7 Burst results for "Dan Vela"
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan vela" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"Head <Speech_Male> <Silence> <SpeakerChange> <Advertisement> <Speech_Music_Male> <Speech_Male> back to our website, <Speech_Male> horse racing radio <Speech_Male> .NET. <Speech_Male> We post <Speech_Male> everything. There's a podcast <Speech_Male> on our website <Speech_Male> and <Speech_Male> on every <Speech_Male> major <Speech_Male> podcast platform. <Speech_Male> So however you get <Speech_Male> your podcasts. <Speech_Male> You can now listen to <Speech_Male> all of our shows and <Speech_Male> special segments <Speech_Male> every single week <Speech_Male> at your leisure. <Speech_Male> The <Speech_Male> weekend states preview <Speech_Male> presented by nyra betts <Speech_Male> is posted right now. <Speech_Male> Bobby Newman <Speech_Male> and Dave <Speech_Male> Friedman walking <Silence> back through <Speech_Male> to bring you <Speech_Male> analysis <Speech_Male> of a huge <Speech_Male> weekend of stakes racing <Speech_Male> action, including those <Speech_Male> three Kentucky Derby points <Speech_Male> races. You'll hear their <Speech_Male> analysis <Speech_Male> by downloading the weekend <Speech_Male> stakes preview. <Speech_Male> Of course, trainer talks <Speech_Male> this past week presented <Speech_Male> by facing <Speech_Male> tipton. You can always <Speech_Male> go back and listen to trainer <Speech_Male> talk. That was with <Speech_Male> Dan vela <Speech_Male> from Canada, <Speech_Male> really fun and enjoyable <Speech_Male> visit there. <Speech_Male> Some great stories and great <Speech_Male> conversation <Speech_Male> in my hour long visit <Speech_Male> with Dan. <Speech_Male> And the person <Speech_Male> at dot com Collins <Speech_Male> show this week, <Speech_Male> that show was postponed <Speech_Male> because of <Speech_Male> the ice storm that was hitting <Speech_Male> the central Kentucky <Speech_Male> area, but it'll <Speech_Male> be back next Thursday, <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> 6 to 7 eastern, <Speech_Male> and you'll have a chance <Speech_Male> to call in and talk <Speech_Male> with Bobby and with <Speech_Male> James Scully from bris <Silence> and talk racing <Speech_Male> with them. <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> Yeah, <Speech_Male> busy week, <Speech_Male> busy show <Speech_Male> and really appreciate <Speech_Male> all of you being <Speech_Male> with me. Update on <Speech_Male> the poll question here today <Silence> as well. Don't forget <Speech_Male> that <Speech_Male> there are three Kentucky <Speech_Male> Derby <Speech_Male> points races coming <Speech_Male> up. You have the Robert <Speech_Male> B Lewis at Santa <Speech_Male> needed tomorrow. You <Speech_Male> have the holy bull stakes <Speech_Male> later today <Speech_Male> at <Speech_Male> Gulfstream. And then <Speech_Male> the withers up at <Speech_Male> aqueduct. And my poll question <Speech_Male> was pretty simple. <Speech_Male> Which <Speech_Male> of those three <Speech_Male> Kentucky Derby <Speech_Male> points races taking <Speech_Male> place <SpeakerChange> this weekend <Silence> has the strongest <Speech_Male> field? <Speech_Male> I thought it would be a <Speech_Male> little closer. <Speech_Male> I have to tell you, <Speech_Male> I'm a little surprised. <Speech_Male> Yeah, <Speech_Male> the holy bolt certainly <Speech_Male> looks like <Speech_Male> <Advertisement> it is the strongest. <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> I wouldn't argue <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> with that, but I thought the Robert <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> B Lewis would be <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> a little closer. <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> 79% <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> of you, <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> saying it's the holy <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> bull. <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> Only 11% <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> voting for the Robert <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> B Lewis tomorrow <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> and just 10% <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> for the withers. I'm not <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> surprised the withers <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> last but I'm surprised that <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> the Robert B Lewis <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> didn't get a little more respect, <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> but hey <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> time will tell. We'll <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> see. <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> Who's going to win The Kentucky <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> Derby on the first <Speech_Music_Male> <Advertisement> Saturday in
