Claire Novak 14y

Family operation brings fresh approach

Horse Racing

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It is springtime in Kentucky when a young trainer stands beside the rail at Keeneland Race Course. Across the track a big bay filly is powering her way through her morning gallop; head down, all business. The horse is 3-year-old Grand Affair, the horseman is 25-year-old Tevis McCauley, and in the weeks and months to come you'll hear more about them — individually and together.

Three days before a marquee season at the imposing old oval begins, Tevis is prepping Grand Affair for a start in the Beaumont Stakes (G2) on April 7. The daughter of Grand Reward is one of 20 horses in his string, his first as a trainer at a spring meeting and his second at Keeneland overall. Last year from 12 starters sent out during the fall meet, he saddled two winners. Both, The Big Finisher and Sing Sing Cindrela, will run this month in Lexington.

"She is perfect. Per-fect!" exercise rider Diocilio Carvalho tells the boss as he returns to the barn aboard his prancing mount. He is smiling broadly, and so is Tevis.

"Who would have thought?" the trainer says, shaking his head. Assistant Ollie Preston just nods and laughs. A good horse, a great track, a beautiful spring morning. These are the things dreams are made of.

Like most of his horses, Grand Affair is owned by Tevis McCauley's parents, Nicholasville car dealer Ron McCauley and wife Angela. This is just one branch of the fast-growing McCauley Farm, an operation that encompasses breeding, racing, and sales. The trainer is one of five brothers, all longtime racing fans. His siblings, Ryan (37), Tyson (36), Nathan (27), and Alex (24) are also involved in various aspects of the family business and the new family hobby.

In a world where ownership dynasties go back through the decades and even centuries, the McCauleys have been on the scene for 31 short months. In that limited amount of time, however, they've owned Grade 1 winner Golden Doc A, Grade 2 winner Lethal Heat, and Grade 3 winner Ballymore (either outright or in partnership). And their equine band has grown, between broodmares, runners, and racing and sales prospects, to include 63 horses at latest count.

Grand Affair could be among the best of the current bunch, a tall, solid runner with the presence of a developing champion. Her half-brother, a Yonaguska 4-year-old named Chief of Affairs, earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure while covering 5 1/2 furlongs in a blazing 1:02.91 on March 11 at Oaklawn Park, nearly eclipsing a track record for the distance (1:02.60) set in 1984, he won by 5 1/4 lengths. The filly herself broke her maiden by over 14 lengths last summer under jockey Ryan Pacheco, a graduate of Chris McCarron's North American Racing Academy. It was a first career victory for all three — horse, jockey, trainer.

In her most recent start on March 14, returning from a layoff due to now-cured issues with an ankle, Grand Affair took an allowance event at Turfway Park by four lengths. She looks to improve off her last race and there are others belonging to the McCauley family that should do the same — like Lethal Heat, back in training with Barry Abrams after a start in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, or The Big Finisher, among the family's first purchases at auction — as well as up-and-coming maidens who will make their debuts this season. The observation could be made that in purchasing young talent, the newcomers have spared no expense.

"We were brand new to everything," Angela McCauley says. "The boys always loved to bet, and Nathan and Alex wanted to go together and buy a horse. They finally talked Ronny into going out to the sales in 2007 and they partnered up on a horse and I thought, well, that's cool! Then they came home the next night and said they'd bought another one, and I thought, uh-oh, not so cool! The fourth horse they bought was Golden Doc A, and three weeks after we bought her she won the Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita, and then I thought, hmmm … this is fun! That's how we ended up with 63."

* * *

It's a count that is ever-increasing, and with the tantalizing presence of prospects entered in Keeneland's April 5 sale of 2-year-olds in training, the tally could go up by more. As Tevis McCauley's charges gallop around the Keeneland ovals, he can't help but notice the powerful moves of a standout runner or two. Walking back from Grand Affair's outing on the main track, he swings by a consignor's barn to look at a horse that has been recommended to him by a friend of Parker's.


"This horse, I'll tell you, he made the winter fly right by," the consignor says. "He's got a ton of potential, I'll tell you, pure class."

After years spent handicapping horses as a fan and attendee of the races at Keeneland, Tevis already has the beginnings of what horsemen call an "eye," the ability to recognize talent and athleticism in a Thoroughbred. Earlier in the morning, he tracked the progress of a colt that impressed him and jotted down its' hip number with the intention of taking a closer look. Now he discovers that the numbers match. From his railside view, he had unintentionally picked out the very horse he was already supposed to consider.

That sharp sense is partially inherent, but also developed through years of selections, successes, and failures. It's something trainer Kenny McPeek has honed to near-perfection, and the parallels between McCauley and the man who saddled the most winners during Keeneland's 2009 fall meet run strong. McPeek got his start much like McCauley, as a racing fan who first saddled runners for his father.

