After campaigning his horses
at Louisiana Downs during recent summers following the Oaklawn
Park season, trainer W. T. (Tom)
Howard decided it was time for a change and has brought his stable to Arlington Park for the first time this year.
“Louisiana Downs is going down
instead of up these last few years,” said Howard, speaking on the apron during
training hours this week. “We had a home just three miles from Louisiana
Downs, and it was hard to give up the convenience of that, but we wanted to go
to a track where things were moving forward. Fortunately, (Arlington racing
secretary) Chris Polzin was nice enough to give us stalls up here.
“This facility is just
beautiful,” said Howard as he gestured toward the stands behind him.
“It’s like being in Disneyland. But what
has impressed us most is how nice everyone has been to us since we got
here. No matter where we go, everyone seems to be so anxious to help us
get adjusted to our new surroundings. Everyone goes out of their way to
make us feel at home.”
Howard served as an assistant
trainer for Cole Norman during the years that Norman was leading trainer at Oaklawn
beginning in the late 1990s, but the Oklahoma-born Howard went out on his own
in 2001. His wife Kathy serves as his assistant at the barn as well as a
racing advisor for Frank Fletcher Racing Operations.
Racing fans at Oaklawn might
remember her as jockey Kathy Moore, where she reigned as Oaklawn’s all-time
leading female rider throughout the 1980s until jockey Cindy Noll came along in
the 1990s and finally surpassed Moore’s
totals in 1999.
“Cindy and I got to be good
friends when she came to Oaklawn,” said Mrs. Howard, “and if somebody had to
beat my record I’m glad it was her. I had given up riding by then and was
working as a racing official. In fact, as she got close to the mark,
Oaklawn kept buying a flower display to present her when she broke my mark, but
then she hit a little slump for a few days and kept giving the flowers to
me. We had a lot of fun with that for a week or so.
“I gave up riding in 1994,”
Mrs. Howard concluded. “When Fair Grounds burned down in 1993, I lost all
my tack in that fire. I went out and bought all new tack but by that time
everybody had started wearing flak jackets and I could never get to feeling
comfortable in those things. I realized it was time for me to just hang
it up.”
Howard trains for Frank
Fletcher Racing Operations and that ownership’s Admiral Rocket finished third in
his first start over Polytrack on opening day here last week. Howard’s
other owner is Lewis Mathews, for whom he trains a 4-year-old gelding named
Gentle Moment that was claimed from trainer Steve Asmussen for $7,500 early in
the Fair Grounds meeting. In his only start for Howard, Gentle Moment
finished second over Oaklawn’s main track, but as a son of Yankee Gentleman,
there is a lot of grass potential in his pedigree as evidenced by his
appearance in Fair Grounds’ $60,000 Gentilly Stakes last year.