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan vela" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"It was a great pleasure to be around him. Yeah. You can never predict that a horse is going to go on to a Hall of Fame career like ghost sapper did. But Dan, it sounds to me like he had something as a young horse that led you to believe that he was different and maybe even special, if you will. Well, you have to be around your horses a lot the more you're around them, the better you get to know them. Now those Apple would go out and I'd work them with some horses that I had at that time. And he would breathe with them, but he wasn't the type that was over aggressive and would run away. So, you know, he would breathe with him. The thing that kind of clued you in though with him, he'd come back to the barn and he was cooled out already. He was he was ready to do it again. You know, his respiratory system and his cardio system was just superior to anything I'd ever been around. And like I said, you take him out on the track with some good horses and you freeze him in a minute and you know he'd come back off the track and he'd blow about twice and by the time he got to the bar and he was, he was cool about ready to go again. And those are the types of things you look for. I mean, great athletes get fit quick. You know, they hold it quick. They hold it longer. You know, he had all those things. What do you never know till you're on them? And of course, we were lucky to have a great guy like Bobby frankel have him and you know he did a great great job with him, but great horses do great things. Yeah, they certainly do. And earlier we talked about your first queens play victory with Baskin in 1994, you would come back and win it again in 2012 with strait of Dover Justin Stein was the jockey that day. It was kind of a dreary, dismal day. What do you remember about strait of Dover in that particular queen's play? Well, straight it over was kind of he was completely different than basketball and he was a cold. He had a you know he was a tough horse. He could be aggressive at times. He could be tough at times. You know, he was hard to get along with the times. A lot of personality, but I quite aggressive personality. He wasn't a big horse. He was quite stocky. English Channel didn't throw a lot of big size horses he drew some, but not a lot of them. But same. I think the one thing that a lot of great horses have in common is that you know that that great cardio system where they get fit quick and they do great things. And. That horse did a lot of for me in a very short period of time. It came from out west, the people that are on the more great people and we ran them. First time I ran them I actually got disqualified. He kind of pushed into another horse around the turn. Should we run him back? And he was never defeated while we had him and he went to the front and the greens blatant. Really kind of did it easy. He was, you know, at the end, I mean, he was just the had been in front by himself the whole time, and he was just kind of taking in the sights of the last 8th of a mile. Justin shine and I had a long talk about the fractions and stuff like that. And, you know, we didn't our plan wasn't for sure to go the front, but if nobody wanted it, we knew we could take it and that would finish the race right there. So, you know, of course, you make all these plans and then you get to the three 8 ball and some of the horses start running at you. And of course, you're saying yourself oh, I hope I made the right hand. You know where there was the right idea or not let them when they can't go on and they do their things and you know, I mean Justin is a great writer and he knew he had horse underneath him though away. And these guys make split second decisions that change careers and they don't have a lot of time and it doesn't come back certain dollars only open once and I made the right decision that day and everything went well. That's an interesting point that you bring up. By the way, Dan vela, my special guest here on trainer talk presented by phasing tipton. You bring up the point that you make your plan and plans change when the gates open and the race unfolds, I'm sure you've had plenty of times where you've talked to the jockey before the race, you've went into the race with a particular game plan and it's worked out beautifully. And you've had it happen the other way too. Do you have a race that Dan, if you could do it over again and have that race back, you might change your strategy and do things a little differently. Do you have one like that that sticks out to you? Well, I've always and Jerry Mormon taught me this. A plan a plan B thing. Yeah. Plan a is what you make and plan B, you do as you go because things change so quickly in a horse race I had a good filly named heroes love years ago and early fires are older for me. California. And in a grade one race and she wasn't come from behind Philly and we made that you could sit a little closer with her you couldn't take her to the front or anything like that and you know our plan was it looked like tons of speed and we say, all right, let's just settle our way back. And they're going to really come back to us and it just didn't work out that way. And you know, you make plans and by then, you know, he probably knew what was going on. I mean, early was a great rider and, you know, I mean, these guys know what's going on. But the decision had been made and by the time, you know, so we ended up getting it Jack. I'm sure. But I think we're a third, but yeah, you know, it was those things happen. You know, you have to make plans, but sometimes they just don't work out. Hopefully most of the time they do, but not always. They've worked out quite often for Dan valla. There's no doubt about that. Dan, I want to ask you about one other horse because you mentioned them in the first half of the program. We would be remiss if we didn't spend a couple of minutes talking about him. We're into the final furlong only 5 minutes left in the show. But I want to ask you about alpha better who, as you talked about earlier, was the 2013 sovereign award champion older horse in Canada. He was a horse that was so good to you and really tough too. Yeah, he was an overachiever. You know, I mean, it's just like in any sport, some guy says some horses have a ton of talent and don't really meet their expectations. Alpha beta was a good horse. He was talented, but you know, he, what made him special was how hard he tried, how tough he was and how few mistakes he made. You know, he was the type of horse that if you went ahead and had with him, you could burn yourself out and he'd out grind you..
