Phil Gleaves, a multiple graded stakes-winning trainer who has been working around horses for nearly 50 years, has retired from training. Gleaves, who ran his last horse Sunday at Saratoga, cited two reasons for retiring at this time. One is the lack of suitable help, including exercise riders and grooms, to properly run a stable. “The labor force is so depleted, it’s almost impossible to train horses like you would like to,” Gleaves, 64, said Wednesday. “It’s gotten to a point where many trainers I’ve discussed this with over the last several months say there are some days when they can’t train their horses. It’s one of the biggest problems in racing.” :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures Gleaves also noted that he has been working around horses since he was 15 years old and has been getting up at 4:30 every morning for 50 years. “I think that’s enough,” Gleaves said. Gleaves will still be active in racing in a different capacity. He is the general manager and farm trainer of owner Peter Vegso’s farm in Ocala, Fla. He will also be the racing manager for a group of horses he owns in partnership with former Daily Racing Form publisher Steve Crist and Ken deRegt. That group includes the now-sidelined Thin White Duke, who won two stakes last summer, including the Funny Cide at Saratoga. “That’s going to be an expanding group of horses, but we’ll keep it manageable,” Gleaves said. Gleaves said he had eight horses remaining in his stable, three of whom are on the farm. Of the active runners two are being moved to Gleaves’s father-in-law, Bob Dunham, one is going to David Donk, one to Saffie Joseph Jr., and one to Danny Pish in Texas. In the early 1980s, Gleaves, a native of Liverpool, England, worked as an exercise rider and then an assistant for the Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens. As a rider, Gleaves exercised top horses such as Believe It, Danzig, Devil’s Bag, Smart Angle, Smarten, Swale, and White Star Line. In 1985, Gleaves went out on his own. In 1986, he sent out Wise Times to win, in succession, the Haskell, Travers, and Super Derby – all Grade 1 stakes. Wise Times was one of 30 different horses Gleaves trained that won multiple stakes, a list that includes Evening Kris, Phantom Jet, Mambo Meister, and Csaba. For his career, Gleaves won 588 races from 4,178 starters according to Equibase. His horses have earned $16.25 million in purse money. For all of his success, Gleaves said there is one thing of which he is the proudest. “I’ve never had a [drug] positive in my career,” Gleaves said.