Stephen Boyd – Horse breaker

West Melton harness racing trainer Stephen Boyd has held a trainers licence since 1999. Whilst he’s trained thirty seven winners during those years, the core part of his business is breaking in yearlings.  Mark and Nathan Purdon of the All Stars stable are one of his biggest clients. 

“One day at the yearling sales Mark asked me if I’d like to break a couple of yearlings in for him. I’d say that Neil Pilcher may have had something to do with it. We started off with two or three. He was obviously happy and it grew every season, we ended up doing a lot of work with him. The odd one might go somewhere else, but we do about 99.9% of them now,” Stephen said.

Some big name Purdon horses that have had their early education with Boyd include Self Assured (Bettor’s Delight), Ultimate Sniper (Bettor’s Delight), Another Masterpiece (Bettor’s Delight), Amazing Dream (Bettor’s Delight), Akuta (Bettor’s Delight) and Millwood Nike (Captaintreacherous).

He says Mark Purdon is very understanding around the process of breaking in and is prepared to wait until the horse is ready for stable life.

“He never puts any pressure on you at all. He just lets you do your thing. Until you give a horse a real tick of approval he’s quite happy for you to carry on. He’s very good like that.”

Boyd got his grounding in harness racing through working for a number of trainers including Brian O’Meara, Dean Taylor and Irvin Behrens in New Zealand, Australian trainer David Atkin and Chris Ryder in America.

He’s also had a few breaks from the sport, running a trucking business with Mainfreight and his own pest control business.

“It was going very well, and we were just about to expand and Dad (John) who had a freeze branding business got a detached aorta so I sold the business and took over the freeze branding until he came right. Since then I’ve got back into the horses full time.”

Boyd handles about one hundred young horses a year and says breaking in young stock can be both rewarding and frustrating at the same time.

“You might be breaking in seven or eight and you get one or two that are just a pain in the arse. You do get the odd one to train. It’s quite nice getting the odd racehorse because it breaks the routine.”

Boyd says he’s learned through experience that although some yearlings at the end of the breaking period may appear to be down the pecking order, they can often turn out to be the best racehorses.

“I had Amazing Dream and she couldn’t even pace for the first two preps. We had Akuta and he couldn’t pace for the first prep and a bit. It’s amazing how they improve. Some by Bettor’s Delight don’t make the top but they improve once they get to the races. They only do what they have to and then they go off the place and they’re dynamite. Then you may get an Art Major that does really well at home and you think this thing is just a flying machine and you get them off the place and they don’t improve.”

Boyd with help from his father John and Eddie Collins, says the process of breaking in a horse generally takes between four and six weeks, depending on the individual. 

“Mark gives his yearlings another two or three weeks and likes to have them running along a bit so they’re a bit more educated.”

He says all trainers get a report or a video on their yearlings.

“A few trainers come and have a drive, like Bob Butt. We send videos to Nathan (Williamson) and some of the other owners and trainers. We do it from a motorbike and send the videos off before the horse heads home.”

Boyd says he can have up to twenty young horses in the stable at any one time.

“Breaking in is very time consuming. By the time you long rein them and put them in the cart it’s quite a long process so we don’t want to do any more than that.”

This year Southland horsemen Nathan Williamson, Brett Gray and Murray Little sent their horses straight to Boyd after the Sales rather than having to wear the additional transport costs of bringing them home and sending them back up north.

He says Always Dreaming (Bettor’s Delight – Start Dreaming) which Williamson paid $85,000 for, is shaping up well.

“He’s a nice horse and I really like him. He had a good attitude and felt very strong in the cart.”

He says Murray Little’s colt Drummershavtime (Art Major – Musthavtime) which was passed in at $50,000 also shaped up well.  

“He broke in really nice and was very similar to Nathan’s colt.”

Boyd is now beginning the education of the last ten yearlings from the Sales including seven for the All Stars stable.

“Jean Feiss always turns hers out so she’s got six to come and there’s a few for Regan Todd and Phil Kennard.”

Boyd breaks some in for Craig ‘Spud’ Crosse who owns promising filly What A Minx (Art Major).