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan vela" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"And I was going to bet on them and just try to have about 15 tickets. And of course, being a gambler at that time in your young Cavaliers had a horse in that I thought was an easy winner. His name was Carney's point. And I decided that some of my money on carnage points and my yeah, if I recall correctly, he got beat and I only ended up with three tickets on secretary, but that was all right three was enough. But it was a great experience. Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. But just to be so close to him, didn't you even witness a young lady pulling a piece of hair out of secretariat? Well, that's a long time ago, but I do recall that. I was in the paddock. I was grilling a horse named fave count. It was one of I was very young. And so I was grooving this horse and I was working for Jerry Levine. He got a more experienced room to take the horse to the paddock. So I was walking around on the other side. And I remember turning and watching their secretary in front of me and they said he reaches up and just kind of turned one of his hair from his tail into her finger and just kind of give it a little Paul and he didn't even yeah, I didn't move an inch in L and of course she got something to remember for the rest of her life I guess. But I remember seeing that and it was quite I was impressed with how come he was in the paddock. He not much bothered him. Yeah, people will do just about anything for a souvenir like that, especially from a great horse, like secretariat visiting with trainer Dan vela here on trainer talk presented by facing tipton if you're just tuning in, Dan has been doing this since 1972, so a 50 year career and he has so many wonderful stories. Real quick before we move on, Dan, I want to pass this along a bit of housekeeping here for our listeners. This show, of course, presented by our friends at phasic tipton, facing tipping getting ready to host their winter mix sale in Lexington, Kentucky, which is supposed to start next Monday. We are under a ice storm advisory here in the bluegrass. So because of that phasic has decided to push the sale back one day. So the sale instead of being Monday and Tuesday next week, it will now be Wednesday Tuesday and Wednesday. February 8th and 9th to allow everybody to get in here safely and I think a wonderful move by facing tipton. Let's talk a little bit more about your relationship with Frank stronach in the horses that you had the chance to be around with him. What do you remember about the first time he met Frank and how that relationship came to be with you training for him? Well, I had I had it started a gentleman that worked for him. His name was Don Amos. And I had trained a little bit for I was just getting going and I had training to horse that dawn had sold at auction. And I got to know dawn, he would come by the barn. So yeah, I called him up one day, and I said, general Don, I'd love to get to meet Frank, strong. And I'd love to, you know, I mean, you got to be aggressive sometimes. You got to sell yourself. And Dons got me an interview with Frank and that's where it all started. We sat down and talked and we kind of hit it off right away. My father had been a machinist. He was there was a connection there. We talked a little bit about that. Frank was a machinist when he started out and yeah, next thing I know I had four horses in the barn and had some great success with a couple of them and it moved up from there. Which are some of the horses that you're never going to forget when you think back on your career, Dan, whether they were a dean of spring's horses or horses that were owned by other people that you were around, but some of the horses, when you say, boy, I've been doing this 50 years. I'm never going to forget this horse, or these horses. Yeah. One of my first jobs, I trained for Steve stab. He had affiliate names, agriculture. She was not a very big silly, not imposing. But might have been the fastest horse. I was ever around. We took her to I was training kind of in tandem with another trainer at the time, and for her staff role. And we took her to Europe and she got beat ahead and Frito obeyed a long shot. She was an absolute rocket. So I'll never forget her. You know, probably the best horse I was ever around. Well, not probably. He was ghost sapper was, you know, I mean, if you categorize horses allowance horses, their stay courses, there's grade one horses. There's classic horses. Then there's that category that's kind of mysterious almost. And I called them freaks. They're just rigs. They do things that your whole life, you watch horses and they can't do them. Secretary, it was that way. And I go shopper was much the same. I mean, you could watch him and some of his races and he would, you know, he'd run three quarters of a mile in sprint time. And then just keep on going. And horses shouldn't be able to do those things. And he could. I had the pleasure of breaking him as a baby and getting him ready. And send him out to Bobby frankel and it was kind of he was a bit of a lazy horse, so it took a while for him to really clue in, but of course, Bobby was one of the greatest of all times. And we would chat about him and stuff like that, very interesting, but if I'm not mistaken, first start of his life, I think he run one of the best buyers for a first time starter still ever. And ghost rapper was he was a top end horse that you only see a couple in your lifetime..
