Harness: Profile of trainer Brent MacGrath

As a native of Truro in Nova Scotia, Brent MacGrath has been immersed in the sport since he was a kid going to the local track with his father. He started as a fan and that developed into being a groom, trainer, driver, owner, track announcer, racing secretary and track general manager.

On top of the above, MacGrath trained and managed perhaps the best standardbred in history in Somebeachsomewhere. Now 14 years removed from a near-perfect season from Somebeachsomewhere, his final son Beach Glass will try to take MacGrath on another ride in his sophomore campaign.

Just days before Beach Glass was set to start in the C$1,000,000 North America Cup, MacGrath took the time to dicsuss his path in harness racing, Somebeachsomewhere, Beach Glass and the sport in general.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This interview took place before the June 18 North America Cup where Beach Glass finished second.]

How did you get started in harness racing?

My dad was a racing fan and we lived close to the track at Truro, about a half to three-quarters of a mile away. They were racing Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays during the summer time and I went down with him to the races. Soon I realized that it was a place I could go to clean some stalls and earn a little cash when I was 12 or 13 years old. That's how I got into it.

How did you go from cleaning stalls to training horses?

I was very fortunate to hook up with Phil Pinkney. Phil was, he just passed away last year, a great young-horse trainer and I learned very quickly that I wanted to be with the young horses. I stayed with him for years and when I was working with him just outside of Halifax, the executive board of the track at Truro wanted me to work at the track as racing secretary. I turned it down and said that if they gave me the general manager job I would do that, racing secretary and announcer. I did that from 1979 to 1985. In 1984 I got married to a local girl [wife -- Rhonda] at the racetrack. I had bought a maritime-bred yearling for $2,500 and I sold him in May of his 2-year-old year for $35,000. I thought the job at the racetrack was limited in what it could provide so we decided to go to Toronto and race some horses. We did that for a few years and didn't have any luck. We had a few good horses but I claimed one for $25,000 that broke a knee the next day, so I need to go to work and answered an ad looking for a car salesperson. I got the job, it took off right away and I loved it.

The guy that owned the dealership needed a general manager, so I took over the store. It took off making money and we became good buddies. He had lots of business experience but no car experience and I had the car experience, so once I got the store going he offered me a piece of the business and I bought it.

Are you still involved in car sales?

We have four dealerships.

Do you consider harness racing to be your hobby?

It is a hobby to me. I'm in Ontario right now with Beach Glass because of who I think he can be and he's [Somebeachsomewhere's] last son. Basically what I'm going to be doing is fooling around with babies in Florida during the winter and shipping them up to somebody to train. We've been lucky and done very well at our hobby but my main source of income is definitely the car business. My son is running it.

What kind of car do you drive?

GMC Denali.

Favorite dinner meal? Snack?

I've lost 100 pounds since 'Beach' raced. I'd say steak, filet. For snack, chocolate cake.

What is your favorite track to race at? Why?

I like Mohawk, The Meadowlands, The Red Mile. I just like the bigger tracks. The Red Mile would have to be first. It is so kind to the horses with the clay. The whole atmosphere is great.

What is your favorite big event in racing?

The North America Cup, Meadowlands, Pace, Grand Circuit at Lexington, Breeders Crown, take your pick. They are all big races on big stages and big tracks. Probably the North America Cup since I'm Canadian.

How often are horses or racing on your mind?

With Beach Glass right now it is a fair amount, but when I'm at my desk in my office, not a lot. You think about it a little every day. It depends on whether they are racing. It certainly doesn't consume my day when I'm at the dealership.

What hobbies do you have outside of racing?

We love the ocean, boating, hiking, and walking. We used to love skiing when we were younger. We like to travel.

What is your favorite sport? Team?

I don't watch a lot of sports but being a true Canadian I'd have to say hockey. I usually pick a young player and follow them. I like the Olympic hockey and the women hockey. I like watching good players and good skaters.

What is one word that describes harness racing for you?

