TBP: Bill, tell us about how it all started for you.

BM: My parents and my grandparents had a breeding farm just outside Vancouver, BC where I was born, in a place called Cloverdale just south of the city. They had a 40 acre place and they owned the Alibi stallion Dark Hawk, who sired the good horse George Royal amongst others. Dark Hawk was just a little horse a shade over 15 hands high, but he was a great sire, especially for mudders. So I learnt a lot about horses there on the farm, then I started hot walking at Hastings Park and when I got a little older I moved onto grooming for Carl Baze and Troy Taylor. I learnt a lot with those guys, they were great horsemen.

TBP: Who were your favorite horses that you remember growing up?

BM: George Royal was my big favorite. I remember seeing him win on the bullring at Hastings Park. Then I remember seeing him win a stake in Vancouver, Donny Richardson was on him who used to ride him for Bobby Hall most of the time. George Royal got stopped dead turning for home, but Donny just wheeled him and out and he flew down the stretch and won the race. Then he came south to Santa Anita and won the San Juan Capistrano with Johnny Longden in the plate. I remember watching him on the TV show from Santa Anita on the Saturday afternoon with Gil Stratton.

TBP: How did you get your start training?

BM: Well, I nearly didn't, because for a good while I was actually training to become an accountant. I was still grooming in the mornings but I worked in an accountant's office the rest of the day. I would groom for Carl Baze until 8.30am and then I would go put my suit and tie on and go to the accountant's office, and then do night school at UBC, after I was done there. I did three years of that and when I was graduating the accountant firm said "Bill we are looking forward to having you come on board and thinking about you becoming a partner." But all my buddies were at the track and my heart was at  the track, so I stayed at the track. My Mom wasn't very happy about it at the time... I carried on working for Carl Baze and while I was with him I bought a horse called Bright Signal for $2000 on the cuff. Joe Baze, Carl's brother and Russell's Dad, rode him for me and he won the first time I ran him. He turned out to be a nice little horse. Then a couple of years later I came down here to Northern California to claim a couple of horses to take back up north. I got a few more horses and I started off really hot, I think of the first eight I ran I had six winners a second and a fourth. I thought "this game's easy"... I knew it wasn't....but it was a fun time. Then Troy Taylor, who was by then married to my sister Marilyn, moved to Longacres and he said "why don't you come down here to Seattle?" There were a lot of good state bred bonuses in the races there so I made the move. It was about three hours drive from Hastings, I went down there and it worked out well, my barn got up to about 30 horses.

TBP: Did you come down to Northern California with horses much then?

BM: Yes, I would bring horses down to Bay Meadows in the fall for the meet there and then go back to Longacres when racing started there again. We'd finish at Longacres in September, then some of the cheaper horses would go to Portland and the better ones would come and run and train at Bay Meadows. My clients would often come down to watch their horses, they'd fly in on a Friday for the weekend and have a great time.

Then when Longacres closed in either '94 or '95, I took some horses to Yakima Meadows and Emerald Downs for a couple of years, but it wasn't great, it was kind of messy and I missed Longacres, I really enjoyed training there.

TBP: Who have been some of your favorite horses over the years?

BM: I had a filly called Family Occasion, we bought her privately for $2000 as a yearling from Diane Kim, she was a lovely lady who raised a nice horse. She broke her maiden and then she won the big $100,000 stake for two year olds over a mile at Longacres. Then I had Money By Choice, I claimed her for $25,000, she went on to win stakes races for us at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate and won a lot of money, she was also mare of the year in Washington one year. Lil Sneeker, I claimed him for $25,000, he was about the best sprinter on the grounds here for a couple of years.

TBP: Who was probably the fastest horse you have trained in terms of pure early speed?

BM: I would say a horse called Hoopstar for Rex Mudd. He was a very, very fast horse who won a number of good sprint races both here in Northern California and in Canada.

TBP: And who is perhaps the hardest trying horse you have trained?

BM: Probably Lil Sneeker, he really didn't like to get beat! But then some of the cheaper ones who don't have much talent and have some problems but try hard, that's nice to see and I have had many of those.

TBP: Do you have a certain training style? 

BB: I like my horses to break off slow in their works and then pick it up gradually. Mario Cisneros works a lot of my horses, he probably works six a week or so for me, it's good when you have someone like him who understands how you like your horses to work and can be consistent. Some riders go flying off and don't finish which isn't good for anybody.