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan vela" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"Your leisure to this show and to all of our programs. And what a visit it has been. Welcome back to the program. Mike panna visiting with trainer Dan vela, a man who has been at it for a long time, 50 years ago is when his career began, and he is still going strong. That moment there with Baskin, winning the queen's play in 1994, Dan, that's got to rank right up there as one of the greatest for you. He was a fantastic horse, winning the queen's play was a dreams come true. I mean, it was just like, you know, it's everything you ever wanted when you're grooming horses and exercising and training and you work your way up and you know training for Frank and for you to a dream come true for any trainer. And Baskin was a dream horse. He was a character. He had a lot of personality. He was a big, strong, tough abortion, he did things the right way. I was very lucky to be around him. As a Canadian native to win the queen's plate, put that in perspective. What does that mean to a Canadian born trainer? You know, it's hard to explain because there are bigger races in the world. You know the Derby, of course, is something that any trainer would like to win. But for us here, the queen's plate is the Derby. There's, you know, you'd love to win the Derby. You'd love to win Triple Crown races. You'd love to win grade ones. But for us, the queens played is, you know, it's just what you dream about from the time you started in horse racing. So yeah, it's a plateau that you'd love to reach and yeah, everything you dream about when you're a kid. Baskin came into that year's queen's plate following a nose defeat to Bruce's mill in the plate trial stakes. He was right there with him, gets beat a nostril. What gave you the confidence that Baskin was ready to turn the tables on everybody else in that race? Well, distance was his friend. You know, the farther he went the better he got. And he was a good sized horse, he was kind of immature as a two year old family and physically. He just got better and better as a three year old, so every race he improved. And with those kind of good horses, you learn how to train them a little better each time also. And you know, I got a little more aggressive with them. And I think that happens to a lot of trainers over the years. I think if you actually go back to secretary, you'll remember the lucha Lauren. He got beat one time and as a three year old and he got aggressive with him and while that arrest is history, I'm not comparing the two horses, but the situation was a little the same. I got a little more aggressive with basket we didn't have to play trial and it made him a better horse. And yeah, he went on to do a lot of great things through the rest of his career. That was one heck of a year for you as a matter of fact it would result in the first of two consecutive sovereign awards as Canada's outstanding trainer. You did that in 1994 in 19 95. Not bad for a kid that has a picture with his uncle when he was 6 years old at fort Erie to end up where you've ended up. Yeah, I mean, there are a lot of great horsemen in our industry that never accomplish what they want. So I feel very lucky to have accomplished what I did. Those years were great years and astronics had great horses. We had a great system worked out. You know, we had some great people on the farm down there in Kentucky, getting horses ready for us. You know, it was a great system. It's a teamwork thing. You know, if a horse isn't raised, right? And it is broke, right? Well, you're not going to make him into a great horse. So it was a great system and we accomplished a lot of great things over the over the years, but back then was a good horse. He was he was I think if you looked up his form, I think in the last start of his life as a 9 year old Joe orsino had him and I think he got beat maybe two and a half lengths in the naira mile. You know, he was just that kind of horse. He just he loved to love to run and love to do battle and got age was a great thing for him. Yeah, you're a 100% right. He was third beaten just a length behind devious course in Lucca and prince in the cigar mile in 1997 at aqueduct. Great memory. I'm impressed, Dan. Yeah. Sometimes certain things like that, you don't forget. You know, you enjoy those horses you enjoy those things. Joe mercy, you know, and I have been friends. We work together with drawn for a long time and we've been friends a long time and I remember that day. One of the really fun questions I like to ask trainers on this program. And I tried to do it as often as I can because the answers are just so