Future remains bright for equine industry in Aiken

AIKEN --- Suzy Haslup is a thoroughbred trainer who will have about 15 horses under her tutelage this winter as she prepares them for the racetrack.

Heidi White is a three-day eventer who is currently working with eight horses on their precision, endurance and jumping ability.

The two share more than a love for horses. They share a barn, too.

"She's got her racehorses on one side and I've got mine on the other," Ms. White said. "It's a total mix. We've done that for a couple of years now. It works out fine."

Horses have long been part of Aiken's heritage, but the equestrian world continues to change. Up until a few years ago, it would have been almost unheard of for two different disciplines to share a barn.

Not anymore.

When the Old H 'n' D Stable on Orangeburg Street became available a few years back, the property just a stone's throw from the Aiken Training Track was purchased by Ms. White's parents, Bob and Gretchen White.

The sale of barns to nonthoroughbred owners around the training track speaks volumes about the realities of the equine industry.

"I love the show horse people coming in, just like the polo, but I wish they would buy their barns away from the racetrack. Because we could use the stalls," said Ron Stevens, who is president of the Aiken Training Track. "I've got no hard feelings toward them. For some reason they can afford to pay a lot more money than a racehorse guy who is trying to make a business. You can only justify paying so much for a barn. That's what's happening."

Ms. White said the shift in balance isn't a bad thing.

"They're not all racehorses, but everyone is staying employed," she said. "The vets, the blacksmiths, the boys who work with us. Like everything, you've got to go where the money is."

Ms. Haslup said the racehorse industry is failing and that racetracks around the country are closing. The outlook is brighter locally, she said.

"The good news is that it's bringing money back into the horse district and it's refurbishing these barns, no matter what discipline they are. At least it's keeping it viable for horse activities," Ms. Haslup said.

IN ANOTHER FEW WEEKS, the Aiken Training Track will be humming with activity. Exercise riders will guide their horses through their morning paces. The trainers who line the wooden rail will watch carefully.

Hoofprints will be everywhere, and the familiar red trucks of Ralph G. Smith -- "dependable horse transportation" -- will make their way around the dirt roads.

Trainers such as Mr. Stevens and Tim Jones of Darley Stable will continue their mission, which is to take young horses and turn them into Aiken's next champion.

"What we do is kindergarten to 12th grade," Mr. Jones said. "When they come from Kentucky, we go through the process of getting them ready for the racetrack to turn over to the main trainers."

Mr. Stevens said he likes to get his yearlings in September.

"The babies I had in September, they're just getting to the track," he said. "Around the first of year we'll start a little bit of work. The more precocious ones will be ready in April. The slower ones will get a break and be ready in the middle of summer."

The training process is a tedious one, but on a recent morning at the track horses were going through their work all around the facility.

A group of Dogwood Stable horses took the track and galloped a couple of times around the oval. Over at Darley, stable workers held up traffic as they escorted several yearlings across a paved road and into a nearby paddock.

In a small paddock directly behind the training track's office, Ms. White and Ms. Haslup continued working with a yearling.

It was barely after 8 a.m., but the two were working with Explosive Mover.

"Walk, walk, good boy," Ms. Haslup said as she led him around the circular enclosure.

Then the gray yearling began to buck, and she calmed him down again.

Ms. White isn't a thoroughbred trainer per se, but she helps Ms. Haslup with her horses in the morning before she teaches lessons. She was part of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team before an injury to her horse forced her to withdraw from the competition.

"She obviously does a beautiful job with them," Ms. White said of Ms. Haslup. "I don't want 26 event horses (in her barn). If she has half of it full, it makes my job a little easier. I have a few horses in this winter, but my big money is in teaching."

THE AIKEN TRAINING TRACK was founded in 1941 by Fred Post and his son, William. With Aiken's mild winters and convenient location, it quickly became a leading center for thoroughbred trainers and the main attraction of Aiken's Winter Colony.

