GROWING
UP
 In
1967 Alec Fehr was born to a family of 11 children. He grew
up on a farm and that’s where his love for horses began.
As a 5 year old he learned to ride bareback, jump fences and
race with his brothers.
When he was 13 years old he bought his first horse for $700
and shortly thereafter got a summer job at a breeding farm cleaning
stalls.
Alec always loved horses and wanted to be a jockey but when
he grew to be 6’1” he decided he would rather train
horses. He quickly set the plan in motion. At age 18 he began
working at Bob Anderson’s farm, a prominent owner and
breeder. From there he decided to go to the Woodbine racetrack.
Having no track experience he went straight to Roger Attfield’s
barn and told the assistant trainer that he wanted to work for
them and that he would work for free.
Alec was hired, first as a hotwalker and eventually as a groom.
During his employment there, the barn had 7 champions who received
horse of the year. Mike Keogh, trainer for horses Wando and
Mobil, was the assistant trainer at the time and a great teacher.
He had a great eye for detail and therefore taught Alec everything
about the care and treatment of the thoroughbred racehorse.
STARTING
OUT
In 1994 Alec got his trainer's license. Clients were hard
to come by but he was able round up a few horses, horses that
other trainers had given up on. His first win came with Onoro,
the seventh horse he saddled.
Wanting to attract more clients Alec organized a seminar of
his own in 1998 on the owning of racehorses. There were 21
people at the seminar and from this, Jim Clark formed the
Bacchus Stable, Fred Radbourne and Walter Baker organized
their Sweetwater Stable.
SUCCESS
COMES QUICKLY
 Both
groups prospered in Fehr’s hands and it was this success
that attracted the attention of owner Bruno Schickedanz, who
has an enormous passion for the claiming of racehorses. Alec
won three of his first five starts for Schickedanz in 1999
and he went from training two horses for Schickedanz to 25
horses.
Alec finished the Woodbine meet winning the Valedictory Stake
with a 23% win percentage and a stunning 95% ROI.
He then took 20 horses to New York for the winter where his
success continued. Parental Pressure, a horse he claimed for
$25,000 went on to win a money allowance, sent off at 66-1,
beating stakes winners, Wild Imagination and Adonis. Alec
also won the St. Brendan at Laurel, the John B.Campbell at
Pimlico, was second in the Gallant Fox Handicap G3 and second
in the Aqueduct Handicap G3.
In 2002 he got the opportunity to go private and train for
Knob Hill Stable, owner Steve Stavro Alec had a stable of
16 horses at the track with another 15 at the training center.
One of the more memorable moments of his training career came
when Chopinina, wowed the Woodbine crowd with a 55-1 runner-up
finish to Good Journey in the Million dollar Atto Mile G1.
That year he guided Chopinina to a Sovereign award for Canada’s
2002 Champion Female Turf horse.
Although Alec has had much success with claiming horses, he
has also had a great deal of success and experience with horses
that he has developed and trained from yearlings on. A few
of these horses are Grassa Donna, Atanas and Granique.
SOME
STATS AND FACTS
Though Alec typically sends out a modest number of starters,
he has produced credible statistics during his tenure in the
training ranks, including a career high of 35 wins for a purse
of $1,285,097 in 2000. He has 87 lifetime wins, including
five stakes scores, overall in his 10 year training career.
Alec lives about 40 minutes north of Toronto’s Woodbine
Racetrack with his wife Elsie and two young sons. Elsie does
much of the paperwork and helps with the day to day running
of the business, allowing Alec to concentrate on the training.
WHY
ALEC?
 Alec
believes that one of his strongest asset is the ability to
read a horse. He has a shrewd sense whether the horse is being
trained too hard or not trained hard enough. Alec likes to
take it day by day and let the horse tell him what he wants
to do and when he wants to run. This is why he doesn’t
like to make long term plans for a horse.
Before becoming a trainer, Alec apprenticed with a blacksmith
for 14 months for the sole purpose of becoming a better horsemen.
This has enabled him to have a keen eye for soundness and
to know instantly whether a horse is off balance.
Alec believes a dust-free environment is very important. That
is why he does not use straw for bedding but uses only the
top quality shavings. He also believes that having the right
kind of nutrition is crucial and after extensive research,
Nobleton Feed Mill and Alec have developed a feed called the
‘Fehr Feed’ which is more complete than any other
feed on the market and contains everything that the racehorse
needs for optimum performance.
Alec is also convinced that Woodbine is a great place to train
and for owners to have their horses. The purses here are one
of the highest in North America while the competition is inferior
to the big tracks in the states. Woodbine also has a long
meet, from April to December which allows the horse to get
comfortable in their surroundings and minimizes the shipping.
|