diverse. If I were to walk into your house, I mentioned those two sovereign awards, they have to be on display somewhere. I would imagine. But what are some of the things that I'm going to see horse racing memorabilia that might be around your house? I'm not I'm a collector. I've got pictures from secretary when he was up in wood blind. I've got some newspaper clippings from La Paz on to was a great Canadian mayor. And I think she was actually champion two year old Philly in the U.S. I've got some queens play pictures and stuff like that. A bit of everything, but yeah, of course, the sovereign award is on the it's on display. Yeah, it's kind of a highlight of anyone's career. So it's out there. That's for sure. You mentioned secretariat regarded as maybe the greatest horse of all time. You had a front row seat for his final career race, which was Atwood bind in the Canadian international. Tell me that story. Well, how exciting was that. I mean, he was such a great horse. It was such a great time. You know, it was a bigger than life experience. I'll tell you a funny story about it though. I have a few tickets. I think I have three tickets to say big red on it. But I saved about $30 that day..
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan vela" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"And getting ready. It was a lot of fun to be in across from them that winter. I remember. Yeah, I love that spring training analogy. That's just so perfect. We have about two minutes before we have to get to our commercial break here at the bottom of the hour damn, but I did want to go back to a comment you made when you were talking about learning from Jerry Mormon. You also talked about being around Chris Rogers, who was an excellent writer. And there was a story you told in the article that Chris leman had put out a couple of weeks ago about breezing horses with Chris and one day you were on a stakes horse. He was not. And that turned into a really fun story. Tell me more about that. Well, those guys back then, I mean, you know, when Chris started riding, I don't think there were cameras watching the races. Were there. So you learned to do things that you could get away with, I guess. You know, like I said, I was a bit before my time. By the time I started that we did have cameras and you learned to do things. And they used to tag onto a horse's saddle cloth. And you know, that the two horses would go along together. The one couldn't pull away from the other. And Chris was just full of all that kind of stuff. I remember another time I was breezing horse with him and I'm on a very fast Philly where I'm not training track at wood wine. And I'm on a fast Philly and he's on a really good horse this time. And the boss says to me, he says, set a pace for this horse and you know he'll go buy you somewhere in the stretch and you know that's your job today. So I break off and I'm going like a bat out a heck. I'm on a fleet Nash rule of Philly and I turn into the stretch and I still got some horse. Well, of course you're young and you're competitive and it's Chris Rogers. So you think maybe I'm going to give him a hard time here, right? So we straighten away and I look over my shoulder to the right and I don't see him and I look over my shoulder to the left and I don't see him running where the heck is he? You know? And I look back to where we started to see if something went wrong. And of course, he was sitting right in behind me. He was just tailgating me waiting till I looked around and then he's just dropped switch leaves, dropped her into the inside of me and just went by me. I assume, you know, and then of course you panic and you kind of throw your horses head away too much and he just went by me and just yeah, and he's giggling as he went by and it was fun and nice to holy mackerel, I said, you know, you may be look like an idiot. And he said Danny, I almost won a grade one in Chicago and beat Nashville, doing the same thing. He said, I tailgated that guy right till the very end and he said I ducked inside and the horse seeing me and he didn't and I got beat ahead, but he said, I've done that to a lot of people anyway. Yeah, he was a character and he was fun to work with and he was an absolute genius on a horse and it was fun being around those type of guys and they taught you a lot. Just by being around them, just realize that you had to learn things about horses that nowadays, I'm not sure that we understand that part of horses as much as they did. What a fantastic story visiting with trainer Dan vela here on trainer talk presented by phasic tipton. We're going to get to a short break when I come back in the second half of the program. We'll.
