Hamm makes Breeders' Cup training debut with Dayoutoftheoffice

In 1995, Tim Hamm was working in construction in Ohio. As a hobby, he got into the horse racing game, buying his first horse for $10,000.

Since then, his horse business has gone from a fun pastime to his career, and on Friday he will have his first Breeders’ Cup runner as a trainer with Dayoutoftheoffice in the Juvenile Fillies. He previously came to the the Breeders' Cup as an owner of Too Much Bling, who finished ninth in the 2006 Sprint.

“We just kind of started with one horse,” Hamm said of his rise through the racing world. “We did a lot of partnerships along the way, we do a lot of homebreds. Our breeding is based out of Ohio. We partnered with WinStar about a decade ago and built that relationship into a prosperous one, just one day at a time.”

Dayoutoftheoffice, a daughter of Into Mischief out of Gottahaveadream, by Indian Charlie, is coming off a victory in the Grade 1 Frizette at Belmont Park on Oct. 10. She is undefeated in her three-race career and holds another graded stakes victory from the Schuylerville (G3) at Saratoga in July.

In the Juvenile Fillies, she’ll face off against six other fillies, including Bob Baffert’s Princess Noor and Ken McPeek’s Simply Ravishing. Hamm had high praise for the competition, especially Princess Noor.

Dayoutoftheoffice will break from the third post position, and Hamm said he likes the spot.

“I think the race — it’s a seven-horse field,” Hamm said. “I don’t think there should be a traffic problem. I think all the horses should get out, and I think there’s some speed inside us.”

Hamm said his filly has had well-timed races this season, setting her up for Breeders' Cup success.

“We felt good about it,” Hamm said of the filly’s run in the Frizette. “We felt her campaign was properly spaced to have a fresh horse at the end of the year. I thought that was the big hurdle, up till then, obviously.”

He also spoke about how much it means to have his first trainee in the Breeders’ Cup.

“It’s good,” Hamm said. “It’s where you want to end up, it’s where you want to be at the end of each year, hopefully with something and it’s a great feeling. When you do this, we’ve been doing it over 25 years now, I guess you work hard and expect it to happen some time.”

The Breeders’ Cup is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Keeneland.