Balance the Key for Stidham

When Speedway Stable's 2013 Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Leigh Court (Grand Slam) made her victorious 6-year-old bow for trainer Mike Stidham in Tuesday's Mardi Gras S. at Fair Grounds, it was a winner's circle scene that has become standard so far this 2015-16 meet. This is a segment racing fans have seen ad nauseam. A successful leading trainer holding the hind quarters of his victorious pupil into place, flexing a smile for the camera with the comfort of a dental cleaning and then rushing off, phone deliberately in hand to report to the appropriate clients.

Stidham, though, has learned through 37 years of training Thoroughbreds that sometimes you have to replace that cellular device–after all pertinent dealings have been dealt with–with a pair of running shoes or a wine glass in order to remain prosperous.

“I learned that you have to keep a balance to keep the sanity and be healthy,” he said. “I put my headphones on and go running almost every day at City Park [in New Orleans] or have people over a couple times during the season if I can. This is a business that is totally consuming on every level. You have to be able to switch it off sometimes and have confidence that everything will still be there when you switch it back on. It took me about 15 years to figure that out, but I knew that if I didn't, I wasn't going to be able to stay healthy.”

Despite losing one of his largest clients–Ike and Dawn Thrash–just prior to the start of the Fair Grounds meet, healthy is just how the veteran conditioner's season is going. Currently striking at 22% and leading all conditioners at the New Orleans oval in both wins and earnings, the multiple Grade I-winning 58-year-old native of Neptune, NJ is on the threshold of potentially claiming his first career training title when the 19-week meet ends Mar. 27.

“The Thrashes are good people and I enjoyed working with them,” he explained. “I don't have a negative thing to say about them. I think that the move that they made was strictly from a business standpoint and had everything to do with my program of moving from track-to-track not working for them. Owners like them put a lot of money into the game, so if something's not working for them, they're going to make a business-based change.”

After helping bring the Thrashes' Her Emmynency (Successful Appeal) back from a nearly life-threatening bout of colitis to a victory in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland one year later in October, the Thrashes' 13 horses–many of stakes caliber–were transferred from Stidham's care to that of Southern California-based Kristin Mulhall.

“I have to admit that it was naturally hard to take from a personal standpoint,” he continued. “We put everything into our jobs and when you get to the pinnacle–which is to win a Grade I at Keeneland–you think that you've not only given people what they want, and you've achieved what everybody wants in winning the big race. To get told within a week of that the horses are being taken away was very tough, especially while we were preparing for the Fair Grounds, our premier meet of our year. It was like the carpet got pulled out from under us. Luckily things have gone our way since–we just had to restructure a little bit.”

While some tweaks have been made to recover–and subsequently flourish–Team Stidham finds its nucleus in the same values that have kept the barn as arguably one of the most respected in the Midwest since the mid-1980's.

“We've always just tried to treat every horse individually, whether it's a Grade I or a $5,000 horse,” Stidham explained. “We work them into our program and have a specific plan for each. It's not an assembly line. With [assistant trainer] Hilary [Pridham] on horseback and breezing a lot of them and me watching from the stands, we have both perspectives. She can tell me what she's feeling on a horse and I can tell her what I see. I am lucky to have great assistants, foremen and riders whose opinions I respect and we're not afraid to get behind the barn every day and jog [for soundness] anything that's even remotely a question mark.

“When we got here for this meet, we were worried about where we stood, but the meet has really come together and we've been very fortunate,” he continued. “The team works hard and we have horses who have fit the condition book well. For me to win my first title where I call home would be amazing if it happens.”

The Stidham stable is gearing up for an even more productive spring and summer. Grade II winner Leigh Court is aiming toward a return to Grade I company, and the shedrow also houses stakes winners Fila Primera (War Front) and Jessica's Star (Magna Graduate), as well as the promising 4-year-old Zipessa (City Zip) and 3-year-old filly Shaken (Uncle Mo), a first-out graduate on Jan. 30. No matter the performer, all trainees will be subject to balance-oriented high standards that have been as intrinsic to the equilibrium of the barn as they has been to the 30-time graded stakes-winning conditioner, himself.

“My dad (former jockey and trainer George Stidham) used to say 'Don't think that your job is done at 11:00′ and I didn't start taking this advice until about 10 years into my career when I almost gave up,” he said. “The game has changed and it's often about how well you can sell yourself and communicate with people who demand it. You also have to be credible, honorable and a good horseman while making sure you network and be around the people who are making the business happen. The great breeders out there like the Arthur Hancocks and Josephine Abercrombies of the world don't just want to read a name on a sheet of paper, they want to see your face and talk to you.

“Luckily I figured that out a long time ago,” he concluded. “We've done well so far and hopefully it continues to work. Believe me, no matter what happens this has been a really fantastic meet and I'm very happy and thankful.”