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan vela" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"Dreaming that when you're a kid, but it didn't last too long. I hope you look pretty quick. What position did you play in football? Well, we call that middle guard. It was a defensive center. I played right across from the center. Yeah. I like the defensive line. I was pretty good at, I liked it. And that was just in high school. Just in high school, yeah. I played mostly I was a hockey player at that time. I mean, I played a lot of hockey, but in high school, we dressed all in play football. You had to have something in the winter time. Yeah, and every kid that grows up in Canada wants to be a hockey player, right? Back then, everybody was we had ranks in every street corner and the parks all had ranks and we played hockey in the summertime. We play on the street. You know, that was our passion back then, you know, basketball was getting bigger. And soccer and lacrosse was big, but hockey was the one. With your interest in other sports, did you ever think, well, maybe I won't make a career in horse racing. Maybe I'll do something different. No, I always knew horses were for me. Yeah, yeah, and it's been a relationship that has lasted 50 years for my special guest here, Dan vela here on trainer talk, presented by facing tipton. So you go to work and you start learning from some of the folks with the show horses and then you move on to working on the backside at woodbine. Where do things go from there? What was kind of the first moment when you said, man, this is going to be my life. Well, I knew right from the start, it's what I wanted to do. The person that kind of gave me the push in the right direction was a fellow from Western Canada named Jerry Mormon. Jerry trained for chef free farms, and I still train actually. It's an odd thing, but Steven shafts. Who I train for now, it was his father, Jerry, that it was my first real breakthrough job. I became an assistant trainer for Jerry Mormon and not a pretty solid education there. I worked with Chris Rogers, who was an outstanding rider and they were both great guys and great characters and aggressive horsemen and liked what they were doing. And that kind of where I turn the corner before that, I was, you know, you kind of know what you want to do, but you don't know how to get there. But yeah, it's Chris Rogers and Jerry Marvin, especially Jerry. He was he was the key for me to getting to the next level and learning how to work that much harder and learning about the horses and to spend a lot of time that worked very hard for quite a while with him, but enjoyed it. Yeah, you mentioned that education working with Jerry. What are some of the things that he taught you that have served you well throughout your career? Probably the biggest thing. I remember saying it many times. You know, they're each individuals. You have to treat them like you can't train horses, you know, you can't train them all the same. They're individuals. They have individual personalities. They have individual physical characters and he really was a big on that. And you had to learn what the key to each horse was. You know, what made them tech and what made them even better? And happy horse wins races. That was his thing. And I learned a lot about the character of horses. You know, over the years the way we get the vet has changed, you know, we don't train quite as aggressively as we used to. We don't run as aggressively as you know, I don't know if the courses have changed or we've changed or it's a bit of both, but yeah, the individual horse, that's the key to real success, I think. I can't tell you Dan, how many times I have had trainers come out in this program and mention that very same thing. Treat them all as individuals. The other word that comes up a lot is patience. Is that a big key? Well, if you don't have it when you first start, you learn it very quick because yeah, if you're not patient, if you I write everything in my books and my training charts in pencil because you have to have a plan, but in this business, you have to be able to change it very quickly. If you don't set a plan out, you're probably won't get to where you're going. But if you try to stick to it too hard, you'll probably have heard some horses on the way. So you have to be very flexible and they teach your patients right from the very start. You mentioned writing things down in pencil, are you still doing things the old way and doing things by hand? I do. It's the way my head works. I've been doing it that way for a long time. I have the old style training charts. I mean, we do our bookkeeping and stuff all that so I'm on computer now and I spend a lot of time reading about horses and stuff on the Internet, but the trading charts that I take to work every day are still in, you know, there's still this square boxes and I go a long daily with them and like I said, I do them in pencil, so we can adjust to what the horse needs. That term old school is often tied to people like suge magee and Bill Matt and Wayne Lucas because they've been around the game for so long. And they've been doing things a certain way and doing it at a high level for so long. And they really haven't, they've changed their approach, but they still do things as they used to do them in some respects. So Dan, when you think about what it means to be old school what does that mean to you as a horse trainer? Well, yeah, that's a hard one. I mean, I guess it's some of the things you are.