"His dad has a lot more money than my dad did when I started," McPeek laughs, "but sure, there are similarities in that the McCauley family is passionate about the game just like my family was. I think Tevis will be fine — he's managed to win a few races already, which people didn't think he'd be able to do. He's a good kid and he likes it, he's in the trenches, so what more can you do?"

If it's the developing horseman in Tevis that has him drooling over the potential purchase, it's the competitor in Ron McCauley that has him willing to put up the funds.

"We're the new kids on the block," the father says. "We go to Keeneland sales or Fasig-Tipton and everybody's snickering because 'they don't know what they're doing.' However, the first horse we raced won a Grade 1 and the 2-year-olds we graduated from our farm last year broke their maidens at Keeneland; it all came from our program."

He speaks directly and without hesitation, used to commanding respect. Once a military man, always … he joined the army straight out of high school and served 16 months as a helicopter machine gunner in Vietnam, where the average life span under fire was an expected 20 seconds. That stint in the service taught him the power of discipline and goal-setting, the vital importance of loyalty, the reward of working hard to accomplish a task. Those are qualities he's carried over to his business, characteristics he's passed down to his sons.

"When Ron decides to do something it will happen," Angela says. "I've never met someone as determined as he is; whatever he doesn't know, he learns, whatever he has to do to make it happen, he does."

She's a personal trainer, petite and trim, an intuitive woman who has developed a unique program designed to equip their Thoroughbreds to reach maximum potential. Combination of natural horsemanship and common-sense practices, these methods are imparted to the farm's young horses before they leave for the racetrack.

"We've tried to pick up various methods because different horses respond to different training techniques," she says. "But the foundational themes are always the same — listening to the horses, really knowing their tendencies, and recognizing the fact that developing a very calm, very collected Thoroughbred can actually increase our odds of attaining success. I think some people are afraid that these kinds of things will take the spirit out of a Thoroughbred, and that's not the case."

In spite of the fact that natural horsemanship has found strong hold in practically every other equine industry — from Western to English disciplines — the traditionalized racing world has tended to look askance upon such an approach. In recent years, however, operations have begun to recognize the value of these methods, and today farms like Calumet, Margaux, and WinStar have integrated natural horsemanship techniques into their training regimens.

"People say 'Champions are champions, just like great athletes, regardless of their backgrounds,'" says Tony Cissell, WinStar's general manager. "That may be true, but when you have a horse whose best genetic potential is Grade 3 winner, that horse can easily be turned into a claimer through mismanagement. Through the confidence they get in a program like this, they just have more chance of reaching their full genetic potential. I think there's a very big benefit. Pleasantly Perfect was started with this method, Well Armed was started with this method. I know at least two Dubai World Cup winners and multiple graded stakes winners that have been started with these methods."

According to Ron McCauley, this only makes sense.

"We want our horses to be sound both mentally and physically, to where they have the confidence and trust to continue to learn when they leave here, and also the conditioning so that they don't wind up back at the farm with bucked shins or some other preventable injury after 90 days at the track," he explains.

They make it sound easy, perhaps because the philosophies and beliefs are logical to them. But the understanding, the application process, has come through hours and hours of books, tapes, clinics and study.

"Is this rocket science? No," Ron says. "Sure, there's a lot of knowledge and experience involved, but when you get down to the understanding of pedigree and conformation and can fit those nice horses into your budget, that's just the first step. The second one is here, preparing those horses for the challenges they're going to face once they leave."

* * *

The process begins on 700 acres along the Kentucky River, part of the old Cuttaway Farm that has been in the family since they purchased the first parcel of acreage in 1997. The driveway leads up to a showcase facility perched atop a hill in the rolling countryside. Under development is a three-mile gallop in the European style, with hills and valleys and a straightaway to facilitate both interval work and speed training. At the barn, built in April of 2009, spacious stalls open outward to the covered walkways and inward to a state-of-the-art aisle complete with washbays, foaling stalls, and vet tech facilities. This is where Alex often deals with feed deliveries and vet visits and the hands-on operation of day-to-day activities. Beyond the aisle, a covered arena equipped with round pen and Eurociser provides a vital training ground.

It is here that young horses like a homebred Ghostzapper colt receive the conditioning to prepare them for the racetrack. Ground-tied in the aisle, the young Thoroughbred appears well-mannered and of sound mind. He doesn't flinch as Ron rests a hand upon his shoulder, and he regards the other horses in close proximity — two fillies — with a disciplined, albeit curious, eye.

