Young Trainer Handal Prepares for First Start

Every morning in the black before sunrise, Raymond Handal swings a leg over a 4-year-old filly and heads out to the main track at Belmont Park.

Wundahowigothere is the strong-minded sort, so Handal has taken to riding her as early as possible—even before most conditioners have their first sets ready to go. With fewer horses on the sandy oval she's a little less aggressive, more focused on the task at hand. He's figuring her out, getting her to flip the switch to full-speed mode only when she's asked to do so. These are the challenges of a racehorse trainer.

Handal, 25, struck out on his own this September after a lengthy career on the racetrack that is belied by his young age. On Nov. 14 he entered the filly, his first starter, in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden event to be run at Aqueduct Racetrack Nov. 19.

Wundahowigothere is a homebred produced by the now-defunct IEAH Stables and partner Andrew Cohen. The daughter of Big Brown  , out of the grade I winner Wonder Lady Anne L, was unstarted at 2 and for most of her 3-year-old season due to legal wrangling while the IEAH assets were settled. She then sat out a good part of this year with a minor injury after racing three times for Cohen's Sunrise Stables and trainer John Terranova II toward the end of 2013.

Meanwhile, Handal was wrapping up a working education that began as a hot walker at Calder Casino & Race Course and commenced in earnest in the summer of 2004. That's when he was offered a job as a groom with Jonathan Sheppard for the upcoming Saratoga Race Course meet.

Detouring to Sheppard's farm in Kennett Square, Pa., the young horseman saw an opportunity to learn from a master. Instead of continuing to the racetrack, he spent the next two years on the farm hot walking, grooming, and becoming an exercise rider.

Introduced to racing by his father, Handal also spent time working for Michael Matz, Ken McPeek, and Christophe Clement over the years. He was involved in the careers of horses such as multiple Eclipse Award champion Gio Ponti  , Visionaire, and Noble's Promise  . But it was a recent stint as assistant to trainer Tony Dutrow that rounded out his education, prepared him to go out on his own, and brought a golden opportunity his way.

"I got my craft from being an assistant to Tony; he was very influential on how I do things and helped shape the way I like to train my horses," Handal said. "We had horses for Andy (Cohen) when I was an assistant for Tony, and we had a tremendous amount of success. The year (Cohen's stallion) Frost Giant   broke the record in New York for freshman sire earnings, the horses we had for them were a big part of the reason he broke the record. We won with like every horse for them."

Handal also accompanied Cohen's Giant Finish to the 2013 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) for Dutrow. Although the colt ran 10th, the experience helped solidify the trainer's desire to go out on his own. Cohen and his partner Gary Tolchin and racing manager Eric Bishop pledged their support.

"They told me whenever I wanted to go out training, they'd support me," Handal said. "They gave me three good horses and it was too good of an opportunity to pass up."

Handal took time to get things in order, developing his Handal Racing website and making all the other arrangements that go into the launch of a stable in 2014. He wrapped up working for other trainers this season with a summer job with Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, then assisted Tom Morley in hanging out his shingle on the New York circuit.

Two months after taking out his license, he's ready to saddle his first starter.

"It was a pretty smooth process," Handal said. "When the Saratoga meet was going on I spoke to the racing office to let them know I was getting horses. They came in Sept. 8th, and that's when I started training them. They'd had a few three-eighths works into them already at a farm in New Jersey, so they came to me in really good shape; they were breezing and looked really good when they came in."

Along with Wundahowigothere, Handal has two New York-breds—a 3-year-old Frost Giant colt named Chase The Giant, and an unraced 2-year-old Frost Giant filly, Zanas Giant.

"I've been really lucky so far, I haven't missed a beat with any of them, no hiccups along the way," the fledgling trainer remarked. "I've been pleasantly surprised so far, everything just feels so natural. Luckily I have some really nice horses.

"I have reached out to a few people and just let them know that I'm starting to train and I'd love an opportunity with them, and everybody's given me positive response, but I think everybody's also waiting for that first runner to see how it goes. The website and social media have also been a big advantage. I have a client who found me through the website and just liked what I said and the way I do things, and we're looking to claim a horse now, so that was cool."

Handal's philosophy mirrors that of his most influential mentors—a training program very much catered toward the individual runner.

"I don't pound on my horses," Handal said. "I think racehorses now are so genetically fixed toward speed, I don't think you have to do as much as a lot of people like to do. You also have to deal with soundness issues. So I try and gallop and give them days off in-between.

"For instance, Chase The Giant is a big, heavy kind of colt; he does more consistent work. I'll gallop him two days, give him a jog day to let him recover, go back to galloping two days, and then a breeze. 'Wunda,' she's a more aggressive type, on the engine. She tries to do too much when she trains so I'll gallop her every other day.

"It takes me about a week or two to see where they are physically and put them into a program. We use a lot of equine therapy to maintain them physically; use the spa to help their joints and legs and help them recover after a workout. We use acupuncture and everybody gets checked out every two weeks, and we have chiropractic work every two weeks as well."

Current plans call for Chase The Giant to be entered for the Aqueduct main track only Nov. 21, and if that race does not come off the turf he could go in a mile dirt event five days later. Youngster Zanas Giant has some more training miles to put in before she makes her debut. Handal is hands-on with each horse, galloping and hot walking his own. He is assisted by Rafael Jimenez, a former Dutrow employee.

"He's my right-hand man, he does a great job and he loves the horses," Handal said of Jimenez. "He wants to do right and be successful as much as I do."

Handal has already experienced one heart-attack moment as a trainer—he was left scrambling for a rider for Wundahowigothere after Junior Alvarado, who had the call, fractured his vertebrae in a spill Nov. 12. Jose Ortiz was open, however, and will pilot the filly from the rail in her first start since Dec. 7 of 2013.

"It's a really good spot for her," Handal said of the upcoming race. "It's really exciting but I've tried not to think about it too much, to be honest. I used to always admire Tony and watch him; we'd be getting ready to run in these huge grade I races and he would watch a race like the Spinaway the same way he'd watch a $10,000 claimer. He was totally unfazed. I try to suppress everything and hold it all in...but I know my heart's going to be pounding out of my chest."