(Feature from Horse Racing Nation)
Buff Bradley leaned against the rail in front of the Churchill Downs winner’s circle and peered across the main track. The longtime trainer had Tonal Impact coming down the stretch on the turf course, no threat to winning the race.
After the 3-year-old Tonalist colt crossed the wire, Bradley’s training career was over. The man best known for conditioning Groupie Doll and Brass Hat was retiring after 28 years.
“I’m going to miss it,” Bradley said in the days before his final race in June. “I’m going to be upset about having to leave it, but it’s just what I have to do.”
Bradley joins a growing list of trainers who have left the game in the past two decades.
In 2000, the number of trainers listed on Equibase as having at least one start was 9,885. In 2019, that figure had dropped to 4,958. Nearly half of all trainers, 49.8 percent, quit in that time span.
“The whole business has not been as fun for me in the last few years,” Bradley said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a couple years. Everyone said, ‘Oh, you’re just down right now, you’re just not doing as well,’ but I don’t see that changing a lot for me.”
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