By Emily Shields
New California Thoroughbred Breeders Association board member Gloria Haley truly believes that horse racing is a team sport, and not just within each barn. Haley would love to see the powers in racing, both in the state and the nation, band together to fix mounting problems, such as purse troubles and finding careers for retired racehorses.
“Sport is important to me, and I love that that’s exactly what our game is: sport,” Haley said. As owners, trainers and racetracks, we all have to be unified in our effort to make racing succeed. We are like a clock, and we need to all turn as gears to make it work.”
Sports philosophy runs in Haley’s background, as the 63-year-old grew up officiating softball and volleyball games.
At Sonoma State University she studied physical education and physiology and eventually realized how much of what she was learning applied to horse racing.
“I was coaching at Santa Rosa High at the time,” she said, “when I realized how useful my knowledge of physiology, exercise, and nutrition would be in another sport, like racing. So I bought my first broodmare, and now I’ve been training for over 30 years.”
Horses conditioned by Haley have earned more than $3.1 million on the track, with 174 wins in 1,972 starts. She is based out of Golden Gate Fields but often runs at the Northern California fairs and will ship an occasional horse south to Santa Anita Park and Del Mar.
Possibly the best horse Haley has trained has been Yerevan Star, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Menifee—Sara Six, by Saratoga Six. Thee chestnut filly surprised when breaking her maiden in her second start at Pleasanton in 2004. She turned heads with a gutsy comeback performance along the rail after being headed in late stretch to score by a nose at 13-1.
In her very next start Yerevan Star won the $43,565 Fairfield Stakes at the Solano Fair, giving her owners, the Petrosian Brothers Racing Stable, an unexpected stakes score. Although Yerevan Star found racing in Southern California a bit tough with a sixth-place effort in the $81,450 Torrey Pines Stakes, her performance was forgivable in that she missed the break and bore out around the first turn.
Yerevan Star returned to her winning ways in an allowance optional claiming event at Golden Gate in December, holding on for the win despite breaking stride in deep stretch. That race set her up to run exclusively in stakes company throughout the 2005 season and into 2006. She finished worse than fifth only twice more in her career and added the $58,712 Camilla Urso Stakes at Golden Gate in May 2005. Yerevan Star’s racing days concluded with four wins, two seconds, and three thirds from 15 starts and earnings of $131,018.
More recently Haley has conditioned the likes of California-bred Convoy and Mandala.
Convoy finished fifth as a maiden in California Chrome’s $200,500 King Glorious Stakes but returned to break his maiden Feb. 8, 2014. After Convoy ran well in allowance optional claiming events at Golden Gate and Pleasanton throughout the year, Haley opted to run him in the $201,000 Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar.
Convoy finished third at 36-1, beaten 2 ¾ lengths for the victory and outrunning the likes of eventual multiple graded stakes winner Alert Bay.
A 4-year-old son of Siberian Summer—Sweet Femme, by Saratoga Six, Convoy has earnings of $117,597. He is still in training and finished third at Golden Gate in a Feb. 7 allowance race.
Mandala took eight tries to break his maiden, but he finally did in strong fashion, scoring by a head over open company Dec. 8, 2013. The son of Benchmark is out of one of Haley’s broodmares, Kriskeri, by Rehaan. Mandala has earned $124,115.
Kriskeri is also the dam of Mandala’s full sister Windover, who raced for Haley and Rhianon Farms and was bred in partnership with Haley’s husband, Dr. Donald Smith, a veterinarian practicing near where they reside in Berkeley. Windover won three of 15 starts with 11 top-three finishes. She has since produced one foal for her connections, a Cal-bred Scat Daddy colt.
Kriskeri was a Canadian stakes winner before Haley purchased her in 1999. In addition to Mandala and Windover, she has a juvenile filly by Rocky Bar named Khalaya.
Haley and Smith keep their mares at Woodbridge Farm in Oakdale. Two are currently in foal to Lucky Pulpit and one to Tribal Rule. Lucky Pulpit is also the sire of 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome, a horse that Haley thinks of quite highly.
“He’s a wonderful ambassador to our sport,” she said. “His trainer, Art Sherman, is just an amazing person, and he’s done so well with the horse. Chrome is a great representative for breeding and racing in our state.”
If Haley’s racehorses can’t go on to be broodmares, she works hard to find them new, permanent homes.
“I rehab and retrain them if needed,” she said. “They might go to new careers like jumping. One recently went to a 12-year-old girl.”
Finding careers for retired racehorses is just another extension of Haley’s mission to get those in charge of horse racing to act more like a team. She joined the board of directors of the California Thoroughbred Trainers (CTT) in 2007 as the Northern California vice president, and she was appointed as a CTBA board member early this year.
“We need someone who can speak up and protect the sport in Northern California,” she said. “As a team, we must do the best we can do. If you win, you better have won the right way.”
From her new position at the CTBA, Haley hopes to emphasize the importance of racing in Northern California to the rest of the state.
“We are stronger as a whole than we are apart,” she said. “Northern California needs to come into focus as an important part of the game.”