In his third year of training, Will Walden earned his first two graded stakes victories with Pipsy in the Soaring Softly Stakes (G3T) at Aqueduct Racetrack and Minaret Station in the Bourbon Stakes (G2) at Keeneland.
Pipsy, owned by John Sykes' Woodford Thoroughbreds, was one of three fillies Walden signed for at the 2023 Tattersalls December Mare Sale. She won the Soaring Softly in her North American debut. Minaret Station, owned by Larry Best's OXO Equine, is expected to be Walden's first Breeders' Cup starter—in the Juvenile Turf (G1) Nov. 1 at Del Mar. Through Oct. 18, Walden had recorded 244 starts, with 49 wins (20%) and earnings of $3,100,927.
The 34-year-old Walden, son of WinStar Farm president Elliott Walden, overcame addiction to launch his career as a trainer and has made a point of helping others battle addiction through work in the Thoroughbred industry.
Based in Kentucky, Walden has 32 horses under his care. He has a 19-month-old son and a daughter who is expected to be born around Oct. 25. His wife, Tessa Walden, is an assistant for trainer Brad Cox.
BloodHorse: Congratulations on winning your first two graded stakes. This must be an exciting time for you.
Will Walden: Thank you, it's been awesome.
That's why we do this. We do it for the love of the horse and we want to be competitive at the highest level. To achieve the first graded stakes with Pipsy for Woodford and then to get the second one relatively early, it really validates the team we have.
It's all for my owners and the guys in the barn. The guys do all the work and have the sweat equity poured into these horses every day. I am more happy watching them experience it, and take it in, and reap the benefits of it than for me.
BH: How many people do you have working for you?
WW: About 17 or 18. Leslie Howes is my assistant. She started with us midway through the summer and she operated the Saratoga string, and it was really successful. She started out galloping horses and then was an assistant. She's an accomplished horsewoman and she's been a great addition to the team. We're really lucky to have her.
BH: Where are your horses stabled and what are your plans for 2025?
WW: So we go to Keeneland in the spring and we stay there through summer training, which ends on July 31. This year was the first time we split the string. We sent a string to Saratoga, where we ran 12 horses and won four races. It was ultimately a successful meet for us.
This winter we're going to split the string again. We'll have half the string at Turfway and we'll have a handful of horses at Fair Grounds.
BH: What do you think of the purse structure and year-round racing Kentucky now has? We have maiden and allowance races here that are richer than stakes in many states.
WW: I love it for Kentucky. Between Churchill, Keeneland, Ellis, and Turfway, it's like four brothers and each one is trying to up the ante.
Plus we have Kentucky Downs, the money in Kentucky is so great. We're so blessed to train here and be part of the circuit. It's great for the owners that put in so much. They put up so much money up front. It's nice that they're able to run for these purses.
BH: Who are your primary clients in addition to Woodford and OXO?
WW: We have a couple for WinStar, a couple for Gary Barber and Adam Wachtel, Cypress Creek Equine, a couple for Susan Moulton, and then TEC Racing is Elliott Logan. And I initially trained privately for the Ready Made Partnership that Frank Taylor made.
Elliott Logan was the first guy that gave us an outside horse. I'm really grateful for him and happy to train for him. We have a filly that we literally just bought for him off Fasig-Tipton's digital platform, a filly named Takemetothebeach. We just bought her last week ($95,000).
BH: How many of your employees are in addiction recovery?
WW: Right now two of my staff are in recovery. I've only lost a couple who went backward, and I really only mean a couple. I'm happy to say I've lost more recovery guys to promotions in other areas of the business. They have left me not for any other reason than they got a good opportunity that technically was a promotion. I take a lot of pride in that. We want to be teachers, educators, and teach this sport and this game and how to do it the right way.
I started with two completely blank slates in Tyler Maxwell and Mike Lowery. We were in treatment together, and they knew nothing. We bought these 10 horses, and I said, 'Do you guys want in? And they said yeah.'
We had just graduated the program. We packed up my little Explorer and we followed the Brook Ledge van down to Ocala and set up the shop and started breaking those yearlings. That was over the winter of 2021-22.
Me and Mike groomed them, Tyler rode them, and we got them all to the races. You tell people that and they don't always believe me.
Mike Lowery is now a divisional broodmare manager at Taylor Made. And Tyler Maxwell gallops privately for WinStar.
BH: Do you still have any of those first 10 horses?
WW: One! His name is Georgie W, and he's a two-other-than. He's fragile but he's really talented. He won his first two and then ran fifth in the Indiana Derby (G3) in his third start.
I only got to run him twice this year. He was third in an allowance race at Churchill and then fourth but barely beaten at Saratoga, where he came flying. He's currently sidelined with a minor injury. He's talented. He's a potential stakes horse down the road if he holds up.
