Despite Losing Some Star Horses, Nevin Finds Success

The term "rebuilding season" is rarely tossed around in horse racing.

Yet much like a college basketball coach who loses a few All-Americans, owners and trainers sometimes have to re-group after losing a grade 1 winner or two.

Trainer Michelle Nevin understands that process as well as anyone in the sport.

When January 2018 arrived, Nevin began the new year without a graded stakes winner in her New York-based barn for the first time since 2014.

Yet none of that stopped the 41-year-old conditioner from enjoying another successful and consistent year, just like 2017, and 2016, and pretty much every year since her first full season as a trainer in 2014.

With 2018 coming to an end, and her season lifted by a big three-win day at Aqueduct Racetrack Dec. 9, Nevin is on the doorstep of matching her 2017 wins and earnings when she trained her lone grade 1 winner, Jay Em Ess Stable's By the Moon. She's also close to her 2016 earnings, when her first two graded stakes winners, By the Moon and Paulassilverlining, were in her care.

Each year since 2014 the native of Fethard, Ireland has registered solid results of between 51 and 62 wins and $2,632,653 and $2,929,287 in earnings, a feat demonstrative of how building and rebuilding a stable comes naturally to her.

"I would say that the key part of running my stable is that each horse in my barn is important to me and it's important for me to do the right thing for my client and decide where each horse fits," said Nevin, the daughter of former jockey/trainer Michael Nevin. "You can't reach for the stars with every horse. You have to be realistic. In New York you are facing great horses and great horsemen."

Not surprisingly, 2016 was Nevin's best year. Thanks to By the Moon and Paulassilverlining, who accounted for four graded stakes wins that year, she had career-best totals of 62 wins and $2,929,287 in earnings.

Owner Vincent Scuderi sold Paulassilverlining to Juddmonte Farms prior to her 2017 season and the multiple graded stakes winner was turned over to trainer Chad Brown.

She nearly lost By the Moon as well.

"After 'Paula' was sold, I called Michelle and asked if she was sitting down," said Samantha Siegel, who operates Jay Em Ess Stable. "I told her she almost lost both fillies. Juddmonte had made me an offer for By the Moon, but I turned it down."

By the Moon, a homebred daughter of Indian Charlie who won the 2014 Frizette Stakes (G1) and a second grade 1 for Nevin in 2017 when she captured the Ketel One Ballerina Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, was a main cog in a year that saw the former assistant trainer and exercise rider for Rick Dutrow win 53 races and post earnings of $2,769,568.

By the Moon was retired to begin life as a broodmare this year, but to Siegel, it's no surprise that Nevin's 40-horse stable continues to churn out a steady stream of victories in a year that has featured 51 wins and 61 seconds from 307 starts with earnings of $2,665,249 through Dec. 17.

"Michelle did a great job with 'Paula' and my filly, By the Moon. She took two homebred fillies and turned them into millionaires and graded stakes winners. That's hard to do," Siegel said. "She lets her horses do their thing. She takes good care of her horses and stops on them when she has to. She learned a lot from Rick (Dutrow) and her father was a trainer and she used to ride horses. She has a good feel for them. A lot of this game is instinct and you have to know how your horses are doing. Michelle has great instincts."

Nevin, who began training and took over much of Dutrow's stable after her boss was hit with a 10-year suspension in 2013, said her work with Paulassilverlining and By the Moon opened some doors by introducing her to new clients.

"Horses like that help to get your name out there. People aren't really focusing on who is winning $12,500 claimers," she said. "It definitely helped to win those graded stakes races, and anytime you lose horses like them there are going to be good days and bad days but you can't focus on what you had. Your attention has to be on what you have now."

The "rebuilding" process was also helped by the development of her most recent graded stakes winner, Skyler's Scramjet, and stakes winner My Boy Tate.

A 4-year-old Creative Cause  gelding, Skyler's Scramjet won the March 10 Tom Fool Handicap (G3) for owners SJB stable and Marcello Micozzi, but hasn't raced since finishing sixth June 17 in the Mr. Prospector Stakes at Monmouth Park. Bred in Kentucky by Tommy G. Ligon, he is expected to make his comeback Dec. 23 in the $100,000 Gravesend Stakes at Aqueduct.

My Boy Tate, a gelded 4-year-old son of Boys At Tosconova , was bred in New York by Nevin and races for her and the Little Red Feather Racing stable of Billy Koch.

"I'm friends with Samantha Siegel and I was looking for someone in New York to train some horses and she recommended Michelle. We listened to Sam and it has worked out very well," Koch said. "The best thing about Michelle is that there is an immense amount of trust in her horsemanship as well as her dedication and love for the animals. In every single case, she will always put the animal first. She's a great communicator. I believe and trust in her and you always want someone who has your back and your horse's back."

Koch bought a share of My Boy Tate after a runner-up finish in his second career start Feb. 11, 2017 and has been a part of five wins in the gelding's last nine starts, including five straight wins at one point with victories in the Holly Hughes Stakes and Say Florida Stakes for New York State-breds.

Koch said My Boy Tate came down with some minor issues after finishing eighth in the Oct. 20 Hudson Handicap at Belmont Park and will be given a break until the late winter or early spring.

"He's a handful who is his own worst enemy," Koch said about My Boy Tate. "He lives in a padded stall to protect him from himself. He's had little things here and there that were self-inflicted."

As much as Nevin has moved on from By the Moon, a piece of her could be back with Nevin in a few years.

Siegel bred By the Moon to Arrogate  and plans to race the foal.

"For what I like to spend on a yearling, I could never buy a horse like that foal," Siegel said. "It's my chance to hit the jackpot. You hope it's a colt, you hope he can really run and that he pays for everything for a long time."

In the meantime, Siegel has a pretty good idea of who will be training that son or daughter of two multiple grade 1 winners.

"Michelle is definitely the frontrunner to train that horse," Siegel said. "She trained the mom and she also rode the grandma (By the Light) in the mornings. She knows the family."

Until then, Nevin will spend her winter in New York, hoping to pad her 2018 totals and build off the momentum of her three-win day to make 2019 another success story.

"Those three wins surely beat the string of seconds I had," Nevin said. "It's a great feeling when everything falls into place on a day like that one. I have a great staff and taking care of our horses is a passion for them and you see it in our results. Winter and spring are important times for us and we want to keep on firing."

Yes, firing. Suffice it to say, whether it's college basketball or horse racing, reloading is always preferable to rebuilding.