McPeek: ‘I don’t envision myself training 10 more years’
Ken McPeek, at the height of his training powers, is beginning to eye the end of that phase of his career.
“I don’t envision myself training 10 more years,” he told Horse Racing Nation.
McPeek, 62, has been a trainer since 1985. He is nearing the end of a remarkable season with an operation he has built steadily, sweeping the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks with Thorpedo Anna and Kentucky Derby 2024 with Mystik Dan. He was the first trainer to accomplish that since Plain Ben Jones in 1952.
Flashback: McPeek ends his Breeders’ Cup drought.
Thorpedo Anna, a leading candidate for horse of the year, provided McPeek with his first Breeders’ Cup triumph with a commanding gate-to-wire performance Nov. 2 in the $2 million Distaff. He had gone winless with his first 37 Breeders’ Cup starters but had seven second-place efforts and 10 third-place results. Only one of his first 37 runners was favored.
His efforts extend far beyond the track. He works the sales hard and is renowned for his ability to spot bargains such as Thorpedo Anna, a $40,000 yearling. In addition he owns and operates Magdalena Farm in Lexington, Ky., with his wife, Sherri. He developed the Horse Now app as a “passion project.”
McPeek is not contemplating kicking back anytime soon. He has begun considering the next phase of his career.
“In my 70s or early 70s, I’ll come up with an exit strategy, maybe even find a young trainer to hand off to,” he said. “I just want to stay steady for the next 8-10 years.”
McPeek went on, saying, “You’re not going to see me training into my 80s. I’m not going to be Wayne Lukas. I think there is a point in time where you say enough. It does take an enormous amount of energy to do what we did.”
Lukas, at 88, became the oldest trainer to win a Triple Crown race when front-running Seize the Grey denied runner-up Mystik Dan in the Preakness. Lukas still climbs aboard his pony to oversee his horses on the track in the morning.
Few trainers are as devoted to promoting their sport as McPeek. The Turf Publicists of America honored him last month with the Big Sport of Turfdom award for the second time for his cooperation with members of the media and racing publicists. He previously won that award in 2002
The good of the game was very much on his mind when he decided to test Thorpedo Anna against the boys in the Travers (G1) in a bid to become the first filly to win that race since 1915. She staged a tremendous rally and narrowly missed overtaking Fierceness by a head in an immensely popular edition of Saratoga’s mid-summer derby.
When McPeek decided to send the filly Swiss Skydiver against males in the 2020 Preakness, her success provided one of the few racing highlights during a season turned upside down by the pandemic.
McPeek is proud of the impact of Horses Now. He said the app continues to grow by an average of 5,000 users per month, a bright spot as racing struggles to change an all-too-gray demographic.
“What I really want to see before I leave the sport is a sort of correction on the direction of the sport,” McPeek said. “I’m willing to step back and devote my energy to something like that at some point. Maybe at the end of my training career I can do more of that.”
McPeek lamented that certain factions in the industry pursue self-interests while losing sight of the common good and the big picture.
“I want to see the sport grow domestically,” he said. “We just don’t have an answer as to why the sport is losing fans, losing market share. The percentage of Americans who watch horse racing is ridiculous. It’s been disconcerting for a long time.”