Shirer Building His Stable From the Ground Up

With no familial connections or extensive background in racing, up-and-coming trainer Matt Shirer has built his career and stable completely from the ground up.

While attending Ohio Wesleyan College as an Animal Science major and Division III basketball player, the Cleveland native became interested in horse racing and found his way to Thistledown Race Track–he started off walking hots, then worked his way up to an assistant trainer job with a high-profile operation before eventually going out on his own in late 2015.

“A lot of guys I know, someone in their family trained, but I actually didn't have any connections whatsoever to horse racing,” Shirer explained. “I was an Animal Science major in college, and I kind of just started watching races on TV like the Derby and stuff. I had never worked with racehorses, but I just decided to go up Thistledown and see what it was like–what kind of jobs I could do. Obviously, the lowest level is hot walking, and I just kind of learned from the ground up there.”

Upon graduating in 2008, Shirer returned to Thistledown to work as a groom, before eventually landing a gig in 2012 as barn foreman at Churchill Downs for trainer Kenny McPeek. Shirer worked his way up in the McPeek operation to assistant trainer, and worked with a number of Grade I winners including Pure Fun, Rosalind, Golden Ticket and Java's War.

“One thing about working for Kenny was, as an assistant, you get a lot of responsibility because he's a busy guy and he'll be at sales and stuff a lot of the times,” Shirer said when asked what he learned working for McPeek. “As the assistant, you're responsible for the day-to-day training–you do the set lists, call the vets, organize blacksmith appointments, etc. For me it was good, because I had a good amount of responsibility and learned how to manage a large stable. We had 36 stalls at Churchill–that's a lot of horses, and a lot of help to manage, too.”

Shirer, who has mostly focused on the claiming game so far, hopes to build his client base so that he can shop the sales in coming years, and credits McPeek's influence in helping him develop an eye for racing prospects who might be flying under the radar.

“Kenny's a very, very good bloodstock agent as well,” the 32-year-old noted. “He buys a lot of good yearlings, and he's very good at buying some fairly inexpensive horses–one who pops in my mind is Pure Fun, [who was a $22,000 KEESEP yearling and won the 2012 GI Hollywood Starlet S.]. Because I got to see those horses every day, I got to develop a good eye and see what those kind of horses look like–that has definitely helped me out so far.”

Shirer made the decision to go out on his own in November of 2015, and saddled four starters that year, with one win, two seconds and third.

“In this business, I don't think there's ever a point where you can say, 'Ok, I know everything there is to know about horses and horse racing.' But I got to that point where I wanted more responsibility–I wanted my name on the program and to be able to say, 'It's my horse–I train him.' I'm pretty ambitious, so I just wanted my own business,” Shirer explained of the decision to take the leap.

While many assistants have clients lined up before they decide to take out their license, Shirer started off without a single trainee, but put up very respectable numbers in 2016, scoring nine wins, seven seconds and nine thirds from 54 starters, good for a stellar 16.7% win rate and 46.3% in the money percentage.

“I actually didn't have a single horse to train when I left Kenny's barn,” Shirer revealed. “I had a guy named Mitch Butler who's an owner and a friend of mine, and he got me some money to claim some horses. So I started claiming and we just tried to put them in the right spots and the whole year I had a very minimal amount of money to claim with, but we did well with some horses and actually made money, which is not easy to do in the first year.”

Shirer now has about 10 horses in his stable, and has been based at Fair Grounds for the winter, where he's gone 3-for-12 with three seconds. He'll saddle his first stakes starter Saturday when Factory Faith (Bluegrass Cat) takes on a strong field in the grassy Daisy Devine S. in the colors of Chester Thomas's Allied Racing Stable. Previously trained by Buff Bradley who, along with jockey Shaun Bridgmohan introduced Shirer to Thomas, Factory of Faith has checked in second in each of her last two tries for Shirer at the optional claiming level.

“We've done well with her–she's run second twice now in some tough races,” the trainer said. “She's doing extremely well. We really wouldn't take a shot with her if we didn't think she was. She breezed last Sunday (four furlongs in :49 flat) and just went so good. We'd like her to get stakes-placed and I think she's a good enough horse to do that. It's definitely a tough spot.”

When asked if he has any specific goals or dreams for his career as a trainer, Shirer replied, “I just want to be a successful trainer. Obviously, the easy answer is to say, 'I want to win the Derby,' but I just want to make a living at this and be known as a good horseman.”