Morley: Putting an English Spin on NY

A few years have passed since Tom Morley left his position as assistant trainer to Eddie Kenneally in March of 2013 and hung out a shingle in his own right on the ultra-competitive New York circuit. In that time, Morley Racing Stable runners have wracked up 72 wins and $3,594,837 in prize money (through Monday), with the fledgling stable breaching the $1-million dollar mark each year bar 2013. And the winners just keep coming, as the stable is on track for a career-best year in 2016.

The 33-year-old Englishman recently celebrated his first graded stakes win as a trainer with Sequel Racing's Haveyougoneaway (Congrats) landing the GII Honorable Miss H. at Saratoga Race Course on Aug. 26. Passporttovictory (Frost Giant) captured an Empire State-bred maiden special weight there on 4 Aug. and Ardmore Bay (Bluegrass Cat) continued the stable's hot streak with a win in Monmouth Park's Tyro S. on Aug. 7. The latter pair both race for The Elkstone Group LLC.

Many factors have gone into Morley's success, but it doesn't hurt that he comes from a family steeped in racing tradition.

“I just started at a very young age and the passion [for racing] grew from there,” said Morley, who cut his teeth with trainer Ed Dunlop's Gainsborough stable, followed by a stint at Watership Down Stud, prior to university. “My uncle, David [Morley], was a very successful flat trainer and a lot of my family are involved in racing back at home. My father and another uncle of mine are owner/breeders. And Charlie Gordon-Watson [of Charles Gordon-Watson Bloodstock], a cousin of mine, is a bloodstock agent.”

Morley was selected for the two-year Darley Flying Start program after graduating with a history degree from Newcastle University. Afterwards, he went to work for Newmarket trainer Jeremy Noseda's Shalfleet Stables, who had sent out Wilko (Awesome Again) to shock the GI Breeders Cup Juvenile at Lone Star Park in 2004. During his 3 1/2-year tenure as an assistant to Noseda, Morley handled a clutch of Group/Grade 1 winners, including champion Fleeting Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). Noseda raider and GIII Gotham S. winner Awesome Act (Awesome Again) gave Morley a taste of American racing in the Big Apple.

“When I was at Jeremy's, we had a lot of very, very nice horses, Fleeting Spirit, Soldier's Tale, Sixties Icon, Simply Perfect,” Morley said. “I was lucky enough to work with some very nice horses at Eddie's, as well, Heavenly Landing (Pulpit), Santiva (Giant's Causeway). You pick up different things from all these guys and it helps you form an idea of how you want to go about training horses.”

By 2010, Morley knew it was time for a change.

“Jeremy, he didn't push me this way, but he suggested that it would be very beneficial to come out here [to America] and spend 18 months to two years, basically gaining some work experience. I got here and was very lucky to go to Eddie [Kenneally] at Palm Meadows [Training Center in Florida], then to Keeneland and on to Churchill and up to Saratoga.”

Of the many places Morley has traveled throughout the U.S., it was New York that drew him the most.

“I stayed here in New York for Eddie for 18 months and met my [future] wife Maggie Wolfendale,” he explained. “I decided that between the love of the game here and the level of competition and the fact that I'd met the woman who would become my wife, that this was it. This was where I was staying.”

Morley readily acknowledged that to operate a racing stable, especially one grown to 65 horses–43 in training and about 20 returning from layoffs and injury–is far more than a one-person gig and teamwork is critical for continued success.

“Maggie has obviously been a key player in the stable, not only in giving me the confidence to step forward and start my training career, but she is also an extremely good exercise rider in the mornings,” said Morley of Wolfendale, a daughter of trainer Howard Wolfendale, who is also a paddock analyst for the New York Racing Association. “That's been absolutely vital to me when I was setting up–her opinion from the back of the horse.”

Like any new business venture, Morley Racing Stable grew in fits and starts, but Morley still speaks highly of his first winner, Treblemaker (Read the Footnotes), who got off the mark at Aqueduct in April of 2013 and is now a stable pony.