“We’ve broken in a couple of nice Captain Crunch’s fillies for him. He’s buying nice stock so you hope it starts to repay him. He’s obviously buying the nice fillies for their broodmare status. With the bloodlines of Tayla Me (American Ideal) and What A Minx he’s doing the right thing.” 

One of the Captain Crunch fillies is out of Be A Legend (Tintin In America) who’s closely related to London Legend (In The Pocket) the winner of twenty five races, and Bit Of A Legend (Bettor’s Delight) twenty wins.

The other is a filly out of My Blue Heaven (Rock N Roll Heaven) which is closely related to Mainland Banner (Christian Cullen) the winner of seventeen races including the New Zealand Cup.

“They both broke in very well.”  

Boyd gets to have an early insight into some of the first season stallions.

“We’ve broken in a couple of nice ones by Lazarus for Mark and Regan. They both had good attitudes and were very laid back.”

Some breeds have their individual quirks and Vincent is one stallion who’s stock Boyd says can be challenging from time to time.

“They can be a handful to break in but the more you do with them say in their second, third and fourth prep they really improve. I bought a two year old Vincent filly off Gavelhouse last week. She was unbroken. I had her in the cart today and she was as quiet as buggery. The Vincent colts we broke in this year from the Sales were really good. I remember Vessem was a quiet horse to break in while Sherlock had a bit of spunk so it’s a real pig ‘n’ a poke. The Vincents are kicking goals at the moment though.”

Boyd also handles trotters.

“We used to do a few more and it’s probably died off a wee bit in recent years. We do a few for Nathan. We’ve only done half a dozen this year.”

He also runs a small racing team. One of his longest standing clients is Phillippa Hanley who’s had horses with Stephen for seven years. One of her early winners was Back In Black (Panspacificflight) which won five races.

Over the years Hanley has built up a select band of broodmares including Hannah Sue (Bettor’s Delight), Porscha (American Ideal), Who Made Who (Sweet Lou), Cool Sandy (Sands A Flyin), Sabellian (Art Major) and Majestic Play (Majestic Son).

The royally bred Hannah Sue out of nine win race mare O Baby, (Christian Cullen) was purchased from Braedon Whitelock.

“She was a very smart horse. She came to us with Princess Tiffany and Kyla Maree. She went to Mark’s (Purdon) but went in the wind before she raced. I think they did two wind operations on her, then Braedon (owner Braedon Whitelock) rang and said she was for sale. Phillippa bought her and we tried a wind operation which was unsuccessful, so we bred from her and What A Minx was the first foal.”

What A Minx was purchased at the Sales by Spud Crosse and was left with Boyd to break in and train.

A feature of Boyd’s twenty acre set up is a homemade water walker treadmill – the only one of its kind in the South Island.

“We had friends that were engineers but it was hard to get gear boxes that would run slow, and we had to make a lot of changes on the way. To be fair it’s probably cost me $150,000 and we thought it was going to be $15,000. There were plenty of add ons and you change your design halfway through. We’ve got it nailed now but I don’t want to go through the process again.”

Boyd says the water walker has been very useful especially for rehab.

“We did a lot with Thefixer (Bettor’s Delight) just before he won the Cup. We’ve got Macandrew Aviator (Panspacificflight) here at the moment. Rather than a jog day for the racehorses we just put them on the water walker. Our team have gone a lot better since we do that. Because it’s a treadmill it’s not hard on them and you put the water to any height you want so it’s great for strengthening. We had gallopers for Lisa Latta here over Cup Week that had jarred up and had shin soreness. It takes all the pressure off their joints and the cold water it’s probably great for them.”

He says it also great for horses mental health.

“You put a horse in the paddock after jogging it for half an hour and they just go out into the paddock and wander off. But if you put a horse on the water walker for half an hour you can hardly hang onto them leading them to the paddock and you let them go and they go berserk. It’s really good mentally for them and freshens them up quick after a hard run so they love it.”

Stephen Boyd has a talent for educating young horses, and has an excellent client base as a result. He will be also be pleased at having success on the track with his small team of racehorses – proof of his all round horsemanship. 

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink