Saratoga Q&A: Saffie Joseph Jr.

[Wandering Eyes]

Saffie Joseph Jr. is easy to pick out. It's got to be the hair. He talks about the long locks he has on his head and what it would take for him to cut it off. He talks about Skippylongstocking going for his third straight win in the Charles Town Classic. He compares the weather of Saratoga to Florida. And, it might surprise you what actor he picks to play himself if ever there was a movie made about his life. He sat down with the TDN's Tim Wilkin to talk about all of this and more. Here is the Saratoga Q&A.

TDN: I'm going to start with your meet so far (five wins, nine seconds and eight thirds in 34 starts). Are you happy with how it's going?
SJ: Yes. The horses are running, You would always like a few more wins. Once they are running and finishing second and third, you can't complain. We have had a couple of tough beats in some stakes. We have a few more weeks; hopefully we can get a couple more wins.

TDN: You are the king at Gulfstream lately. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you have a dozen straight training titles and four straight at the championship meet. What is the secret down there?
SJ: You have the horses, and you have the numbers, That's the secret for any trainer. You need good owners, and you need numbers to win championships. We have both. We have quality, we have numbers, and we have a good staff.

TDN: Florida is your home base. Is that your favorite track?
SJ: It's home, but you can take it for granted… how beautiful it is. I ask a lot of owners when they come in what their favorite track is–they don't live there–and they say Gulfstream. I take it a little for granted. I love Saratoga, too. I think next year we are going to move a big string up here.

TDN: How many horses do you have here?
SJ: Fifty.

TDN: How many do you have in Florida?
SJ: One hundred-plus.

TDN: So, you have just south of 200 horses. How do you keep track of them all?
SJ: I have good help, and we have an organized system. We know every horse's location. True technology today as far as video on the horses. That's all I do, all day. I would say every night, from 9 to 11:30, I go through all my horses.

TDN: What time are you getting up in the morning?
SJ: It depends on the day. Some mornings I get up at 5, some days I am up at 4:30.

TDN: Doing the math, that's not a lot of sleep every night.
SJ: No, but once you are doing good, it's enough sleep. You have the adrenaline, and you are working off the adrenaline. Mondays are kind of a rest day–not in Saratoga–but in Florida. You get your rest then.

TDN: When you're winning, it probably doesn't matter how much sleep you get.
SJ (smiles): When you're winning, everything comes easy. When you lose, everything goes harder.

TDN: The first time I met you was your breakthrough race in the United States when Math Wizard won the Pennsylvania Derby in 2019 at odds of 31-1. I remember how emotional you were after that. Are you an emotional guy or was it just that race?
SJ: I think I'm an emotional guy… no, I am definitely emotional. There are no two ways about it. I am high or low, there is no in between. I try not to get too high or too low because in this game you can get very low very quickly.

Math Wizard | Sarah Andrew

TDN: You grew up in Barbados. Your dad was a trainer. Does he still train?
SJ: Not anymore. He's at the barn all the time.

TDN: How often do you go to him for advice?
SJ: All the time. We butt heads every day. We argue a lot because he has a different opinion than me. Sometimes I see things that he doesn't see. We argue a lot, but we are always arguing over the horse. We are trying to come up with the right decision for the horse. A lot of times I might not have the answer, and I rely on him to give me a little push to find the answer.

TDN: You grew up watching him. You must have figured you wanted to do this from a young age. How old were you when you said this is what you wanted to do?
SJ: When I was young, six or seven, I wanted to be a jockey. When I was 10, 11, I wanted to be a trainer. When you get older, 15 or 16, you are kind of searching, trying to find out what you want to do in life. I knew it wasn't school for me. I knew it had to be something in either the gambling side of the industry or the training side. I did the gambling side in Barbados but it didn't give me the highs of training a horse. I got more excited about training; I didn't want to be in an office all day. I like being outside. I like understanding a horse. When you can read a horse, that's the best part of training. That is what intrigues me the most. When you are in a large operation, you depend on people. That's the hardest part for me, to depend on other people to make a decision for me. I like to have the ball in my hands and be the one to make or miss a shot.

