By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Sports
Horse racing.
Football.
What could those two sports possibly have in common?
Shane Wilson has a one-word answer.
“Competition.”
In the mid-to-late 1980’s, the Haughton native, currently the leading trainer at Louisiana Downs, was an offensive and defensive lineman for the hometown high school Buccaneers. In 1988, Wilson made the 1-AAA All-District team as a guard.
“I wasn’t great,” Wilson said. “Just a good, small, high school football player.”
A good, small, high school football player who loved the game and had the drive to be better than the guy across the line of scrimmage.
“I enjoyed the physicality of it. I liked the one-on-one. The combat. Either you win or he wins … I never took a day off from lifting weights, because I didn’t want anybody in the city to be a day ahead of me. I always felt like I could outwork them and beat them, even if they were physically more blessed than me.”
Long past his playing days, the 51-year-old husband and father of two sons is again outworking them and beating them. But “them” isn’t other football players. It’s other horse trainers.
Wilson is trying for his second straight training title at the Downs. So far, he is ahead of the field. Through last Sunday, in 159 starts this meet, Wilson has conditioned 40 winners, 13 more than the second-place trainer. Sixty percent of his starters have finished in the money.
“It’s constant competition. Every day, other trainers are wanting to win, too. It’s very, very competitive.”
For Wilson, the drive to finish first was born at an early age.
“I always wanted to win, no matter what it was. My father taught me how to play chess. He used to get mad at me. He would say, ‘If I go use the restroom, you change the board before I get back. I’ve never seen anything like it.’”
Wilson’s father told his son something else.
“My Dad said I had to get a job if I wanted a vehicle.”
So, Wilson started flipping burgers and salting fries at the local McDonald’s.
“I was making $75 a week. A gentleman came in early one Saturday morning. I asked him if he was going fishing or hunting? He said he was going to Louisiana Downs — he worked there. I asked him if there was anything I could do there.
“He said, ‘You could probably walk horses.’ I asked him what it paid. He said $125 a week. I could make more money doing that, than working at McDonald’s. So, I started working at the track in the morning, hot-walking in the afternoon, and I got the late shift at McDonald’s so I could bring home about $200 a week.”
Before long, Wilson was behind the wheel of a 1980 Ford F-150 pickup, “Three-speed on the column,” Wilson remembers. No air conditioning. No radio.
“I thought I had a really nice truck.”
But Wilson’s career in the horse industry got off to a less-than-impressive start.
“The first day I was out here, one of (the horses) about ate me alive. I had never touched a horse before. I grew up in a subdivision. They gave me a horse. I’ll never forget his name — “Frightener.” He was a stud horse. Before I made two laps around the barn, he had bitten me about three times. I was shocked. I went home and showed my dad all the bite marks.”
Wilson’s father passed away in 1998, the first year his son began training on his own. He would no doubt be proud of how far Wilson has come. In 24 years, his horses have earned more than $13 million. Last year — when he won his first Louisiana Downs training title — Wilson’s horses earned $1.4 million.
That’s a long way from $200 a week working two jobs.
“This is so much fun, because you have so many different personalities. Every horse wants something different. Some want to be in front. Some don’t want dirt in their face. Some don’t mind it. Some like to run at the end and save their energy. It’s about figuring out what each horse wants to do, and once you can figure that out, and then win, it’s rewarding.”
Wilson compares being a winning trainer to being a winning coach. Not in football, but in basketball.
“Phil Jackson wasn’t a great coach until he got Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin. Then, with the Lakers, Kobe and Shaq. It’s the same thing with us. I’ve been blessed with some (owners) that have stuck with me. I’ve got some owners that have been with me 12, 15 years. They continue to upgrade and get better horses as they go. It’s really about getting better athletes and learning from the mistakes you made early on.”
Next January, Wilson’s youngest son, Connor, will join his brother (Peyton) at LSU. Connor got his assistant trainer’s license and has been helping his father the past couple of years.
“He’s going to be a big loss for me when he heads off to school,” says the proud dad.
But Wilson will surely survive. After all, there’s competition waiting at the track.
Louisiana Downs runs Saturday through Tuesday. Post time is 3:05.
Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com
Submitted Photo
