US Trainer Numbers in Sharp Decline

American trainer Buff Bradley’s career has ended in retirement after 28 years. In charge of four-time Gr1 winner Tonalist (Tapit) – now at Lane’s End Stud – Bradley now joins a growing list of trainers who have left their career in the past two decades. According to horseracingnation.com, as recently as 2000 there were 9,885 trainers in the US, a number that dropped by 50 percent to 4,958 in 2019. This drop has not gone unnoticed by the Thoroughbred industry. “The whole business has not been as fun for me in the last few years,” Bradley said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a couple years. Everyone said, ‘Oh, you’re just down right now, you’re just not doing as well,’ but I don’t see that changing a lot for me.” Jockey agent Kiaran McLaughlin retired for different reasons and notices the loss of trainers comes predominantly from the smaller stables who are seemingly easily overlooked by owners. Greg Harbut, a long-time bloodstock agent and buyer of horses says, “Unfortunately, a lot of these individuals get lost in the shuffle and have been lost.” The situation is laid bare by the so-called mega-trainers getting the bulk of the 2YO crops. Contextually, in 2000 data from the Jockey Club shows that 69,569 horses started in North American races, and the top 10 earning stables had 1,543 starters. Then in 2019 the total number of starters dropped by more than 28 percent, but the number of starters in the top 10 earning stables had doubled. If it is a bellwether of what could occur in Australia, it amplifies the importance of NSW’s recently introduced Midway race concept and its older sibling, the Highway.