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan vela" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"10,000 people at the races on weekends. It was everything was jammed. And yeah, there was a lot of. The character and the ambiance to it was fantastic. Yeah, there are so many characters in this sport. It's what truly does make the sport special. And like you said, 50 years ago, things were totally different. The sport, the popularity of the sport was different. And the characters haven't changed, but I don't know if we have the same type of vibe when it comes to the characters in the sport of racing that we used to. Do you? I think that's true with every sport, but especially with horse racing. I mean, there were, yeah, there were grooms that were famous throughout the industry because of their character. There were riders. You know, trainers, Carl Chapman back then, and they called him the arch enemy asylum. He was great guy and always easy to talk to new Cavaliers who was very famous trainer was kind of my go to guy when I was a younger trainer. I'd run things past up all the time. Great experience, always willing to share his experience with you and we're just not as dynamic as we were back then. Some of those guys just had great characters and you know they shot and they made the industry shine. Visiting with trainer Dan vela here on trainer talk presented by facing tipton, Dan back to what I was talking about a moment ago with my relationship with my uncles and going to the races with them and those memories that I'll cherish forever. One of the things that was mentioned in the article, I referenced earlier was that you have a win picture with your uncle from 1961 at fort Erie when you were only about 6 years old. I have several of those types of pictures myself. And they are just so special. Yeah, I mean, you look back at it, my cousins were in the picture, my uncle was in the picture, the horse's name was Leo's jingle. Yeah, you can't forget those type of things. And you know, I mean, everything was black and white pictures back then and you know, but you look at them and it just kind of brings it all back to life for you and the time you used to spend at the races and you know, yeah it was a great time in my life and it was, you know, that's where the that's where it all started for me. But family is it was great to be around the family and go there. When you first started working with horses, it wasn't racehorses, right? No, actually we moved out there oakville Ontario when I was about 12 or 13 years old and I worked for a gentleman named Lauren Siegel on weekends and summers. Show horse show horses, he was a good fellow, a little rough around the edges, which some horsemen were back then, but a great fella and I had a great time there, and I worked there till I finished high school and then I went to work on the race track for a guy named Jerry Levine. What do you remember about that first day that you walked into that barn and started what was that 1972? Jerry Levine was 70 might have been I'd have to think about it. But it was 73, I think, was the first for Jerry Levine and he had a great barnacle horses horses like fave count who ran against secretary at that ball almoner who had won the queen's play to hit a long list of great horses and it was an experience. I mean at first you're intimidated by all of it, right? I mean, it's overwhelming. These great horses and you know you've read about them when you were a kid and you're if you've loved horse racing and then all of a sudden you walk into a barn and you've got these steak horses there and yeah, he trained for AP Taylor too, which was also very interesting. I remember a band pulling up one day with two horses on it and dairy gets on the phone and he calls BP Taylor up and he says, well, which one's mine? One of them was fine, but the van driver doesn't know and he said, I'll take whichever one you want and well one of them ended up being a well they were both great horses. Police car and the other one was lord Durham and he just happened to pull off the one name police car, but he didn't know who the U.S. at the time, but they both ended up you can't go too wrong back then with an EP Taylor Brad horse, right? So yeah, it was how I got started back then. Is it true that you got to ride Donald duck? Yeah. Yeah, they had no pony. I had never ridden much when a kid, but I wanted to learn how to ride. So after work, I would tack up the pony and take him out in the backfield. And I learned. And it wasn't easy at first. You know, I landed on my head a few times, but we seemed to survive it and everything. That's how I learned. And then as I got older, like 1819 I started galloping horses and did that for a number of years too. Yeah, that pony, of course, was named Donald duck. One cool sidebar to the full story of trainer, Dan Bella. When you were riding early on and trying to learn how to ride, Dan, were you thinking, maybe one day you might want to be a jockey or were you still thinking along the lines of, okay, I'm going to train horses one day. You know, when you're that young, you think, jockey, yeah, you think jockey. Sure. I was probably even too big at that time. You know, I'm not tall, I'm 5 four, but I'm currently still hockey. I always was. And I wrestled in high school and you know you put on a lot of muscle doing that and I played football. So I was probably too big at that time, but that's kind of you always dreaming that when you're a kid, but it didn't last too long. I hope you look pretty quick. What position did you play in football? Well, we call that middle guard..