He was originally purchased for $10,000 through Frank Taylor's Ready Made Racing partnership. He was an ugly little yearling, but now he's blossomed into a beautiful horse. He's a big strapping gelding.
BH: Do you have any employees in recovery right now who you could see moving up like Mike and Tyler did?
WW: I have a kid named Jeramie Fennell. He went through the Stable Recovery program and came to me over the summer.
He gallops Minaret Station. He's a great kid and a really, really good hand. He gallops but he also runs horses for me. He jumps in, pitches in in the mornings, comes back in the afternoons. He's a really solid dude who I'm happy to have.
BH: It seems you have gone out of your way to give opportunities to people in addiction recovery.
WW: It's Winston Churchill who said the outside of a horse does something for the inside of a man. I know through my own battles with addiction that you can be left feeling pretty wrung out emotionally and even physically. The horse was always an individual in my life who looked at me the same. There was no judgment passed. There was just a connection between me and the animal that was unparalleled and it's always been there—a really strong connection. If I can provide somebody the opportunity to experience that for themselves, then I'd be wrong not to.
BH: What have you learned about horses in your first couple years of being a trainer?
WW: You don't have enough paper for me to go through all that I've learned this year.
Just thinking about these two graded stakes winners, I've learned that the better horses, they bring their game. Pipsy grabs her lunch pail every day and goes to work, thrives on it. Whether she's jogging that day, a routine gallop, or she's going out there to breeze, she is all about it.
I've been learning more about the mental side of these animals and how the pieces all fall together a little bit easier if they're mentally wrapped around what we're asking them to do. I think some of that ... you can't put in what God left out. But I think there are aspects that I can try to aid as their conditioner.
There's always something new. I'm blessed with a barn full of horses that, whether it's a lesson I want to learn or not, they're intent on teaching me something every day.
I want to add that I've probably learned more from my wife than anybody. She's an extremely talented horsewoman. She's extremely gifted and I've learned a lot from her over the last few years. She's the backbone of our family and she's a great mother.
BH: What has Minaret Station been like to train? Did you view him as the big longshot bettors saw as when he won the Bourbon and earned his spot in the Breeders' Cup?
WW: Minaret Station came to me in the middle of summer. He took a couple weeks but I started to notice how professional he was in his training. He took to the routine very well, and his breezes got increasingly better on the dirt at Keeneland. Based on pedigree, we weren't ever really confused about what surface he would prefer. His mother (multiple graded winner Beau Recall) was a very talented turf horse for Brad Cox, and his dad (Instilled Regard ) was very talented as well on turf and dirt.
Minaret was so professional in his training, but he ran really green first time out. I was a little surprised. He ran in spots. He'd pick up the bit and drop the bit, pick up the bit and drop it again. He ran third, but he was green and immature, so we didn't want to go to Kentucky Downs with him.
We took him to Horseshoe Indianapolis for his second start. He still ran pretty green. He had the lead in the stretch, and I think he would have been content coming home in :13-and-change, but he got hooked at the eighth pole by a Brendan Walsh horse (Dream Scheme). That horse came up and hooked him from the outside, and Minaret came home in :11.38 to win by a neck.
I saw a flash of brilliance and competitive nature in that moment. I talked to Don Chatlos, the racing manager for OXO, and he felt the same way. We originally planned to go in a non-winners of two lifetime (allowance race) at Keeneland, but entry day of the Bourbon came up and I said, 'Don, let's see how many are in here, let's give it shot.'
Don is extremely game, a great horseman who will never back down from a challenge.
The race came out, and on paper, I didn't think any horse deserved to be over 15-1. The public didn't feel that way. He went off at 38-1. He still kinda ran green. He picked off half the pack between the half-mile pole and five-sixteenths pole, then Cristian Torres was still having to niggle at him and coax him along. When he finally tipped him out, he turned on the afterburners, and the rest was history. We saw what we had seen at Horseshoe four weeks prior, an explosive turn of foot.
BH: How do you feel about going to the Breeders' Cup with him?
WW: I'm ecstatic to take a horse of his caliber to the Breeders' Cup. This is my only horse I'm taking, so my sample size is small. I feel like sometimes you bring a horse to the Breeders' Cup, especially a 2-year-old, and the pressure is on for the precocious ones because it might be their best year. I don't feel that way with this horse. He's still a big kid, very immature, and still just learning.
I think when he can travel in the bridle to the quarter pole, and he can let the jock pull that pin and explode, I think he'll be a pretty scary horse.
That being said, we're extremely excited about the opportunity to go to the Breeders' Cup. I love his chances and we're really excited for the future.