TBP: What do you enjoy about training?

BM: I enjoy the camaraderie of the back stretch and fellow trainers for one thing. I have good owners too, some good friends, we play golf together and stuff, I have good help too, I'm very lucky that way.

TBP: How many horses do you have at the moment and which have been doing well for you recently?

BM: I have around fifteen in the barn right now. Love In The Shadows is a nice mare who recently won a nice race down at Santa Anita. I claimed her for $8000, I got outshook for her for $6250 and they ran her for $8000 next time at Pleasanton, we thought she was worth it so we dropped a claim for her again then and got her that time. Since then she's won four races, three at allowance level, she's been a great story. I have a nice two year old called Bossie Emma who ran second in a maiden allowance, I think she is going to be a handy filly, and I have another nice looking two year old called Great Decision who is going to have some rest and come back in the fall, he'll probably be a router.

TBP: What horses have you had that you felt could have been special but didn't work out for one reason or another?

BM: I had a really nice colt who I bought at a sale in Seattle a while back, I think we paid $30,000 for him which was a lot for us, but he was a big,

beautiful looking horse. He was training like a very good horse and ran promisingly but green in a maiden allowance sprint first time up. Gary Baze rode him and was very excited about him, he said "Boy when we go long on the turf with this colt he is going to be a good one." Then he strained a tendon and that was that, it was a real sickener. He did run again after he had a lot of time off, but he wasn't the same. He broke his maiden for $8000 and I eventually gave him away as a riding horse.

TBP: What do you think of synthetic tracks?

BM: I think we have the best synthetic track here at Golden Gate with the Tapeta track. It's great when it rains because it drains so fast. The old dirt track here when it rained got messy, they had to tighten it down and it got real hard. I do like dirt tracks though. I think a good well maintained dirt track is fine for horses.

TBP: What changes have you seen in training horses since you started out?

BM: Well one of the biggest changes is that we just don't have the number of horses we used to have. It used to be that if you ran a race condition like a $4000 non winners of the year it would be a full field, now you'll see maybe six horses in it. The prize money at the low end could be better, I'd like to see more attention paid to the bottom end pots, that's the bread and butter end of the business that can keep people in the game. And there used to be so many people at the track, Sundays are ok here and some Saturdays, but Thursdays and Fridays are very slow. I'm not a marketing guy but I don't know why they don't try stuff like free admission on those days. By the time you've paid to park, paid to get in, paid for a form, it's all adding up for the customers.  We have a casino down the road at San Pablo and that's big competition for us.

I think we need to pay more attention to interviewing people and the personalities involved - when my client/owner Chris Carpenter was interviewed at Santa Anita after we won there with Love In The Shadows it was nice for him and the crowd, they interviewed him in the paddock before the race too. I'd like to see more of that kind of thing.

TBP: Would you like to see more long distance races?

BM: Yes I always used to like the mile and a quarter races, and further too, they're exciting, they build up and crescendo, but we seem to be more speed, speed, speed with more five eighths and five and a half furlong races being run.

TBP: Was Lasix legal when you started training in Canada?

BM: No it wasn't. I didn't really have any bad bleeders in my barn there, but horses in Vancouver raced April through September and got the winter off, so they had plenty of rest. These horses here though in California, rather than give them rest people just keep dropping and dropping them down the claiming ladder. If horses were less stressed and had more time there wouldn't be such a problem. Even here in Northern California the Bay Meadows meet used to close before Christmas, and Golden Gate wouldn't open until February so all the horses got a nice break with five or six weeks off.

TBP: How do you feel about the future of California racing?

BM: Well it's been good to see the positive changes at Pleasanton with Oak Tree coming in. The new Turf Club there is very nice, and there are rumors that they may put a turf course in there.  Then they might get more dates, it would be nice to see a fall meet run there around October time. Los Alamitos looks like it is going to be a nice dirt track, there are more options now.

TBP: Do you have any horses for sale in the barn at the moment, how should people get in touch with you if they are interested in getting involved?

BM: I'm always looking to claim horses, I have a good bunch of owners and a lot of them have just a sixth or an eighth of a horse so you can get involved for not a lot of money and we have a lot of fun. Anyone interested can contact me on my email address, [email protected]

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