Trainer Mike McCarthy waits in the Santa Anita grandstand opposite the winning post, a pair of binoculars resting on his knees, for recent GI Malibu S. winner, City of Light (Quality Road) to work under Malibu-winning jock Drayden Van Dyke. While he’s waiting, McCarthy weighs up a question I’d just posed, about how he views the start he’s made to his training career, now turning into its fifth year. He carefully measures his words, calls himself “an optimistic realist,” then adds, with tongue firmly in cheek, “I’m an optimistic realist with a touch of pessimism.”

Minutes later, McCarthy would have every reason to be optimistic about the way his stable standard-bearer worked–a bullet five furlongs in :58:80, which keeps the 4-year-old son of Quality Road firmly on course towards a President’s Day appearance in the $500,000 GIII Razorback H. at Oaklawn Park Feb. 19.

And the colt’s sharp form is one of many reasons Todd Pletcher’s former assistant should be feeling rather more optimistic than pessimistic about, not only the past four years, but the next chapter of his career–something he’ll admit to later on that morning, in his office, horses trained and the mercury spidering upwards, when he says, “We’re pleased with what we’ve done, and we’re getting better.”

Then, like a nervous tick, the realist in him surfaces once again: “Certainly though, we’re always hungry to do better. We’re always striving for more.”

Mind you, that same hunger has been gnawing at him throughout his career. Not that the Ohio-born, California-raised McCarthy, 47, comes from a long racing lineage. His father is in the office furniture business. His poor mother, a homemaker, is “still recovering from raising my brother and I,” he says (tongue back in cheek). When he started out in California, he worked as assistant to the likes of Ben Cecil. Then came the 11-plus years as assistant to Pletcher, before, in 2014, McCarthy pitched his own coat of arms at Santa Anita, where he now runs a barn 30-horses strong.

By most benchmarks, the past four years have been on the whole something of a home-run. Each one has brought more winners and more money in the coffers. In 2014, he sent out six winners and bagged $213,810 in prize money. Last year, those totals had swollen to 27 winners and more than

$1.3 million in the kitty. What’s more, the quality of horse standing behind the white, grey and blue McCarthy webbings has steadily been on the improve.

Illuminant was McCarthy’s first top-flight winner since striking out on his own. Her 2016 win in the GI Gamely S. at Santa Anita was one of three stakes victories for the Quality Road mare, who sold for $1.1 million to Shadai Farm at last year’s Fasig-Tipton November Sale. If City of Light, who has yet to race farther than seven furlongs, sees out the 1 1/16 miles of the Razorback, he could spend the summer locking horns with the nation’s top milers in races like the GI Metropolitan H. and the GII Pat O’Brien H.

“He’s a big horse, physically imposing, and just needed time to come together,” says McCarthy, about his kid-gloves approach to the colt’s early career. “He was a little coarse as a yearling. Wonderful frame. Big hip. Nice shoulder. Plenty of leg. Two years later, he’s blossomed into something stunning. I would say he’s the best example of his sire from what I’ve seen.”

It’s not just City of Light that has McCarthy dreaming big. Paved, a 3-year-old filly by–guess who–Quality Road, broke her maiden last month, and McCarthy is eyeing races like the

GI Belmont Oaks and the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. First, however, Paved could take in the GIII El Camino Real Derby against the boys or an allowance back at Santa Anita.

“Both would serve as a nice prep for the [GIII] Providencia S.,” he says. “A filly like her certainly has you thinking about these sorts of races.”

Before responding to a question, McCarthy chews on it a few seconds then parses the words out deliberately. This habit, however, is understandable given how McCarthy spent more than a decade as assistant to a trainer whose usual offerings to the media have the carefully crafted veneer of a corporate press release.

“I think that what I’ve taken away is learning by example,” he says, of Pletcher. “How do you argue with a trainer who’s got like seven Eclipse Awards.”

Still, one assumes that when assistants fly solo, they’re eager to shake off the feathers of their former employer. Not McCarthy.

“I don’t need to shed that tag,” he says. “Some people are proud that they went to an Ivy League school. Some people are proud that they’re part of a certain organization. I’m very proud that I was able to be a part of something that, for me, set the foundation of what I’m doing today.”

McCarthy’s training regime, he says, is similar to that of Pletcher’s, at the heart of which are two essential qualities. One is good organization.

“I think that reflects on the horses,” he says. “They’re liking what they’re doing. They’re liking the routine.”

The other hues close to obsession.

“To me, the dedication that a Todd Pletcher brings to the game is unparalleled… and we like to spend a lot of time here,” he said. “We like the staff that we’ve built up around us. In turn, I like to think they like doing the job that they do”

When I suggest he has shown thus far a tad more patience with his youngsters than Pletcher (trainer of a couple Eclipse Award winning 2-year-old colts), he doesn’t argue, and offers an explanation.

“I just don’t have his numbers,” says McCarthy. “The horse population here in California isn’t quite as robust as it is in the Midwest and along the Eastern Seaboard…So, we’re probably a little slower to the party because of that–because there aren’t as many opportunities.”

