Trainer-Owner Tandem Bags Winner in 1st Start
Updated: Saturday, February 20, 2010 12:53 PM
Posted: Friday, February 19, 2010 11:03 AM
Photo: Pat Lang
Gaffney Station in the Winner's Circle at Turfway Park.
Though he only had his trainer’s license for a little more than two weeks and was about to make his debut with a 5-year-old mare that had been winless in 21 lifetime starts, Branden Bingham was surprisingly confident when Gaffney Station went to post in a $5,000 maiden claimer Jan. 16 at Turfway Park.
“I told the groom and my wife right before the race that she was going to win, no doubt,” said Bingham, who also co-owns the horse.
Sure enough, Gaffney Station smoked the field by nearly six lengths that day to give Bingham a victory with his first starter. It was also a memorable moment for the mare’s co-owner, Ronald Scott Fairchild, who like Bingham also sent out his first starter that afternoon. For both, it was a sweet way to begin their forays into Thoroughbred horse racing.
The pair, who had met through Bingham’s wife, Carla, last year, bought Gaffney Station privately from Dale Loveland for only $500 after she had failed to hit the board in her last eight starts. So what was it that Bingham did to turn her fortunes around?
“The biggest thing I’ve learned in my time around horses is if you make the horses happy, they will run hard,” said Bingham, who lives in Lexington. “She was a little underweight and a little discouraged. So I backed off on her a bit and changed her routine; gave her a little more confidence. It seemed to work.”
Though Bingham has only had his trainer’s license for a short time, he has been around horses since he was 16 when he started working as a hotwalker at Lexington’s Thoroughbred Training Center. Bingham worked there off and on for several years, eventually becoming a groom and exercise rider. He then had stints working for Ken McPeek, Vinery, and John Glenney before becoming Phil Sims’ assistant in 2008.
“I learned a lot with each,” said Bingham, who graduated from University of Kentucky with a bachelor's degree in biology and a minor in equine science. “My philosophy is, if you want to learn anything, learn all of it. So I worked with weanlings, yearlings, foals, broodmares, older horses, and saw how they mature at each stage. I would talk to anyone who was willing to help me learn.”
After more than a dozen years with hands-on experience, Bingham, 29, decided it was time to go out on his own at the end of last year. He earned his trainer’s license on Dec. 30, 2009. Fortunately for him, he met Fairchild, a shop foreman for a gas and oil company in southeastern Kentucky. Fairchild had been handicapping for more than a decade before deciding to take the leap into ownership.
“I’ve always followed Thoroughbreds pretty closely, but was never in a financial position until recently to afford to be an owner,” said Fairchild, who races his horses under the name Change of Pace LLC. “When I met Branden, we just seemed to agree on a lot and had the same philosophy on horses. It was a good fit for both of us.
“Winning a race our first time out felt like winning the Kentucky Derby. Hopefully, it was a steppingstone to bigger things.”
In addition to Gaffney Station, Fairchild purchased a pair of horses at the recent Keeneland January 2010 Horses of all ages sale. He bought 3-year-old filly Turbo Justice for $2,200 and 3-year-old gelding Storm Turtle for $5,500, and handed them both over to Bingham.
As of now, they are the only three horses that Bingham trains, but if his early work with Gaffney Station is any indication, more owners will be calling in the near future.
“Being out on my own is challenging, but you never really know if you can do it unless you actually do it yourself,” Bingham said. “I’m pretty confident and feel like I understand horses enough to make it work.”
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