I don't really have one word. It is a unique business. I've worked on both sides of the fence -- with $500 horses and with Somebeachsomewhere. The one thing about horse racing, there is lots of back fighting, but when a horsemen is in need or when there is a problem, I've never seen one horsemen who doesn't step up. It is almost like it is a family and it doesn't seem to matter if you are Canadian or American. They put the horse first. I don't know the best word to use but the sport is unique in that way.

I'm from Truro Nova Scotia, the smallest place in the world, and I have as good a shot to get a top horse, and did, as anyone. You go to the sale, take a shot and do everything right, there is no reason you can't be standing in the winner's circle with the rich people. There are not a lot of sports or industries where you can do that.

You are famous in harness racing as the trainer/owner of the great Somebeachsomewhere. Looking back at his 2008 Horse of the Year campaign, does it seem real?

Yeah, it does. It is hard to believe he died at 13 because he was so healthy . . . I was never concerned about him racing because all I had to do was put him back on the track and we should get the same results as the previous week. I never really thought it was a dream. I just got lucky to grab the right halter and then was able to keep him healthy, happy and sound. That was my job, not to run around bragging about how good he was doing or sell him. I had a job to do and I did it. We made a lot of good moves with him and didn't over-race him. We made a plan and it worked. When he died, he had probably half the impact he should've had. Look at the horses racing at Mohawk or The Meadowlands on most Saturday nights. Very seldom is there an Open pace where Beach's horses aren't winning. I'm just thankful we had him for the time we did.

Somebeachsomewhere overcame some problems on his way to stardom. Can you talk about that?

My dad was in the hospital when he was 84. He passed away three days before the North America Cup. I went home a few weeks before that and got the call on the Wednesday before his first O.S.S. Gold that he was lame. He never had a lame step in his life and was never injected in his life, so I jumped on a plane to fly back and it looked like he might have a broken coffin bone. We got an MRI and he showed a severe bruise compromised his coffin bone and he needed some time. We were trying to get him ready for the North America Cup. Anyway, they had a sawdust track at the training center I was at that was very kind to the horses. He would go down to the racetrack a quarter-mile lame and when he hit the sawdust he would just start bucking and playing because it was so kind to him. I jogged him for a half-hour a day and he just kept getting sounder and sounder. We ended up racing him in the Burlington with a bar shoe on him and he ended up losing the shoe. We went back to his regular shoe, sent him to the North America Cup and away he went.

Do you think you got all you could on the track from Somebeachsomewhere? Could we have seen even more if he raced as a 4-year-old?

Oh yeah, no question. This was my money and I knew what would likely happen to him as a 4-year-old; that he would likely get beat up more. I was 100% managing for shareholder equity.

Unlike some people who taste success and chase more, you barely have more than 50 starts as a trainer since that 2008 season. Why?

Because I didn't think it was about me. I bought a horse and got lucky. I managed him well and was rewarded. Lots of people do the same thing and just don't get the right horse. We've all seen people that think it is easy and after one good horse they want to buy 50 the next time. I wasn't doing that. It helped that I had the car business at home to go back to and settle back into my life. My wife and I talked about the phone not ringing anymore, the cameras not being in our face anymore, and we had to be prepared for that. We weren't going to buy 10 or 15 babies. We would just fool around with one or two. That was the plan and we stuck to it. It is a hard life being a trainer. It's a lot of work and you have to be lucky. It can be heartbreaking to put the work in and be disappointed. On the flip side, it is a great sport where the little guy can go to the sale and buy a horse that can compete with the big guys. I never had any aspirations of being a big-time trainer. I love the car business, I'm good at it and it made life very easy for us.

What was your best moment in harness racing?

That's a tough question. You look at the 21 races Beach won. I felt very proud of the fact that Beach's last race of his life was the 25th anniversary of the Breeders Crown and he set a Breeders Crown record on a cold, miserable night. In the last race of his life, he toyed with them. I felt good about that. I didn't tire him out. He was as fresh in that race as the first race of the year.

Is it surreal for you to be thrown back into the spotlight with Beach Glass starting in the North America Cup?

