Sons of James Bond starting their own training careers

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Be on the lookout for some new Bond sequels.

Kevin and Ryan Bond, the sons of trainer H. James Bond, are both going out on their own this spring. Kevin Bond, 36, already has his license and was scheduled to have his first starter Friday at Aqueduct. Ryan Bond, 33, is in the midst of completing the licensing process. Both have worked as assistants for their father for several years.

No, James Bond, 66, isn’t retiring. He is downsizing some as most of the horses his sons will train, at least to start, are from his barn. Both sons will get three or four horses to start.

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The timing of this transition is in due in part to the fact that when James Bond entered more than one horse in a race for the entity Bond Racing, the horses would have to be coupled or he would have to give preference to one horse over another in the event a race overfilled. Bond Racing horses are owned 50 percent by James Bond’s wife, Tina, and 50 percent by a myriad of partners.

James Bond said seeing some of his clients’ horses excluded at times “wasn’t fair to the clients.” Bond said he and Tina have brought at least 150 new partners into the game in recent years. Some of the horses Kevin and Ryan will train will be Bond Racing Stables and some will be for other clients.

“Some of them are Bond Racing, some of them have been sold out of Bond Racing and will be racing for the boys under another ownership group just totally diverse of us so they’re not entries anymore,” Bond said. “They have opportunities and we can be separate and have our own opportunities, which is the right thing to do.”

The Bonds have a 100-acre farm in Mechanicville, N.Y., outside Saratoga, and James Bond has a private barn just outside the main gate at Saratoga. His sons will lease stalls from their father in that barn and are hopeful to get their own stalls at Saratoga.

Kevin and Ryan have played a big role in the Bond operation for the last decade. For the elder Bond, it was just time to get his sons started on their own careers.

“It’s good for the boys,” James Bond said. “In the end, they’re going to get recognition and wins and realize they don’t need their father anymore to lean on. We’re going to help them out a little bit to get started with a couple of horses. Some of the clients we’ve already talked to have been kind to say yes. If they got a question or something like that I’m still here, but the overall care and getting the jockeys is going to be their headache.”

Bond said he has no plans to retire and is particularly excited about his upcoming 2-year-old crop that includes offspring by Tiz the Law, Omaha Beach, and Practical Joke.

“I don’t think I can ever physically or mentally retire,” he said. “I’m too hands-on. Both Tina and I have a lot of mares and foals and [horses] with tremendous pedigrees.”

Bond may have to become even more hands-on as Tina Bond has recently taken on the role as president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association

Kevin Bond, who also planned to start a horse Sunday, is looking forward to getting his own career started this weekend with his brother Ryan expected to follow suit in about a month.

“See what kind of doors it can open for us,” Kevin Bond said. “We still plan on working as a family, per se, and helping each other out when we can. Very excited about the opportunity, just hope to make dad proud.”

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