From Out of Nowhere, Noda Getting It Done on NYRA Circuit

With a small stable of runners all owned by himself and his brother, 30-year-old trainer Orlando Noda has enjoyed a very strong start to his career on the super-competitive NYRA circuit. He made his first start as a listed conditioner at Aqueduct in March, has now won five times from 24 tries (21%) while hitting the board with half of his starters. Among those victories have been three at the Saratoga meet, where he's batting 33% with two thirds of those nine runners cracking the trifecta.

A Miami native, Noda inherited his make-it-on-your-own style from his father Jose Noda-Fernandez, an owner/trainer himself who ran third in the 2017 GIII Smile Sprint S. with a 134-1 shot.

“My dad has always had horses, off and on, just training for himself as an owner,” Noda said. “So, we bought a few horses in New Jersey in 2012 and we were racing in that area–Delaware, Pennsylvania, Charles Town. We were based at Westhampton Farm and that's where I learned to gallop. My brother [Jonathan] and I were just taking advice from my dad over the phone. That's how we started.”

From that initial group of horses, Noda kept one mare, Bfit (The Cliff's Edge), who he sent to Joe Pickerrell and Courtney Roberts at Pick View LLC in Ocala to be bred. Noda soon headed to Ocala himself to continue his training education.

“When that foal [out of Bfit] was a yearling, I ended up moving to Ocala,” he said. “I wanted to see what the big outfits who were breaking babies were doing. I worked for Hartley/DeRenzo and Crupi's New Castle and then I ended up going to work for Mark Casse at his farm. In the summer of 2017, my wife [Melani Cruz] and I ended up coming up to work for Casse in Saratoga for the first time and that really opened my eyes.”

What did he learn in his time in Ocala?

“There's definitely a difference between training a baby for the sale, and training them for the racetrack,” Noda noted. “I learned a lot from [the team at Pick View] because they're more of a family operation. They bred my mare, and I worked for them breaking horses, and because they're smaller they were really hands-on with each horse. I learned to really pay attention to the horses and communicate it back to whoever was in charge.”

Fittingly, Bfit's first and only foal, G. T. Sonia (Brethren), was Noda's first starter. She broke her maiden last month for him at the Spa.

Noda admits that starting out on the NYRA circuit might have been ambitious, but it certainly appears to be paying off.

“Everyone told me, 'No, don't go to New York! It's real tough.' But I wanted to start in the big leagues,” he said. “That's where the money is and where you can make a name for yourself.”

Noda credits his brother Jonathan, who is in the car business, for financing his dream. Runners for Noda Brothers LLC have earned $208,672 so far this year.

The brothers' biggest success thus far has been T Loves a Fight (Girolamo). Claimed for just $10,000 out of a fourth-place effort at Belmont in May, the 5-year-old gave Noda his first win two starts later June 13. He successfully climbed the class ladder in his next two outings to cap a three-race win streak in a New York-bred optional claimer at the Spa July 14, and was a close fourth in the John Morrisey S. for state-breds earlier this month. T Loves a Fight was most recently a strong third from far back in a salty open first-level allowance on Travers Day.

“He had back class for sure,” said Noda of what caught his eye about T Loves a Fight, who took the Mike Lee S. as a sophomore in 2017. “Physically, he looked the part. He's a sound horse, very classy on the track and in the stall–all around. We got him figured out, and he won three in a row for me. It was a dream–he's definitely the horse who put me on the map.”

But Noda is quick to point out that his early success hasn't simply been the result of one lucky claim: “To have three winners with different horses at Saratoga has shined a little spotlight on me. Lots of people were thinking that I'd just figured out the trick for that one horse, but those other ones helped me show I could do it with others too.”

Outside owners have started to take notice. Noda picked up his first client, who sent him a pair of 2-year-olds, after T Loves a Fight won at Saratoga, putting his head count up to 10. He's also found another prospective owner since then, but as is always part of the process when growing a small stable, must line up more help before he can take on the additional horses.

For now, he'll continue to keep an eye out for potential claims while he tries to build up his client base and workforce.

“I'm trying to do everything,” he said. “I know the new stock is what gets you to the big races for 3-year-olds, so of course we'll keep looking to pick up young horses. But I feel there are also good claiming horses here in New York with room for improvement. Some of the big operations here look past some details because they have so many horses… My short-term goal is to be one of the leading trainers at next year's Aqueduct meet. Long term, of course, I'd love to have some stakes horses.”