“The stable has grown at times a little faster than I was expecting and at times it gets a little sluggish,” added Morley, who is New York-based year round. “I started off with one horse, Treblemaker, who in my eyes will always be the greatest Thoroughbred to have walked the face of the earth because he was the first horse I trained into the winner's circle. So we had one, and one became two, and two became three. Leonard Riggio [of My Meadowview Farm] was very kind and sent us four 2-year-olds in a group, so that became seven and we had a bit of success and it's grown steadily ever since. Maggie got on them all.”

The couple is expecting their first child this fall and the stable has had to adapt, with Wolfendale unable to gallop horses for the time being.

“We've replaced her as best we can and she'll be back on horses soon,” said Morley, who despite lacking his top exercise rider, has a good team in place to handle the increased responsibilities of a growing business. “A very important part of the whole game is to make sure the people underneath you are growing at the same rate as you, so you don't get ahead of yourself. The level of quality [in the stable] has gone up as well as the quantity. We have a really good mix of owners who have one horse and owners who have two horses and some who have 10 horses. We're always looking to up the number of horses and the quality. ”

Just as Morley has a variety of owners, he has not been pegged as a trainer that only succeeds with a certain type of runner.

“We do get a number of grass horses, but with the dirt horses we've been sent, we've done an extremely good job,” Morley noted, as Haveyougoneaway's Honorable Miss victory was over six furlongs on the dirt. “Certainly, we do very well in distance races on the grass. And we can train sprinters as well. It will be interesting to see if we can get the caliber of horse that it takes to take us to the races like the Kentucky Derby and whether I can train them.”

“But I'm pretty sure, if I can do all the others, I hope I can,” Morley laughed wryly. “Obviously, I'd love to have more horses from Europe. I hope people remember who I am from when I was at home and getting started and noticed the success we've been having here and start to send some horses our way. I actually only have two [European] horses in my barn–a filly bought by owner Linda Juckette and Lincoln Collins at the [2015 Tattersalls] Craven Breeze Up that I think is very nice [Athena's Aegis {Ire} by Acclamation {GB} lot 116, who runs in the third at Saratoga Friday] and [G3 Solario S. hero Aktabantay (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}).”

The latest Morley Racing Stable challenges not withstanding, Morley has his eye toward the future, with his feet firmly planted in New York.

“I'd love to win the Derby [English pronunciation] and the [Kentucky] Derby,” Morley enthused. “I'd love to win some Breeders' Cups races. I'm not afraid to travel my horses. I've traveled them within America and as soon as we have the caliber of horse, I'll be very happy to travel abroad as well.”

“For now, we're here [in New York],” Morley confirmed with a laugh.

Returning to Morley's recent Grade II success, Haveyougoneaway is doing well enough that Morley has the daughter of Congrats pointing to the GI Ballerina S. at the Spa on Aug. 27, after making two winning racecourse appearances in July–in the Dancin Renee S. on July 3 and the aforementioned Honorable Miss on July 27.

“It was a really special moment to win a Grade II in Saratoga,” said a pleased Morley, who will be saddling just his second Grade I competitor if all goes according to plan, after Noble Cornerstone (Noble Causeway)'s sixth-place effort in the GI King's Bishop S. during the 2014 Saratoga meet. “They ran the length of the lane, the two fillies [Haveyougoneaway and Paulassilverlining {Ghostzapper}] neither of them gave up the whole way to the wire. We were just very fortunate to come out on top.”

Explaining his decision, Morley continued, ” There are a limited number of opportunities in Grade I's, for sprinting fillies between now and the end of the year. The Ballerina, over a track she's already won a Grade II over, seems like a logical stepping stone. It is coming back again in four weeks, but she's come out of that race in very good form.”

Throughout his career in racing, Morley has learned from some of the best people in the business and had these parting words for aspiring young racing people looking for a career abroad.

“Don't be afraid to come out here to America. It's a tremendous country. People were very, very receptive to a guy in his 20's starting training in America. They were very willing to send me horses and give me a chance. It's a good life and you can always go home, or you can end up staying like me,” he chuckled.