Howard retiring to become McGaughey's Kentucky assistant

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Neil Howard, whose feats with Summer Squall and Mineshaft helped make him among the most highly respected trainers in America in recent decades, is disbanding his stable at Churchill Downs to work as an assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey.

McGaughey said the hiring of Howard, whom he called a “very good friend for a long time,” comes when purses on the Kentucky circuit have become so huge that he feels compelled to have a substantially increased presence here.

“I want to take advantage of what’s going on in Kentucky,” said McGaughey, 70. “I think with Neil there handling things for us, it’s going to be a big, big, big plus for our operation.”

Howard, 72, said his 42-year training career is ending primarily because “this is a business of change. The last year or two, I’d been thinking of doing something like this. Shug recently presented me with this opportunity and I took it. That’s the long and short of it.”

Howard said the 10 horses he currently has in his Churchill barn will be dispersed to a few different trainers over the coming weeks. In recent years he had carried 12 to 15 horses, down substantially from his peak.

Howard, a native of the Bronx, began his career in racing as a groom at Belmont Park in 1969, working at one point as a stablehand for Woody Stephens before eventually serving as an assistant for seven years for Mack Miller. Out on his own when initially based in Ohio, he ran his first winner at the old River Downs (now Belterra Park) on May 27, 1979, and went on to win 1,256 races (through Sunday) from 6,934 starters (18 percent), amassing stable earnings of more than $53.8 million.

His high-end accomplishments were many, peaking with the 2003 Horse of the Year title for Mineshaft, a 4-year-old colt bred and owned in a partnership headed by his longtime client, Will Farish. Mineshaft won four Grade 1 races that year before being withheld from the Breeders’ Cup Classic with a minor injury. Howard’s other top trainee was Summer Squall, the Preakness winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up in 1990 for Dogwood Stable.

Other major victories for Howard included the 2000 Kentucky Oaks for Farish and partners with Secret Status, along with Grade 1 races captured by Prospectors Delite, Runup the Colors, Tomisue’s Delight, America Alive, and Shadow Cast. He also sent out Midway Road, a multiple graded winner, to a runner-up finish behind Funny Cide in the 2003 Preakness.

In all, Howard won 186 stakes – a remarkable 14.8 percent of his overall winners – with 85 of them graded. His career highs were achieved in 1998 with 81 wins and nearly $4.7 million in earnings.

Starting in 1983, Howard was the private trainer for Farish, whose Lane’s End Farm evolved into one of the world’s most commercially successful Thoroughbred enterprises during his tenure. Howard’s numbers began declining in the late 2000s, when Farish, now 82, began employing other trainers; in 2009, his stable earned $538,744, the first time in more than 20 years it did not reach the million-dollar mark.

“It’s never crossed my mind to quit working,” said Howard. “I love coming to the barn every morning. This industry and the Farish family have done more for me than I could’ve ever dreamed of. I lost my father when I was young, and although my mom was great, I was kind of on my own, and winding up in this business has been incredibly good to me. It would be impossible to adequately explain to people what the Farishes have meant to me and my family. Humility on my part is the order of the day.”

When transitioning into his new role in the next few weeks, Howard will be based at Churchill from late March to late November, overseeing morning training while representing the McGaughey stable at whatever meet is open. During the winter months, he may travel with a McGaughey string to Fair Grounds in New Orleans, where he has wintered in recent years, although that is still to be worked out, both men said. McGaughey, based most of the year in New York, winters in Florida with strings at Payson Park and Gulfstream Park.

McGaughey, a native of Lexington, Ky., has employed Lindsay Schultz as his Kentucky assistant in recent times when campaigning on a limited basis on this circuit. Schultz, based in Lexington, intends to open her own stable soon, thus creating an opening. Starting in 2018, McGaughey runners have gone 5 for 60 at Churchill, 5 for 56 at Keeneland, and 7 for 15 at Kentucky Downs, with only five starts at Ellis Park and none at Turfway Park.

McGaughey, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004, has a lengthy roster of influential clients, including Lane’s End, with many of his horses being Kentucky-breds eligible for the sizable bonuses being offered through the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund program. Maiden-specials at the recently ended Kentucky Downs meet and current Churchill meet have regularly exceeded six figures, thanks largely to revenues from the slots-like historical horse racing machines that have proliferated at state tracks.