Endo Botti issue 32 new.qxd:Jerkins feature.qxd
26/11/10
13:56
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ENDO BOTTI
ENDO BOTTI Focusing on the big picture
Having enjoyed success on the world stage as a jockey, Endo Botti took time out at the SGA Y earling sales in Milan to discuss his hopes and fears as a trainer and the future of Italian racing. B y Niki Luciani
H
ERE is an ambitious trainer in his thirties, familiar with the winner’s enclosures at major international Group 1 fixtures as far afield as Hong Kong as a jockey – thanks to the exploits of Ramonti and Electrocutionist – and determined to return to them one day as a trainer. Meet Endo Botti of the famous Botti racing dynasty, pristine white shirt tucked into neat blue jeans on a tall slender frame which, after years of battling with the scales, has now been allowed to fill out slightly. Intense hazel eyes burn out from
under thick dark eyebrows. “As a jockey I was able to get off the horse, shower, change, and unwind, knowing that I’d get a cheque for riding the horse,” he says. “As a trainer, especially for a perfectionist like me, it is impossible to switch off, and now the bigger picture concerns me greatly. Where is racing going and who is taking it there?” Father Giuseppe, never short of an opinion or two, walks past, then pulls up a chair as the conversation turns to the sales results. The lack of new money coming into the sport in the context of new Italian buyers
at the sale, the various sales races and bonus schemes, and racing funding itself from within are all discussed, but what urgently needs fixing from outside the most? “Let’s put it this way,” chips in Endo. “Elsewhere, those who play by the rules and work properly within the system gain their just rewards, and stiff penalties are meted out to those who don’t. The decent owner, the honest trainer – they don’t get treated any differently here to those who abuse the rulebook. The playing field is not level.” We all look at each other. Endo continues: “No one comes out and says these things. But it’s time they were said. I am a young trainer with horses of the calibre of Jakkalberry in my yard and loyal owners who I want only the best for. But we are not supported properly by the very state structures whose job it is to govern the sport. Stability, security, firmness, fairness, this is what our industry needs. ”
Attention to detail: Botti at the SGA Sales
ISSUE 32 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 13