It sure is surreal. He's had some issues that I had to wait on. With [Somebeachsomewhere] it was just a matter of throwing the harness on him and going. This guy has been a bit more difficult. Most of them were qualified or racing by the time I put a clock on this colt. I thought I had a horse with some talent and obviously I was right. So I waited and when the time was right I moved forward with him.

I bought his mother to breed to 'Beach'. She got money in the Breeders Crown at Hoosier Park as a 2-year-old. I was prepping her for her 3-year-old year in Florida when he died. We had some frozen semen and I had a decision to make. I could flush her or I could stop with her and end her racing career to send her to Hanover Shoe Farms. We were getting one shot to get a 'Beach' out of this mare and that was 100% we bought her. I didn't know a lot about flushing and [Dr.] Bridgette [Jablonsky] from Hanover convinced me to pull her out of training to give her to them for breeding.

As lightly raced as Beach Glass is, do you know how good the horse can be yet?

I don't. I know he has something left. He wasn't stretched out the other night [in his elimination for the North America Cup]. He's mostly green. He just needs experience to compete with the guys at the top level. That is where we are now. I think you'll see a different horse this week than last week. That was a big race for him. He needed to charge off the gate from the outside, he needed to get parked off the quarter in 26 seconds, he needed to keep rolling and not get a big breather and he needed to have a horse sitting on his back. I'm expecting good things from him for sure.

All due respect to Paul MacDonell, do you think a guy like Yannick Gingras moves Beach Glass up slightly or is he simply a better long-term plan at driver?

Paul clearly did not want to go to the U.S. He has a stable here now and a very nice stable. He is focused on that. He felt to me that he went last year [to the U.S.] because of our friendship and when I brought it up he wasn't keen on going. Paul has never driven a horse bad for me, ever. He brings a horse back the way I want a horse brought back; not discouraged; not beat up. It was a logistics call and you read what he said, he is 60 years old and it is hard to compete with the younger guys that drive 2,000 races a year. It's tough, especially when inches could mean a half-a-million dollars. It is a business and Paul was happy with his decision and I'm happy. Paul is still an important part of the team. He warmed him up the other night at Mohawk and I'm stabled in his barn. If Paul wanted to drive him in the North America Cup, he'd be driving him.

Where do you see Beach Glass going from here?

He has the Meadowlands Pace, Adios, Cane and Hempt. Then we are going to come home.

If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be?

I'd like to see the 2-year-old races later in the year. That would help some. If I had to choose one thing, the state commissions, Ontario and all jurisdictions should be under one umbrella. They can figure it out. They know how much money they collect from everyone joining and being members. To me, mathematically it is possible to do. If a guy like Ronnie Burke pays a certain amount to each state, he would still have to pay the same amount but only once. This way if you roll into any racetrack you are covered and one rulebook covers all tracks. It's crazy that some medications are allowed in some places and not in others. And that one medication has a 48-hour cutoff in one place and 96 hours in the other. There are a lot of people discouraged over this stuff.

It would be better to answer this as four questions: On the betting side what's the one thing? For the horses what's the one thing? For the owners what's the one thing? For the horse people what's the one thing? They are all separate groups and what is important to them is not important to the other at all.

Another thing I see as important is the lack of good grooms. Without a good groom you have nothing. You can't get a good groom now because there is no place for them to stay since the horses don't stable at the racetracks anymore.

How do you view the future of harness racing?

I know we are not getting enough young people involved. I don't like that we have so much drag time and that it takes 20 minutes to run a race. Everything in the world has gotten quicker and easier but at the races we still have 20 minutes between races. I don't understand it. To me it would be more attractive to young people if we cut an hour off each program.

Time for the stretch drive:

Best Driver Ever?: John Campbell.

Lasix -- Yes or No?: Yes.

Favorite TV Show?: Everybody Loves Raymond.

Trotters or Pacers?: My résumé would suggest pacers but I like trotters. I've only had one trotter and I didn't even train it.