A conversation: Robin Schadt
Saturday, February 07, 2004 - by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association

Colt's Neck, NJ --- When Odds On Charmaine won a first-leg division of the Cape & Cutter Series at The Meadowlands on Friday night at odds of 17-1, bettors weren't the only ones that were surprised. On Friday afternoon, during a conversation with Harness Racing Communications, trainer Robin Schadt said her horse probably needed a start before being ready to challenge the top pacing mares this season.

Schadt, 43, of Oak Lawn, Illinois, is coming off a season in which she was credited with 64 wins and $930,364 in purses -- although her stable earned even more counting races in Canada with Nat Varty as the trainer. Schadt and partner Dana Parham operate the Odds On Racing Stable and have a 100-acre facility in Crete, Illinois, complete with five-eighths of a mile track and 120 stalls.

Odds On Charmaine, Breeders Crown finalist Odds On Michelle, Odds On Dana, Odds On Dee, and Cold Sweat were among the stars of the stable last year. Odds On Charmaine won the second heat of the Jugette last September, but was placed fifth for interference -- a moment Schadt called the "biggest heart-breaker" of her career. But Schadt is confident more wonderful moments are ahead.

Harness Racing Communications: First of all, congratulations on another good season last year. You had almost a million dollars in earnings.

Robin Schadt: Thank you, it was. We consider it a million dollars for the stable because we also race in Canada. We send our horses up there to Nat Varty. It's too hard to send a whole other staff. But the stable did well.

HRC: You bought quite a number of yearlings last year. Is that normally what you do?

RS: We bought 41 yearlings and one we sent to the breeding shed right away because of an injury. We've got the other 40 and we're hoping that they're good to go. The first year, we bought 20 or 21 yearlings. We built a training center in 2002 so that in 2003 we were able to go back and get into yearlings. That's the road Dana wants to take, and I agree with that.

HRC: How many horses do you have in training?

RS: I want to say 65. We send them to New Jersey or Canada, or they stay in Chicago. We try to send them out to where the purses are most representative of their talent.

HRC: You have the Odds On Racing Stable. Who came up with that name?

RS: Dana did. He was surprised no one else had used it. Betting is what funds racing, and who wouldn't want to be the odds-on favorite every time you go to the gate?

HRC: How about the race (Friday), the Cape & Cutter? What about Odds On Charmaine?

RS: I like that filly a lot. She's coming off a decent three-year-old season. But that's a big step into the open company. That doesn't mean she can't do it. I'd really have preferred her to have two qualifiers, but that just didn't happen. She'll go a good effort, but probably not enough to beat Worldly Beauty. We're also getting ready to bring back Odds On Michelle. They're both very nice fillies. It's a big jump, though. People take it for granted. It's the same for the boys, too. They're going against horses that have had to go with adversity. These three-year-olds get pampered.

HRC: Has the weather hurt you at all?

RS: I lost one week getting these guys back. That why Charmaine doesn't have two qualifiers. Michelle missed a week sick, and, of course, it couldn't be the same week as the weather. So that's why she's two weeks behind. I think you have to have two qualifiers if you want to be ready to win. But hopefully Charmaine will make a little money for next week.

HRC: What's your background in racing?

RS: I'm not from a harness racing family. My background is in business, although I was involved in riding horses since I was a kid. I went to Sportsman's Park for a date in 1988 and I met some people that owned horses and I went to the backside. It just kind of snowballed from there. I figured it would be good to be involved in an equine activity that could support itself, as opposed to show horses. Maybe that's where the accounting background came in.

HRC: How did you get started?

RS: I bought a horse with some people. It was pretty much the way many people get started -- you get in a partnership and see if you like it. We took the bigger stables' castaways, raced those and made a little bit of money. Eventually, I decided to do it myself because I enjoy it so much. It just keeps going. I worked with the horses and just stuck close to people like Tommy Harmer, Carl Porcelli, Darryl Magee, Brian Pinske. That one (Pinske, who died in November 2002 at age 38) makes me very sad, to lose my good buddy. I just stuck with those people and learned things. Brian Pinske was doing it the right way. I watched him for 12 years. Hopefully I learned from him.

HRC: Were you pretty close with Brian?

RS: We were pretty good friends. I was always stabled in his barn, or close. We were pretty good buddies. He was incredible. He would put money on a horse's card and you wouldn't even know it. All of a sudden at the end of the year, they've got $100,000 or $90,000 or $80,000. He just didn't make a lot of noise doing it.

HRC: You said he was doing it the right way. In what way?

RS: In management, in the buying of yearlings. I used to joke with him that he was such a lady's man because he always had fillies. Well, there's a reason for that because they're worth something after racing. You can turn them over and keep using the same money, in a way.

HRC: What was the reaction when you got started in racing?

RS: My circle of friends, we did a lot of bowling and going to the horse races, so they were OK with it. My family just kind of jokes about it because they knew I was always a horse person. When I was a kid, they would drop me off at the riding stable early in the morning and pick me up late at night all stinky and smelly. They're happy for me. Anytime you can do what you want and make a living at it, that's great. In fact, most of my family works for me now. It works out pretty good.

HRC: What's been your biggest thrill so far?

RS: The day Art's Challenge won the Senior Jug. He was the last horse to beat (2002 Horse of the Year) Real Desire. That's his claim to fame. That was a great, fun day. Don't even ask me what my biggest heart-breaker is. (Laughs). You know what that is. (The Jugette heat in which Odds On Charmaine was disqualified). I've got the crossing-the-wire picture, but no winner's circle picture. That's OK. There's next time.

HRC: Yeah. I talked to (driver) Tim Tetrick a while ago, and I said, 'I hate to bring this up, but …' and he started laughing because he knew exactly where I was going with it.

RS: God bless the kid. That was a tough day. But I told him afterward that we're not typical owners and that was one race on one day. We'll get it behind us. Just don't think our future is in jeopardy over this. Relax.

HRC: You use Tim quite a bit. What do you see in him?

RS: He's fabulous. He has great talent. He's not in that arrogant mode and he has a great work ethic. He's not a harness driver by day and playboy by early morning hours. He's trained for a long time, and you need a driver that can give you feedback. He has it all. He came out to The Meadowlands, but we just don't have enough out here for him to drive. We only have six or seven horses out here now. I told him that if he was better off, he should stay in Chicago. It wasn't going to hurt my feelings. It doesn't make sense to drag someone across the country when you've only got one horse a night.

HRC: Do you ever second-guess your decisions?

RS: When I make a decision, that's pretty much it. You can't beat yourself up second-guessing. I make a decision, and I live with it. Hopefully, we just make more good ones than bad. And if we make a bad one, we don't make the same one again.

HRC: What is your ultimate goal?

RS: Long term, one of the things would be to get that colt that's going to be a great stallion someday. That's the thinking behind building the facility. I just think to myself, 'Wow. Am I spoiled and do I have the best place on earth?' That would be the ultimate. Also to win the major races, like the Breeders Crown. The first helmet I had painted, I put the Breeders Crown symbol on it. I thought, 'I'll get there someday.' We got there last year, we just didn't win. Maybe someday we will. Mainly, though, it would be just to have some success and to have fun doing it.

Article: Reprinted with permission by The U.S. Trotting Association.