SINCE three-year-old May-born Arrogate colt (rig) Arcangelo claimed glory in the Belmont Stakes a couple of weeks ago, it’s been well documented that Jena Antonucci is the first female trainer in its 155-year history to lift the famous Tiffany trophy. Behind the scenes and celebrations however, Antonucci’s refreshing ‘horse-forward’ approach to training and all-female team are inviting a shift in perspective for the world of American horse racing.

Helen Sharp (HS): You broke, pre-trained and trained Blue Rose Farm’s Arcangelo, and you chose to run him pretty late in his two-year-old year season. Why did you make that decision?

Jena Antonucci (JA): The owner (Jon Ebbert) just hadn’t settled into everything he was going to do. Our relationship grew and Arcangelo came to us very early in that two-year-old year. We kind of backed up because he was so young. We wanted to make sure that he had the foundation and the fundamentals that we like to put in young horses. Yes, he had been saddled before us, but then we kind of backed up again. We drove him a little bit and did round pen work - a lot of that groundwork that we find so important in our programme. Jon had always intended for him to be a later starter - young horse, late birthday, Unbridled’s Song kind of family - just stuff that needed time to come together. There were no big glaring holes in the horse, he was just an awkward kid with a lot of parts and a lot of directions.

We got as far as we could get at our Bella Inizio Farm and then he needed to go and see the world because he was very over-processing, quick-thinking, took everything in, and he was going to get bored and do naughty things that were going to hurt him. So, we said, okay, we’re going to send you north. That’s why we went to Saratoga last summer with him, and he got to live up there and see the big world. And it proved to be invaluable for him to help his brain mature. We were spacing his breezes out as far as we could. And when he would get too naughty, then we were like, okay, you need to do another piece of speed work to bring you back down a little bit. And that’s how we managed him.

HS: I watched the May 31st footage of Arcangelo breezing at Belmont Park in the run up to the Belmont Stakes. You were ponying him up the track on your own horse. You studied every bit of him and gave lots of reassurance; you were really minding him. Then you let him fly. After his five furlongs you were straight back by his side, wiping his nose, giving more reassurances and there were big grins from you and jockey Javier Castellano. Why do you ride up with Arcangelo like that for his breezes?

JA: He allows it, right? It’s not every horse that we fuss about and lean into in that regard, because they don’t all appreciate it, whereas this guy does and kind of looks for it. That’s probably a little bit of that immaturity and that insecurity in him, still finding his way. Before he trains you’re not going to go and cuddle him, he’s going to do naughty things and be a boy and that’s fine. But when he’s done training, he absolutely leans into those moments, and almost looks for them. I wish all colts were that way, but they’re not. For him it’s something that he appreciates, he likes to be talked to and Javier does a good job of talking to him as well, which is important, and for this horse it’s something that he feeds off.

The big grins after were because it was like nothing for him, it gave Javier a lot of confidence in the horse as he’s continuing to learn about him and so just to watch him be so (gesturing) tick tick tick as an immature lightly raced colt is pretty gratifying.

HS: I’ve heard you talk about ‘the instinct for training’. How does that manifest itself?

JA: I think you have a loose frame, we know we have to get X amount of fitness at whatever stage we’re at, if we’re starting a new one, if we’re fine-tuning for a race. I think there is such a thing as a horse being too fit. So, it’s finding that balance with all of them. And we do try and establish a base fitness and a base set of where we need a horse to be that we can fine tune. I think at that point it’s leaning into the horse, and seeing where they are and how they’re checking in.

There are some horses it doesn’t matter how often you breeze them, or put speed work in them, they’re going to need to get fit through racing. And so that’s a whole other set of conversations with an owner, don’t expect to win early because this horse just needs to go and do its job to really get to that next level of fitness - it’s a process.

I think philosophically, it’s not getting stuck too hard on the ‘we have to check all these boxes’, because it may not work for a filly who wants to sprint, or you know, a two-turn guy that wants to run in the dirt. It’s just really trying to lean into each horse as an individual at that point, making sure we’ve covered all of the educational stuff, starting gate, paddock, saddling, ponying that we do more in the States than you guys do abroad.

So, I think leaning into that core set is really important for the horse so that we know they’re receiving all that training well, and then everything else is just listening.