TDN: Next week, you are making your annual trip to West Virginia. Skippylongstocking is going for his third straight win in the $1 million Charles Town Classic. You drove the last two years. You driving again this year?
SJ: I am going to drive again.

TDN: How long does it take?
SJ: I don't know… seven and a half, eight hours.

TDN: And then you turn around and come back right after the race. Night race.
SJ: The drive has been easy because he has won the last two years. If he loses, I don't know how the drive would be (laughs). Hopefully he keeps winning.

TDN: The race is Friday night. When do you leave here?
SJ: We leave Thursday after training and get there mid-day.

TDN: Does someone go with you?
SJ: Someone goes with me. Last year, I drove.

TDN: What time did you get home?
SJ: Two years ago, we got back at like 5 in the morning. Last year, we slept for a couple hours and got back at 10 or 11 in the morning. Travers Day.

TDN: That sounds crazy.
SJ: You are working off adrenaline because we won. If we don't win, it's going to be a long, long drive.

TDN: Do you like your chances this year?
SJ: We've got some good shots. We are running in all three stakes. The 3-year-old boys ($500,000 Robert Hilton Memorial), the ($750,000) Oaks and the Classic.

Skippylongstocking schools | Sarah Andrew

TDN: Who is in the Oaks?
SJ: We are trying to run three. Luvumorgan, Andrea and Indy Bay. Skippy and Alexander Helios in the Classic and Neoequos in the boys 3-year-old race.

TDN: In baseball, if you bat .300, you are going to end up in the Hall of Fame.
SJ: If you are .300 in horse racing, they'll say you cheated. You try to bat above .200 in horse racing.

TDN: You lose a lot more than you win in this game. How do you deal with that?
SJ: That is why balance is important. You can't celebrate a win too much and you can't get too low. You have to be able to turn the page. What happened yesterday doesn't really matter, whether it was good or bad. Sometimes my dad wants to review, review. I don't want to review. If you don't turn the page, you are going to drive yourself crazy.

TDN: I have to ask you about the hair, the cabbage you have on your head. Some people would probably kill for it. Have you always had the long hair?
SJ: I have. Every time I cut it, I regret it. I have cut it three or four times; I give the hair to Locks of Love, either 12 or 14 inches. And then I basically have a buzz cut.

TDN: Why do you regret cutting it?
SJ: Maybe because I am used to looking in the mirror with long hair and then you see a sudden change. Every time I have cut it, I am like, 'why did I do that?' I guess it becomes my trademark in a way.

TDN: Do people comment about your hair?
SJ: Nobody has ever told me they didn't like it. Whatever people want to think, that is their own opinion. For now, it's staying (smiles).

TDN: As we are speaking, outside your barn, it is about 90 degrees. Florida weather. You are used to this weather. Do you like it hot?
SJ: This is not hot. For me, this is cool. When you are accustomed to Florida hot, this is like, actually cool. For me, this is really, really nice. I like cool mornings, warm days. I've never seen it snow.

TDN: Wait a second. You have never seen snow?
SJ: Never. I've seen it on TV, never in real life. We are thinking of expanding our operation up here and if we buy a house up here, we might come and see snow. I've never walked in snow. I want to. Timing hasn't been right.

TDN: You want to go out and build a snowman some day?
SJ: I do, I really do. I picture it looking pretty. Everybody says it's not what you think, but I would love to see it.

TDN: I ask this question to everybody. If there was a movie made about your life and you could pick the actor to play you, who are you picking?
SJ: I know this. Steven Seagal. I've been told that a couple times. Maybe because of the hair. Back in the day, I used to put a lot of gel in it, and it would get darker, so I used to look like him.

TDN: Are you a martial arts guy, like him?
SJ: No, it would be nice if I was (laughs).

TDN: If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?
SJ: My granddad Attie Joseph because he started the racing generation, probably in the 1940s. My dad's dad. This is a tough one. A guy named Ricky Griffith from Barbados; he was a friend of mine. He trained horses in Canada and when we came to America we were in his barn in Ocala. He helped us and I got along with him. And Jesus. Jesus Christ.

