Aiken's climate, facilities draw trainers

Web posted March 17, 2000

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By Margaret N. O'Shea
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN -- Downright balmy days in February and March convinced trainers wintering horses in Aiken for the first time this year that they made a good choice.

Triple Crown Section  Race for the crown  Steeplechase event grows  Horses help economy  Trials test young horses  Facilities draw trainers  Gelderlanders to compete  Harness racing fever  Harness racing began as a 'church activity'   MAPS  Aiken Trials  Steeplechase  Harness Race

Three using stables at the Aiken Training Track all say they'll be back next year with more horses -- good news for the equestrian industry, which is shifting focus from a core group of wealthy owners with lots of thoroughbreds to more small operators.

It's a system that relies on people like Dale Wilson of Fall Hill, Md., who has talked a friend into bringing some horses to Aiken next winter as he prepares to wind up a good training season of his own.

``It's just a wonderful place for horses,'' he said. ``The Northern tracks are just not consistent through the winter. Here we've had only a couple of weeks of nasty weather.''

It's the all-important difference between down time and the ability to keep a horse going all winter long, he said.

``You just can't beat the training weather here,'' said Ray Pichette, who has tried Camden four years and Florida once. Last year the Pichettes wintered in Belmont, N.Y., and decided then to try Aiken.

``I'm glad we came,'' he said. ``You've got to be here to appreciate it.''

Mr. Pichette and wife, Lou, are in Aiken with three thoroughbreds that haven't yet raced, but they hope to have them ready to run at Saratoga, N.Y., a few weeks from now.

Richard Soland of Lexington, Ky., said last year's brutal winter there drove him South with three 2-year-olds. He wanted them to have more conditioning time this season. One will be up for sale next month in Lexington, ``and I definitely couldn't afford to miss any time with him,'' he said. ``These are beautiful creatures, but their shelf life is not too long.''

In Aiken, he said, there's ``good weather, good water, good sunshine'' and a chance that's better than good of missing few days on the training track. The climate has been especially good for Airborne Command, an older horse that was doing well last season until an injury put him out of commission for the rest of the season.

And his brother Download gets a chance to run in front of a crowd in the upcoming Aiken Trials.

``I figured if it was good enough for Rokeby, it was good enough for me,'' said Mr. Soland, who describes himself as owner, breeder, trainer, groom and worker.

Rokeby Stable, owned by the late Paul Mellon, had an Aiken affiliation for more than two decades. It was just one of the private stable operations run exclusively for wealthy families who dominated the racing scene for half a century or more.

Trainer Mack Miller's facility where Rokeby horses wintered was sold in 1998 to Robert and Janice McNair of Paris, Ky., who use it for young horses from their Stonerside Stable in the Bluegrass State.

The McNairs, who recently paid $1 billion to put a new National Football League franchise in Houston, are in the mold that shaped Aiken into an equestrian center.

But more and more of Aiken's horse industry relies on owners and trainers who bring just a few horses at a time. That means the 17 stables operating in the area for 300-350 horses are spreading their stalls among more owners than ever.

Ron Stevens, of Stevens' Race Stable, trains for multiple owners, including two sons of the late Thomas Mellon Evans, whose Buckland Farms was a mainstay of Aiken racing until his death in the late 1990s.

The four horses Mr. Wilson is training in Aiken belong to Pat Clutter of East Liverpool, Ohio, who has raced horses for several years and has bred them for three or four. It helps that his trainer, a former basketball coach and teacher, is able now to devote full time to getting the horses ready to race.

``There are a lot of other things I could be doing,'' Mr. Wilson said, ``but I prefer this.''

Mr. Clutter plans to watch His Testimony, a 3-year-old colt, run in the Trials.

The Pichettes are training for themselves and two other owners, who don't want their horses entered in the Trials, since they can't come see them race.

Reach Margaret N. O'Shea at (803) 279-6895.