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4.14 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5 7 "Tis is printed every morning. Tose are the grooms on the left. Te yellow means they had a major work, the blues are jogs and the whites are gallops. Te little initials are the exercise riders. No groom can say my horse isn't ready because this is posted all over the barn." What time do you go home? "I usually leave here about 10:30 or 11 (a.m.). I go home, clean up and come back. If we're not running that day, I'll come back at 3. If we are, there's a two-hour window I have." Do you think a horse knows when it has won a race? "Yes." And does it make them proud? "Yes. I think it changes them, especially if they win two or three. Tey get the idea. Tey develop a style. For example, Will Take Charge has developed that late run, that charge to the wire. He knows that's what is expected of him. I think it does change them mentally, and I really believe they do understand if they win. Tey're bred to be competitive. Tey're bred to run. And that gene pool kicks in after they've had a few runs and they know the diference." Tank you for your time. We'll see you back in Louisville. "It won't be long, will it?" What's your favorite part of the day? "Without a doubt, my favorite part of the day is the mornings at the barn. Actually, when I bought my house in Lake Forest, I was concerned about that 18-mile drive to Churchill. But it's been a godsend. I make a cup of cofee, leave the house and I drive in and it lets me mentally set the whole day. So when I arrive at the barn, I'm pretty much organized." What else in the mornings? "We have a little staf meeting about 4:30, and we have fve minutes of democracy. My assistants claim they need rollover minutes, but I don't give them any (laughs). We discuss the morning, what we're going to do. I pretty much lay it out; there's not a lot of discussion. But we're well organized and intense." You can tell when you walk into the ofce here — all the papers tacked neatly to the wall with schedules. "We're disciplined. Tere's no conversation in the barn. It's only in the last eight or 10 years that I've allowed a cofee pot in the barn. Nobody has an iPod or Walkman or earphones that they're tuned into. None of that. Nobody is allowed to swear but me. It's very, very quiet and intense, and everybody knows their job." He reaches into a trash bin next to the desk and pulls out a copy of the day's "set list," a color-coded grid with horses' names, grooms' names, exercise riders, times and track. Photo by Nicholas Karem Lukas on the morning of Derby Wednesday, 2013. 44-63.indd 57 3/20/14 10:06 AM