TDN: What would you say to Jesus?
SJ: I would thank him.

TDN: You are still a young guy (37 years old) and maybe your biggest win is still ahead of you. So far, what has been your biggest win?
SJ: Math Wizard was big, but I think White Abarrio's Pegasus (World Cup this year) because of everything I went through with the horse. I had White Abarrio, then he went with someone else and won the Whitney and the (Breeders' Cup) Classic, two of the biggest races you can win. He lost his form, and I got him back and he won the Pegasus and I had never won a race like that. Knowing that whole story was big, big, big, big. I was crushed with everything I went through.
(in May 2023, Joseph was temporarily suspended by Churchill Dons after two of his horses died suddenly during Kentucky Derby week. The owners of White Abarrio–Clint and Mark Cornett–not sure of what Joseph's status would be–owners Clint and Mark Cornett wanted to run him in that year's Met Mile. They turned the horse over to trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. For Dutrow, he ran third in the Met before winning the Whitney  and the Breeders' Cup Classic. He then found his way back to Joseph's barn).

White Abarrio | Sarah Andrew

TDN: How much did that eat at you?
SJ: It destroyed me. Just talking about it now, I am getting emotional because it crushed me mentally. You are made out to look like the worst person ever and you know it's not true. To get that horse back, that helped me heal. You never fully recover emotionally from something like that. It takes a toll. That's when my faith became so strong. Every night I would pray for the truth to be revealed and for any skullduggery to be revealed. When the results came back and everything was cleared, well, God is good. I became stronger.

TDN: If you were not a horse trainer, what do you think you would be doing?
SJ: I would not want to do anything else. It would probably be something in gambling, which would not be good (laughs).

TDN: Are you a good gambler?
SJ: I am not. That's why I don't gamble. I never bet on my horses. If I was having fun on a day with some friends, would I gamble? Yes. Never on my horses. It's hard enough.

TDN: Walking through the crowd at Saratoga; anyone ever ask you for a horse?
SJ: People always ask. You put more pressure on yourself if you give them a loser. I tell them how a horse is doing and then they have to decide for themselves. You have ideas, but you never know if a horse is going to win for sure.

TDN: Did you play any other sports growing up?
SJ: In school I played a little basketball.

TDN: Any good?
SJ: I thought up until a certain age–13 or 14–I was pretty good, and then probably not good after that. I could shoot, I could shoot 3's. Horses have been my interest my whole life. Even today, if it doesn't involve horses, I don't want to do it. Most things bore me unless it's the horses.

TDN: You don't watch baseball, football, basketball?
SJ: A little basketball if it's a big game.

TDN: Favorite horse racing movie.
SJ: Growing up, it was “The Black Stallion”. Not really a horse racing movie, but it was about a horse. I used to watch that over and over again as a kid.

TDN: I thought you would be a “Let It Ride Guy.”
SJ: Never saw that one.

TDN: How long did you train in Barbados?
SJ: About three years. I started at 18 and a half and came here at 22. I had a dream that I wanted to be the best and you could not do that in Barbados. I was kind of naive at the time. My dad did not want me to go. I had a really good horse over there–Areutalkintome–and he won the (Barbados) Triple Crown (in 2009) and I wanted to bring him here because I thought he would launch me, but he got hurt. That made me brave enough to come here. Everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that.

TDN: What is the one race you have not won that you really want?
SJ: It's the (Kentucky) Derby. I feel I have to win it now. After the way I was treated in Kentucky, I don't have the dream of it anymore. But I feel I have to win it.

TDN: If you have five empty stalls and you can fill them with any five horses from history, who are they?
SJ: Zenyatta. Flightline is probably the greatest in recent times. American Pharoah. Secretariat, just to see what made him so good. And Man o' War.

TDN: Last question. When are you going to cut the hair?
SJ: When I win the Derby.

The post Saratoga Q&A: Saffie Joseph Jr. appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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