There are elements of the whole training game that his apprenticeship didn’t quite prepare him for. One relates to what he coins an “instant gratification” culture, where the internet and social media can put trainers on the back-foot in the dissemination of news.

“There’s so much available information out there,” he says. “Your horse goes out and works 5/8ths of a mile, and through things like XBTV and social media, there are [owners] calling you before you get back to the barn.”

Another hard-earned element has been in fine-tuning those skills necessary if a trainer not only wants to maintain his client base, but wants to see it grow and expand–a difficult-to-balance alchemy of diplomacy and self-aggrandizement.

“I think for any trainer who’s going out on their own, who has spent any time in one operation, you become a creature of habit,” McCarthy said. “This [training] takes more cultivating of relationships, going out, going to sales, going to the races. It’s about managing expectations.”

Mind you, “I’m very grateful to the owners who have supported us,” he says.

And those owners who have supported him are grateful in return.

“I think he’s the complete package,” says Aron Wellman, over the telephone the following day. Wellman is president and founder of Eclipse Thoroughbreds, patrons of the stable since the beginning. The two men have known each other for years, even before McCarthy’s Pletcher tenure, and Wellman said that his old friend is “just starting to hit his stride” as a trainer.

“I think we’ve seen the scope of his capabilities in the sense colts, fillies, turf, dirt, short, long–he’s developing horses the right way,” Wellman says. “He’s exhibiting patience. He’s giving them opportunities to succeed. The attention to detail, the professional organization and manner in which the barn is run and the horses are cared for, it’s second to none.”

With a solid footing now beneath him, McCarthy’s keeping one eye on the kinds of races “that put you on the map.” The Triple Crowns. The Classics. The sorts of contests he routinely figured in when joint-second in command at Team Pletcher.

“For me, those are the races I want to be involved with,” he says. “To compete in a Grade I, it’s special in itself. But to win a Grade I, it’s vindication of what you’re showing up for every day. Knowing what you’re doing is right. Trusting your opinion.”

When you’re an optimistic realist, that’s the only sort of vindication that counts.

Undefeated Amy’s Challenge (Artie Schiller) is set to return to the work tab early this week as she prepares to stretch out in trip for the first time in the GIII Honeybee S. at Oaklawn Park Mar. 10.

Owned by Joe Novogratz and trained by McLean Robertson, the dark bay bested the boys in a pair of juvenile appearances, including a tough win in the Shakopee Juvenile S. The $20,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky bargain made it three-for-three in her career with a hard-fought defeat of ‘TDN Rising Star’ Mia Mischief (Into Mischief) in the six-furlong Dixie Belle S. at the Hot Springs oval Jan. 20.

The Honeybee is the final local prep for the GIII Fantasy S. Apr. 13.

Retired autoworker Chris Littlemore was in control with two mandatory races left in Saturday’s 19th National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas. Littlemore leapfrogged Keith Fenton mid-afternoon and booked his ticket to Sunday’s semifinal round with a string of solid scores. He led with 273.10 cumulative points to Fenton’s 241.50. Daniel Hart, Mike Yurczyk and Earnest Powers completed the top five. 10% of the 700 entries, or 70 entries, will make Sunday’s semifinal. From there, the top 10 players advance to the afternoon’s Final Table, where a winner will be crowed. The tournament victor will bank $800,000 and earn an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year. Other notables who looked on their way to the semifinal included Friday’s Day 1 winner Michael Ryan (13th at the time of writing), the 2015 NHC champ Jonathan Kinchen (31st), and Ten Strike Racing’s Clay Sanders (39th). Track announcer Vic Stauffer was on the outside looking in at 87, but was within striking distance.

LRF’s Fenton Enjoys NHC Tour Success

Early last year, Gary Fenton told his wife one of his goals was to make it to the National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas. It didn’t take long to make it happen. In his first year on the NHC Tour, Fenton finished fourth among all rookies, 113th of 3811 overall, and booked his ticket to Treasure Island with a late-season tournament win just before Thanksgiving.

“I know a lot of horseplayers, and have always had a lot of respect for what they do,” said Fenton. “Being on the tour this year, I have an even better appreciation for what they go through–the grind of it and the mentality it takes.”

Fenton is better known to most in the horse business as the co-managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing Club. But he hopes to add another title in the coming years: NHC champion. Fenton is already handling the tournament scene like and old pro. In Thursday’s Last Chance Tournament at Treasure Island, Fenton finished ninth, earning a second NHC entry.

Midway through Saturday’s action, Fenton was within striking distance of making Sunday’s semifinal: he was in 87th with 117.80 points. The top 70 make the semifinal.

Fenton might’ve had a few more bucks to his credit if contest rules didn’t state that players must declare ownership interests and forbids them from playing a race in which they own a horse. On Friday, LRF’s Secret Spice (Discreet Cat) ran a strong second in a Santa Anita allowance.