HS: What makes a thoroughbred go faster, mind or body?

JA: A year! We don’t get the opportunity to go and buy the Mustang or the Ferrari that we know is just going to show up. I think that’s what keeps people coming back to this industry all over the world. You know, people say a horse is supposed to be able to do this or that. Well, horses can’t read their pedigree, they don’t care who they’re related to and they don’t care who their parents are. So that’s what makes it such a sentient being thing.

I think happy horses perform better at whatever their level is. But you know, with the lean in of all of the new welfare regulations and things, hopefully it’s getting better all over the world, with less designer or medications.

For me, I truly believe they either are talented and they want it or they don’t. And it’s maximising whatever you have in that one horse. There’s not claiming over there, but your handicapping system and weighting system is different than what we have here, but for here, if you have a claiming level horse and that’s the best that horse is going to be, that’s fine. Let’s embrace that and let them flourish at that level. You know, this horse just happens to love his job and be pretty talented. I’ll stay out of his way as long as I can!

HS: You’ve done a lot of rehabbing thoroughbreds and you also studied vet nursing. Can you talk a little bit about why you chose to do that?

JA: I grew up riding and I grew up retraining a lot of thoroughbreds. It’s just second nature. In growing up showing, you had little quarter horses or crosses or stuff coming off the track. That was our breed. And so, you’re so immersed in it - how to get along with horses and how to know if they’re a little bit hotter, how you learn to have a quieter seat, and you just learn so much about it without even realising what you’re learning. And so it was, I was in my early 20s, wanting to make sure that I was retraining them better and understanding what I was undoing in them in order to redo to be a show horse or whatever their next career was. Out of that desire to understand the process I learned how to start thoroughbreds. I learned what it meant to get them ready to be racehorses.

The veterinary side happened partially because of my personal life at the time, but it was such a great exposure and opportunity. That practice had everything from reproductive work through to sports medicine, and sales work, so it allowed me to do all the cycles, which ironically I now do all these years later. I say it’s like the Masters class, you know. You’re picking up little nuggets that later on in life, you end up leaning into and thinking wow, that was amazing. I didn’t even realise what I was learning at the time. So that was what launched my rehabbing and retraining and then the broodmare side and raising young horses in sales or prepping, you know, weanlings and yearlings and two-year-olds, that happened organically for me because of that exposure and living and doing all of those things.

HS: Is there anything that you do as a trainer to put in a foundation for a post-racing career?

JA: Every horse that I start and bring along in our programme isn’t going to go racing with me. And so, for me, it’s just trying to make them good students and good citizens for later in life, that they understand what these core things are, because it doesn’t matter what discipline they are in, they need to steer, they need to know what brakes mean. They need to be respectful, you know, to who’s on their back. And so I have found that if they understand that process, instead of having it crammed down their throat, it allows them to adjust to things later on more effortlessly. It allows them to trust more. I think the cornerstone of it all is making sure that we’re creating a trusting relationship, because they give you so much more when they trust their bubble of people.

HS: You described yourself as ‘a student of observation’. What are the fundamentals you’ve learned in observing thoroughbreds?

JA: (Laughing) They don’t shut up! They’re constantly chattering at you! But I think all horses really are to be honest. I think there’s a lot to be learned when you quietly walk down a shed row and you just observe your horses, watching how they’re standing, where they’re standing. The how and the what are such important questions for any horse, but especially for the racing aspect, if you’re walking down a shed row and one filly is always in the corner of her stall facing away from the world, why? Because they’re very chatty, they want to be engaged for the most part. Some of those nuances are not a little nuance, they’re big ones. Is the horse standing on the banking? Are they trying to change the angles on their feet? Why are they doing that? If a horse is standing a little camped up underneath himself, is the hamstring or their sacroiliac sore? I think the observation part of what we do, such as how they train, it’s actually when they’re not training and they’re in their own safe space taking care of themselves to really be mindful of. What’s happening for them? And it’s appreciating everything that they’re telling you by what they are and are not doing.

HS: I was wondering what the post-Belmont process was for Arcangelo?