"I've been really excited because everybody here at the barn is pretty much handling them all the same way," Angela says. "This one is going to Tevis this week."

As 20-year-old Brianna Snyder works the colt through a series of exercises, Angela describes the training process.

"We expect a lot of them," she says. "We believe that they are very, very intelligent, and we want them to be respectful. And we very much respect the horse. Once we've obtained a level of respect and communication, then it becomes less of a matter of teaching them to communicate and listen and more of a matter of preparing them for the races. We're trying to think outside the box because you really don't know what they're going to have to deal with. The more confident they are and the smarter they are, the better chance we give them of finding success."

Teaching a horse to back up, for instance, will also strengthen its' hind end. Guiding it through a sidestep leads to stretching and strengthening of the legs. Leading it into the narrow spaces between the side of the walker and the arena wall simulates the tight quarters of the starting gate. It's all about teaching the Thoroughbreds not to be afraid, to be non-reactive to overwhelming conditions while being instantly responsive to a connection with human handlers.

"If they're in a race, we know the jockey is going to be communicating through the rein, and from the start it's all about the horse's attention and cooperation," Angela says. "If the jockey isn't fighting the horse to get his head and wants him to move in and out of a couple horses and lay off the pace and pay attention as he waits to make his move, we want to give them all that kind of training so that once they get there, they can understand what's being asked of them, they can do that."

"I feel like a lot of people just accept how Thoroughbreds 'are,' and don't want to try to do it different," says 22-year-old Kelly Wheeler, one of the farm's riders. "It seems pointless to some people, I guess, but our horses aren't going to flip out when there's a crowd screaming, or if there's another runner galloping out of control in the morning. This foundation is going to help their future riders be so much more in control."

"It just amazes me when people don't think of these horses as feeling, thinking creatures," Angela says. "They look at, 'oh, they're hurt here, they need this there,' but they don't look in their eyes and see what's going on in their minds."

A notable characteristic shared by those working with the McCauley runners is youth. According to Angela, it has been easier to find young people who are willing to learn and adapt to the methods the family members embrace.

"They're very open to newer methods, and I think that's why we've attempted this ourselves," she remarks. "Because we didn't know how to do it, so we tried to figure out all the best ways. And the fact that we haven't had a lot of experience kind of worked out, in a way, to our advantage."

* * *

At Keeneland, the graduates of this program are tested on a daily basis. Late in the morning, after Grand Affair has gone about her business and the track seems a little quieter, Tevis sends out three of the newest arrivals. It is the trio's second trip to the racetrack, yet they exit the barn like a posse of trail horses. The son of Kafwain is a little keyed up, prancing, feeling his oats. Still, compared to the bucking, rearing, leaping, twisting antics of many 2-year-olds on the track this morning, he remains well-behaved under the expert reinsmanship of Michelle Bonte, Preston's wife.

"This group of 2-year-olds will really tell the tale," McCauley says. "Already, just watching them out here compared to the others I've had that haven't come off my parents' farm, you can see a huge difference."

In the chaos at the gap, with sales horses simultaneously exiting and entering en masse, the 2-year-olds are momentarily nonplussed. In front, a Speightstown filly ducks a shoulder, turning to canter a few strides back up the path. A daughter of Bluegrass Cat skitters sideways. The Kafwain colt balks and rolls his eyes. But once McCauley and Preston lead the young horses forward a few feet from the path to the actual track, they take to the oval with straightforward strides. By the time they leave the track about 20 minutes later, they are swinging along with relaxed, confident action. For Tevis and the whole McCauley family, it's mission accomplished, a step in the right direction.

"These people genuinely care about their horses," Preston says. "Some people just go through the motions, but these people really respect the horses, and that makes a big difference, right there."

On opening day at Keeneland, Tevis will saddle a filly named Thundering Heat in pursuit of her maiden victory. On Saturday he'll do the same with a colt, New Pais. Down the road loom starts for The Big Finisher and Grand Affair. In the summer, they'll move on to races at Churchill Downs and more.

Whether the family will find widespread and lasting success in the industry remains to be seen, but from early signs it appears as though the key factors — passion for the game, love for the horses, business smarts and a willingness to learn — are all present. The desire is strong. A legacy could be developed over years to come. And at the beginning of a new season, in the light of a Kentucky morning, everything seems possible.

"We've been so fortunate. We've connected with some really good people in the industry — and we know we still have so much to learn, but we plan to stick with it and work hard and do our best." — Angela McCauley

Claire Novak is an award-winning journalist whose coverage of the thoroughbred industry appears in a variety of outlets, including The Blood-Horse magazine, the (Albany, N.Y.) Times Union and NTRA.com. She lives in Lexington, Ky.

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