Trainer Gerry Carwood got on 2-year-old filly Malibu Angel to take her to the gate for schooling during an August morning at Saratoga, as he does with all his horses a day prior to their races. When asked about her chances, he said, “You never know how a baby runs, but schooling in the paddock and standing well in the gate is important.” He thinks highly of this daughter of Malibu Moon, and that has given her a spot in a stall at his tidy barn overlooking the track. “I came with a small stable – I could have brought more if I wanted, but I was realistic about what kind of horses need to run here. I’m enjoying myself. We have a handful of horses here that can run here, and if we can make some money, I’ll give it a shot.” He came to Saratoga because it is a chance to compete with the best, and a chance to get noticed.

Carwood’s path to this spot in Saratoga initially began in Ireland, where he grew up on the Curragh. He left school around the age of fifteen and began working with horses. “I worked in Ireland for about twelve years, and then I immigrated to England for about seven years. I worked in Lambourn and Newmarket, and then I moved up to the north of England, where I started riding jump races. I rode around the north of England as an amateur for about two years, I think, and then I came over here to America. I came over for two months and sixteen years later…” He laughed at the way the two months had stretched out so long.

What brought him to America initially was that things were quiet where he was. “I basically came to have a look and see what was going on. I liked the way the operation was run out here and I said I’d stay for awhile. But I stayed with the steeplechase circuit, so I pretty much lived in Pennsylvania, Middleburg, Camden in the winter, and I rode that circuit all around Virginia over the jumps for about three years. Then I decided I wanted to get back into the flat horses, and I went back to the flat track. I worked as an assistant for about eight years, and then I went out on my own public.”

He trains privately now, and Lynn Alexander of Texas is his main owner. The shingle outside of Carwood’s barn reads Alastar Thoroughbred – as Alastar is also the name of Alexander’s farm in Kentucky. This operation has given Carwood the opportunity to be more involved in the game and to have more input. “I am a very hands-on trainer. Twenty horses is perfect. I like to be around them and know what’s going on.” He also rides when his string is small, as he did the morning Malibu Angel went to the gate. Getting on the horses himself gives him good input and an edge, though he doesn’t breeze them.

As he did bring a small stable to Saratoga, one key element that helped dictate which horses he brought here, and looks for to have in his stable, is also one that was influenced by his background growing up in Ireland and working in England. “The background I come from is the old line of old grass horses, and that’s why I love to have old grass horses in the barn, a horse like Tahoe Lake and one like that type I grew up with.” Tahoe Lake is a seven-year-old Brazilian-bred gelding who joined Carwood’s barn in April after being trained by Kenny McPeek. He has multiple graded-stakes placings, and first ran for Carwood in June at Churchill Downs, making his first start after a 9-month layoff. He finished fifth, though only beaten by two lengths. He said when Tahoe Lake retires, he’d like to make him a steeplechaser or his track pony, but before that there’s more flat racing to be done.

Tahoe Lake was entered in a race at the distance of a mile and three sixteenths the day after the Whitney, five races after Malibu Angel’s first start. From there, he hoped to run Tahoe Lake in the Sword Dancer. “He needs to go a lot further, but it’s a good spot to get fit for the Sword Dancer, going 1 ½ miles. He’s a route horse, all on the grass.”

Another factor that brought him to Saratoga with his own string, while previously racing in Kentucky, at Gulfstream, and at Tampa, was that the horses tell you where to go. Where Malibu Angel, Tahoe Lake, and the rest of his stable have brought him is a great place to be. While their races on August 4th didn’t result in wins, it was still another step in laying that foundation for future success. After they returned to the barn, he said, “Tahoe Lake needed more pace, and the filly ran good for a first-timer. She’ll improve ten lengths off that.” With the training regimen and the focus on each horse that Carwood has, no doubt she will. It’s just a matter of time.

A special thanks to Sean Clancy for arranging this interview, and providing the story focus for this article.