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WAYNE MOGGE
Why racing needs to hang tough The perspective of Wayne Mogge, a North Kentucky-based trainer the stretch was just so overwhelming. Nothing can describe it, but anyone in my position will understand what I’m talking about. We won, with a large mutuel payoff. The horse, Suprize Me, went on to win a few more races that winter. I am sure all of the aspects of getting this horse ready to race and running him were the deciding factors in my chosen profession, and his name encompasses so much of what it has meant for me to be a trainer and winning races. I completed my Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Communications in the fall of 1989 while picking up a small number of clients, racing mostly at Turfway and River Downs. At this point in my life, I was at a crossroads, trying to determine whether to train full-time or work under a successful trainer and learn the ropes. When I brought in a new client who bred and raced Ohiobred horses, I decided to make a go of it on my own. As time went on, with moderate success racing mostly in Ohio, at River Downs and Thistledown, I developed a reputation for well-turned out horses that
were usually ready to run productive races, and when business started to grow I needed a place to call home. At that time, Turfway had a lot to offer; purses were good and racing was competitive. With an even mix of Kentucky and Ohio clients, I settled on Turfway Park as my home base. In the early 1990s I met my wife and we started a family, and Northern Kentucky has been a good place to raise our children and be close to our families. Fast forward fifteen years. Racing in Ohio has all but dried up. That state’s foal crops continue to decline at a rapid pace. Breeders have since gotten out of the business, leaving me with far less racing activity in Ohio. In 2008, I did not start a single Thoroughbred in the state of Ohio. I’m certainly not boycotting racing in Ohio, but I just cannot seem to make the economics work out so that it makes sense to run horses for the current purse structures. I did, however, race some Quarter Horses in Ohio. Over the past couple of years, I have diversified my stable and taken on
“One certainly has to be creative in these current conditions with Ohio racing falling on such hard times, and Turfway Park is now creeping into that same category”
some Quarter Horses to train and race. It has been a blast getting back to what inspired me to start this career, and I won the All American Quarter Horse Congress Derby with a filly sent from New Mexico by longtime Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse man John T.L. Jones Jr. That filly, Jess Because, went on to win the Grade III Bradford Stakes at Hoosier Park. Currently, I have a couple of short horse prospects that I am looking to race this summer; the Quarters are just another avenue I’ve taken in order to be viable as a trainer. One certainly has to be creative in these current conditions with Ohio racing falling on such hard times, and Turfway Park is now creeping into that same category. In the last ten years, my training rate has doubled whereas the purses have dropped to less than half of what they were in the 1990s. I find myself constantly thumbing through condition books from six different tracks, all with alternative gambling that has increased purse money to a level that allows my owners the potential to make money. In 2008, I had a satellite operation at Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pennsylvania. That was the first year of racing at this track and I felt like it was a good opportunity to get some stalls and develop a relationship at another track in case the situation at Turfway Park does not improve. Our stable had a considerable amount of success at Presque Isle: in forty starts on the Tapeta oval we had 20% wins, with 65% in-themoney finishes. Having a stable at Presque Isle Downs turned out to be a good decision, and this winter at Turfway my ISSUE 12 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 55