Will Walden Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast Presented by Keeneland

[Wandering Eyes]

Trainer Will Walden has come a long way in a short period of time. Training only since 2022, through Tuesday, he had 35 wins on the year from 141 starters for a win rate of 25%. His stable's earnings stood at $3.384 million. It's been a good year, in part because of a very good day. Walden won his first Grade I race last Saturday at Keeneland when the New York-bred Rhetorical (Not This Time) won the GI Coolmore Turf Mile. It was an important step for a trainer who admits he aspires to be one of the top trainers in the business.

Walden's success has also come after he battled substance abuse problems for years, but says he has found peace and sobriety.

To talk about the Coolmore Turf Mile, his plans for the future and other topics, Walden was this week's guest on the TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.

How confident was he that Rhetorical, who was 9-1, would win the prestigious one-mile turf race?

“I was very confident and that was really exciting,” he said. “That's why my team and I show up every day. We want to win at the highest levels and be around high-caliber horses. We love every single one of them, no matter what level they compete at, but, obviously to win a Grade I at Keeneland was special.”

 

Walden said he brought the horse up to the Turf Mile the same way he imagined Bill Mott would have trained such a gelding. Slow, patient, one step at a time.

“In my training career, I've been blessed to work for so many good people, so many good outstanding horsemen, to name a few like Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, Wesley Ward,” Walden said. “I never worked for Brad Cox, but I've certainly learned a lot from him, training alongside of him at Churchill and Turfway. There are certain horses, obviously you train and you think, what would Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, Brad Cox have done with them? I always felt like Rhetorical was a Bill Mott type of horses. I tried to make the decisions based on what would Bill do and Bill wouldn't jump him into a stakes too early. He'd space his races out.”

The GI Breeders' Cup Mile at Del Mar is next. Is he confident?

“We'll see how he trains up in between,” Walden said. “He came out of the race great and he's doing well now. It's going to be deeper waters. I do believe because of how tactical he is he will suit that turf course pretty well. I think that turf course and the style of running will suit him. It's a short stretch, which doesn't necessarily favor all Europeans, but I do think it'll favor this horse.”

While pleased that he's had such a big year, Walden aspires to do even better.

“The goal in life is always to keep moving forward,” he said. “We're extremely pleased with how this year has gone, but we have goals that are bigger than that. As a team, as a collective unit, we want to train on Saturdays in the biggest races. We love racing. So, we want as much action as possible. There's more out there to conquer. And I'd be lying to you if I said we were satisfied.”

Walden has been quite open about his problems with drugs and alcohol. With the help of Christian Countzler and Frank Taylor's Stable Recovery program, which has helped hundreds of individuals overcome drug and alcohol problems and find jobs in the racing industry, Walden has thrived.

“Christian ran the program that I went through,” Walden said. “I was a part of the inaugural Stable Recovery group, but I actually got sober in a different house than Christian was running. When I would tell them where I was, what facility I was at, they would say, that's a black belt recovery over there, meaning they took it very serious. And I think Stable Recovery has got a really good peer driven, peer held accountable program. It's a big group of guys and everybody's given some responsibility over there. And they're given the responsibility of holding their brother to their left and to their right and check and hold them accountable. When you've got brothers in arms walking through something, it's way stronger than trying to walk through it by yourself. And then you add the equine component, which I've seen personally melt the hardest of hearts and break men down and help them get in touch with a side of themselves that they've never been in touch with before. You add both those things together and you create this brotherhood that's surrounded with this everyday mission to take care of this beast. This requires a tenderness that maybe these guys aren't used to having or even being shown.”

The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was Rated by Merit (Battalion Runner), who got a 105 Beyer for his win in the Discovery S. Saturday at Aqueduct. Podcast co-host Randy Moss called him a horse to watch in the Breeders' Cup. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by 1/ST TV, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association and West Point  Thoroughbreds, the team of Bill Finley and Moss went over the slew of Breeders' Cup preps last weekend. The consensus was that GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity winner Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) was among the most impressive winners over the weekend. The team also talked about the poor performance by Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) in the GI Juddmonte Spinster Stakes and speculated that she might be retired. The podcast ended with a remembrance of Jeff Siegel, a terrific guy and a great handicapper. He passed away last week at the age of 74.

Click here to watch the podcast and here for the audio-only version.

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