“It hurt me a little bit, because I didn’t cash in the Oaklawn race I had to play instead, and would’ve had her–she was training great,” he smiled. “But that’s happens.”

Fenton was always a racing fan growing up in Beverly Hills, and handicapping became a part of his love of the sport.

“My grandfather was a big gambler in Vegas, and I grew up gambling a little bit,” he said.

Fenton and LRF founder Billy Koch grew up a few blocks away from each other, and by the early 2000s, the men were putting together partnerships of college buddies, using different monikers for each one.

They went through four or five different names before a horse named Singletary came along under the Little Red Feather banner. The 2004 GI Breeders’ Cup Mile winner cemented that name, and after his success, they put together an actual business plan and began raising money. Some 13 years and 140-odd partnerships later, LRF is maybe the most recognized syndicate in California.

With time running out to make the cut, Fenton said he was just relishing the experience.

“I’m just going to try and keep battling,” he said. “This is fun. Being in here with everybody and seeing the process, it’s important for the industry, and I hope it continues to grow and people support it.”

3rd-AQU, $60,000, Msw, 6f, 3yo, post time: 1:54 p.m. ET
Lady Sheila Stable’s first-time starter BROADWAY BANDIT (Midnight Lute) threw a shoe while blitzing a furlong in :9 4/5 before topping the OBS June sale when selling to trainer Linda Rice for $320,000 last summer. TJCIS PPs

5th-GP, $50,000, Msw, 5fT, 3yo, post time: 2:00 p.m. ET
ALL SYSTEMS GO (Orb) makes his first trip to the post for trainer Todd Pletcher. A $450,000 KEESEP yearling, the dark bay is the first foal out of graded winner Just Louise (Five Star Day). Just Louise is a half-sister to MGSW Sara Louise (Malibu Moon), whose 3-year-old daughter Sara Street (Street Sense) graduated at Belmont last Sunday. TJCIS PPs

7th-GP, $50,000, Msw, 1 1/16m, 3yo, post time: 3:04 p.m. ET
Karl and Cathi Glassman’s APOSTLE (Medaglia d’Oro), a $900,000 OBS March graduate, faded to fifth in his seven-furlong debut at this track Jan. 6. Out of Apt (A.P. Indy), the bay colt is a half to GSW Carve (First Samurai) and GISP Apropos (First Samurai). Second that day was the reopposing Orbed (Orb), a $525,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic juvenile purchase. TJCIS PPs

10th-SA, $54,000, Msw, 3yo, 6 1/2fT, post time: 7:30 p.m. ET
PHOENIX FIRE (Tapit), purchased by Stonestreet Stables and M V Magnier for $1.25 million at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, debuts for trainer Bob Baffert. Out of Rote (Tiznow), the gray colt is a full-brother to GSP Royal Obsession, who sold for $1.8 million at the 2017 Keeneland November sale. TJCIS PPs

The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance has always operated on the premise that horse welfare is a team sport, and the organization is making its presence felt at the NHC for the first time in Las Vegas this year.

“We’ve been here in spirit, in the sense that we’ve had information here, but we’ve never been here in person,” said Stacie Clark, operations consultant for the TAA. “We’ve got some exciting projects going on, and this is the heart of the whole game–this is where we all get our purse money and where we get our fans–and we felt it was time to better know the players and do some networking.”

One of the most exciting TAA developments is a project developed in concert with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), AmTote and The Stronach Group. Announced last summer while still in development, the project gives the opportunity for horse players cashing winning tickets at AmTote machines the option of making a donation to the TAA.

“The idea was to find a way for the player to give back at the betting window,” Clark explained. “So when you put your winning voucher in, you have the option to make a donation. Depending on how much you’ve won, it could be $1, $5, $10, etc. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, there’s a “No thank you” button. If you do, it gives you a receipt.”

The project was begun two years ago. It was tested at the Pegasus World Cup in 2016, again at Laurel in the fall and finally to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in November.

“We went through the whole Breeders’ Cup without a hitch,” said Clark.

In the last month, Santa Anita and Gulfstream have both embraced the program, joining Laurel and Del Mar as the four tracks where players have that option. The program could soon be nationwide.

“It can be available at all the tracks that carry AmTote machines, we just have to go to those tracks and talk to them about what we do, and ask them to turn the service on. The NYRA tracks, for instance, have already inquired about it, so we’ll go spend some time with Martin Panza and Chris Kay up there.”

Clark said the project was a reason the TAA is making its inaugural visit to the NHC.

“When we’re asking for money at the AmTote machines, players should know who the TAA is and what we do,” she said. “Plus the NTRA has always been great to the TAA, and we’ve been the charity for the Eclipse Awards and, in kind, for this handicapping contest.”

Clark said many players had already made cash donations at the TAA table at the NHC, and several others had made pledges should the win a cash prize at the NHC.

“We’ve had a lot of people make promises, so let’s hope one of them wins!” Clark laughed.