An animal lover from childhood, Reade Baker first landed at the racetrack in the summer of 1965 as a swing groom for Windfields Farm. He worked his way through the industry selling horse insurance and then becoming a successful jockey agent. Baker took out his trainer’s license in 1989 and launched a stellar career that saw him win 1,119 races, $54 million in purses and prepare the winners of 128 stakes races.
This Canadian Thoroughbred article from March of 2019 asks Baker what fueled his decision to retire and he identifies three main reasons. He also discusses some of his favorite memories, and horses, that kept him in the business for so long. Baker likes watching horses develop but inevitably found the changes in the industry were more than he wanted to deal with. He states he is looking forward to fishing and gardening but also, “I will say never to a public stable again. But I would say never say never if I had a private stable.”
Read the full story on Canadian Thoroughbred.
