Eclipse Award
Gayle Van Leer photo

BEST PAL winning the G2 Norfolk stake as a 2-yr-old. Benoit & Associates photo

 

Roving Boy
Stidham & Associates

Gayle Van Leer on BEST PAL in his second career as a lead pony with DRAMATIC GOLD Benoit & Associates photo

Gayle Van Leer is a familiar figure on the California racing circuit, thanks to her eight-and-a-half year stint as perennial leading owner, Golden Eagle Farm's racing manager and her previous experience managing horses for other owners, as well as training them herself. For Golden Eagle Farm, Ms. Van Leer was responsible for the day-to-day job of coordinating the vast racing stable, which employed as many as 16 different trainers spread throughout California and Arizona.

Those duties involved overall supervision of breaking and evaluation of yearlings, rehabilitation of injured horses, placing of horses with each trainer, conferring with veterinarians regarding injuries, weekly physical inspections of each horse, deciding which races to enter, long range planning, pedigree research and matings, sales, etc.

During her tenure, the stable's owners received an Eclipse Award in 1991 as outstanding breeders and topped the North American owner earnings list in 1992.

She also had the pleasure of being an integral part of the racing career of multiple Grade l winner BEST PAL, along with over 80 other stakes winners. During his career BEST PAL's earnings reached $5,668,245. He is pictured below, after being retired to a new life as pony, with Gayle in the saddle, taking million dollar earner DRAMATIC GOLD, through the paddock at the del Del Mar Race Track.

Gayle honed her skills by operating as a private trainer for 10 years.  Her clients included R.E. Hibbert and Corbin Robertson's Saron Stable. She was responsible for the breaking and early training of ROVING BOY, who was crowned 2-yr-old champion and earned an Eclipse Award in 1982. Gayle is considered an expert in a wide range of fields, from farm management practices, to training methods, to sales consignments and purchases. 

Ms. Van Leer has spent considerable hours in the past 8 years volunteering her time and sharing her knowledge, by speaking at seminars provided for new and existing owners on how to become successful in the thoroughbred industry. She has also been active with TOBA's Owners Committee and has been a featured speaker at TOBA seminars as well as those given by the Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC). She is also a listed consultant in the TOBA The Greatest Game program and a member of the NTRA Communications Committee.  Gayle is on the board of directors of Tranquility Farm, a charitable organization dedicated to finding new homes for retired racehorses.

Read more about Gayle in a February 18, 2006 profile published in Blood-Horse magazine.

Click here to open the article. © 2006 Blood-Horse and reprinted with permission.