since 2005, Cates works with racehorses of all ages. He is noted for having a knack for getting two-year-olds — the “babies” — ready for the track.
“I really enjoy the young horses because you just never know,” Cates said. “When you get one, no matter what they look like, you just never know until you get going with them and see what kind of heart they’ve got.”
Actually, with one horse, Cates did know.
In 2012, Our Quista was bought for $5,000 at a yearling sale in Monroe. Cates began training the dark brown mare when it was two years old. Our Quista finished in the money in nine of his 11 career starts, won multiple stakes races, and earned more than $266,000.
“I was never more confident that it was going to be a racehorse,” Cates remembered. “It had the look. It was big, and trained lights out. When I put the jockeys on it for their work, they would come back telling me how good it was. They were right on that one.”
But it doesn’t always work that way.
“Sometimes you can just get a feel if they’re going to be a racehorse or not,” Cates said. “There are some, that it’s just the opposite. It just doesn’t look like racing is going to be their career. But it’s a guess, because they can fool you. I don’t think you really know for sure until you put them out in a race.”
But before a horse ever leaves the starting gate, there is a lot of work to do. Work that includes teaching a horse how to leave the starting gate.
“The first time we go (to the track), we will take two (horses), so they will have a buddy with them,” Cates said. “We’ll just go up there and let them look at it. We’ll have the gate crew open the gate, and just let (the horses) walk through. That’s it — just walk through, then come on back. We’ll do that a few times, then slowly, we’ll let them stop and stand in there. Eventually, we will set the front, then hand-open it — not machine-open it — and let them walk out.”
Then, it gets serious.
“(The rider) will let them do it like they want — come out easy — a few times, and then that rider will start asking them a little bit. Then, when it comes time to ring that bell, that will startle them and help them come out.”
Training a young horse requires Cates to be mindful of more than how fast it breaks from the gate, or how quickly it breezes through three furlongs.
“With babies, you have to be careful,” Cates said. “Their legs aren’t fully developed. They don’t have a great immune system yet, so they catch a lot of colds. You just have to kind of monitor them as you go along.”
Owner Mike McDowell has trusted Cates to get several of his young horses ready for the show.
“He really does a great job of evaluating a two-year-old, as far as where they are physically, and maturity-wise,” McDowell said. “If he feels like one needs to be turned back out for another six months to mature a little bit more before they send them to the track, he’ll be flat-out honest with you.”
Patience is key when it comes to training a two-year-old. For example, Sunny and Clear — owned by McDowell — had been preparing for her first race. But . . .
“We worked her three furlongs a couple of weeks ago, and she came back with some sore shins,” Cates said. “That’s kind of common in babies. All it means is that we have to go kind of easy on her maybe the rest of the month. Then, she will resume her speed work. That will get her ready for a race.”
Sunny and Clear isn’t a particularly big horse, but that doesn’t mean she won’t win big.
“She’s kind of on the small side, but she was born in the middle of May, which is kind of late for a baby,” Cates explained. “That’s why we’ve had to go a little easy on her.
“One of the things she’s impressed me with is that she’s intelligent. It seems like she picks up things really easy. We’ve had her at the gate training, and she took that good. She’s easy to ride. She’s easy to train. Sometimes those may be a little slow in developing, but they usually come around.”
The 68-year-old Cates, who began training full-time after a 30-year career with AT&T, has more than 1,400 career starts. His horses have earned more than $4.9 million. Through the years, Cates has noticed something that separates the average newbie from a really good one — and it has nothing to do with physical ability.
“Some of the horses do it easier,” Cates said. “It comes more natural to them than others. I think they’re just smarter. I like a horse who has a good head on it. One that catches on quick (and) is not really spooky. And you can tell. Some of our babies, they’ve just got what I call, ‘A good head.’ They catch onto everything. Everything kind of comes easy to them, and I think they’re just smart.”
Cates runs his horses at Louisiana Downs, Oaklawn Park, and Keeneland — site of this year’s Breeders’ Cup. But when getting his younger horses ready to race, Cates prefers they do their work at Louisiana Downs.
“Billy McKeever is over the track,” Cates said. “He’s been there a long time, and I can’t say enough good things about him. He has us a good surface to train on. It can get a hard rain, and it’s still not bad. He just does a good job. I think that’s why I don’t have a lot of trouble with my two-year-olds.”
And the last thing a trainer — or a parent—wants is to have trouble with a two-year-old.
Louisiana Downs races Saturday through Tuesday. Post time is 3:05.
Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com
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