JA: He actually got off as much time as he wanted, he was turned out every day in the round pen. In that time period, we shifted from downstate New York to upstate Saratoga from Belmont. We actually just put him back under tack a few days ago. He had almost two weeks off: I had never given him that much time off to just do nothing, but he ran hard, he probably won’t ever have to run a mile and a half again, and I just wanted to make sure that he was rewarded for that and given the space. We’re not chasing hard race dates, so we have that flexibility just to give his body and mind time to come back down to earth a little bit.

HS: The rumour mill is in full swing about Arcangelo’s future, is there a plan in place for him you can share?

JA: We’re definitely aiming at a summer race, likely at Saratoga. We’re happy with where he is and what he’s doing. The focus has always been to have a light three-year-old year, because his owner would like him to run as a four-year-old, as long as everything is good and healthy and well. So, we’ll continue to stay focused on that and probably have a couple more spots, two, maybe three, to get us through the 2023 calendar. But again, it’ll be him telling us and as long as he’s well, we’ll keep finding goals for him.

HS: What do you truly believe a trainer can do to support racehorses against breaking down?

JA: You know, there’s so many contributing factors. It’s a very different conversation for us than it is for you guys over there. I think there’s an honest element to things – it’s not always going to go right. And I appreciate that everybody always wants everything to live, but that’s sometimes not the case. Our pets die, our parents die, you know, things die. And not to oversimplify that, and for that to sound terrible, but sometimes it is just that simple. Not a single horseman anywhere on this globe sends a horse out to the racetrack hoping it dies. I think we have to do better at telling that story across the globe, that it’s not inhumane. We’re all animal lovers and sometimes bad things happen. And so how we continue to do better with that has to happen in everyone’s yard. And if that’s making sure veterinarians are going through horses more, if you’re seeing a common issue in your stable, whatever the variable is, it’s just being as diligent as possible to steward the best decisions we can.

HS: You’re a huge supporter of aftercare and new careers for off-track horses. Of the post-racing careers, why do you think thoroughbreds are suited for the equine assisted learning and therapy job?

JA: They are so intuitive. I’ve talked about this often, about biorhythms. Everything in life is a biorhythm. Humans tend to be faster, whales are really slow, you know, horses kind of fall in the middle. I think the fact that the thoroughbred breed is so smart typically – (laughing) typically! I realise there’s a couple of apples that, you know, they need to not be involved with other things that are a little special! But all in all, the breed is very smart and they pick up on things quite quickly.

I think all equines for the most part mirror their humans. I have a very special place in my heart for any therapy with horses and children with disabilities or adults with post-traumatic stress, horses move mountains for people, and when you watch it, if it doesn’t just bring you to tears - I am not an easy crier, but anytime I watch a horse with a child struggling or an adult with trauma, I’m like, keep it together Jena, keep it together. Because it’s just so honest. And it’s nothing that can be fabricated. And that is, I think, part of the allure of the horse - they’re just so honest. And so, when you watch them do something that is so selfless, and to see the benefit that human receives from him, it’s such a gift.

HS: Both you and your Irish assistant trainer Fiona Goodwin, and your business partner Katie Miranda of White Lilac consignment, are keen to promote women in racing and women in leadership roles. The HorseOlogy website also states that you want to ‘bring humour and enjoyment back into the sport of horseracing to make it relatable to the next generation of enthusiasts, while respecting the long-steeped traditions.’ What drove you to put yourself front and central in racing?

JA: I think the horse made that happen. To be honest, you know, I’ve always been pounding away at it, on the periphery. Katie and I putting the HorseOlogy concept together, we’re just putting all our skill sets under one umbrella.

Our industry can be quite fractured with what goes where; you’ve got yearlings here, two-year-olds there, broodmares over here. So, it was really a business model that we could provide all the services in one spot for our owners and our people, from conception to retirement.

Regarding the humour, I think sometimes everyone gets so hung up. And so it’s like, why are we even doing this? If this can’t be fun and you can’t enjoy some of this, why do it? Go do something else. We take what we do seriously, but at some point you’ve got to be able to have a chuckle about things and be able to laugh at yourself. So it’s just trying to find balance really. We’re not trying to rewrite things; we’re just trying to find some balance because I have enough wrinkles and worry lines - having to be angry- faced all the time just doesn’t make any sense!