A year later, the first of 39 champion horses who trained in Aiken was crowned. Through the 1980s, the track could boast of producing winners on a consistent basis. But the champions became a little less frequent in the 1990s, and there was a 12-year gap between Storm Song's Eclipse Award for top 2-year-old female in 1996 to Midshipman's Eclipse as 2008 champion male 2-year-old.

Things are looking up for the facility, though. After falling to fewer than 200 horses for the winter a few years ago, the numbers have increased this season.

"We're going to have 275 horses train here this winter, which would be the biggest number we've had in the past few years," Mr. Stevens said.

He and others say the decline was a result of a changing of the guard. Some of the track's most respected trainers -- Mack Miller and Mike Freeman -- have retired, while some of the more traditional family outfits have either died off or moved elsewhere.

"The game has changed, outfits like Paul Mellon, not many big outfits like that come into winter quarters for five or six months with 35 to 50 horses," said Cot Campbell, the president of Dogwood Stable. "Also, I think some trainers that have yearlings to be broken like to have them racing in South Florida, and they like to have them in Ocala or Palm Beach so they can take an afternoon to see them run."

Mr. Stevens, who came to Aiken in 1986 as trainer for Dogwood, bristles at the notion that Aiken doesn't produce quality racehorses anymore.

"I was surprised to hear that nothing good's come out of Aiken. I heard that last year," Mr. Stevens said. "Well, how about the 2-year-old champion Midshipman? And then I was able to throw a bunch of pretty nice horses at him. So maybe we need to do a better job of advertising and keeping them up to date, which we try to do. We're trying to get it out there that there are some great horses coming out of Aiken."

Proof of that came this weekend with five horses with ties to Aiken running in the Breeders' Cup in California. Mr. Stevens and Mr. Jones broke the local horses that ran in one of racing's biggest weekends.

"To have five horses in the Breeders' Cup speaks well that our reputation is out there," Mr. Stevens said. "We've had 39 champions, and hopefully we'll have one or two more this year."

WITH MORE HORSES IN for the winter and a strong contingent at the Breeders' Cup, the future of the Aiken Training Track appears healthy.

But another shift could be on the way.

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bought Stonerside Stable's Aiken training operation in the summer of 2008 and renamed the facility Darley Stable.

Darley made an offer to purchase the Aiken Training Track earlier this year, but was unsuccessful.

"The board of directors rejected it because it was going to turn private, and we were all going to be squeezed out," said Mr. Stevens, the track president. "They are very interested in the Aiken area."

Darley currently has 65 horses at the track. Mr. Jones, a trainer for Darley, declined to comment on the stable's plans.

There is a possibility that Darley could buy land on the outskirts of Aiken and build its own training facility.

"I'm working with them now to identify a property that will suit them for the future in Aiken," said Ms. Haslup, the trainer who is also a Realtor for Meybohm. "It will help the whole local economy."

Ms. Haslup specializes in equine and downtown Aiken properties, and she said business is not booming. In the past decade there was tremendous growth in the South Carolina Highway 302 corridor for polo properties, but even that has slowed down.

"Equine properties are very slow right now. There's very few calls for land," she said. "Out-of-towners are hesitant to come in and buy because they're not sure they can sell their properties in other areas of the country."

She is hopeful that sales will pick up in the new year.

"January is the height of the season. Hopefully we'll see more buyers come in," she said. "There's good inventory, good properties on the market right now, for someone to come in and buy."

Despite the increase of other disciplines and the slow economy, both Mr. Stevens and Mr. Jones are optimistic about the future of Aiken as a thoroughbred training center.

"I think it's good to have all the horses we can have here in Aiken. It's great for the economy," Mr. Jones said. "I like to see more racehorses in this area because that's what it started out as, but times change. What can you do? You've got to roll with it."

Mr. Stevens needs to look no further than his wallet to tell a difference.

"Aiken is alive, well and flourishing," he said. "My opinion, but I think I can back it with some facts. I've got money in my account at the training track. Last year I was paying utilities out of my pocket. Things are turning around."

Reach John Boyette at (706) 823-3337 or john.boyette@augustachronicle.com.