Champion Trainer - 2004
Jack Fisher repeats with stellar season
(Reprinted from American Steeplechasing - 2004)

Bubble Economy, 2004 Timber Champion

With Jack Fisher, they got it.

The NSA champion trainer in 2003 after finishing second three times, Fisher backed up that title with a runaway score in 2004. He captured 28 wins (nine more than Sanna Hendriks) and took the earnings title by more than $30,000 over Doug Fout while dominating the game with 153 starts (52 more than his nearest rival).

Fisher won the novice championship with Paradise's Boss and the timber crown with Bubble Economy, while putting up the highest victory total since Bruce Miller's 30 in 1996. The two champions led the way, but the barn got plenty of mileage out of Darn Tipalarm (three wins), Super Fame (two), Hay Getoutofmyway (two) and others.

"I don't think I had that many more horses than anybody else at the beginning of the year," Fisher said. "I just ran them a lot. I look at this game . . . if I have a McDynamo, I spot them because they don't need to run all the time but the rest of them, I run. The owners are in this game for fun, they're not in it for the money. Their fun is having those horses run. So we run them."
And that's long been a big part of Fisher's success. Owners like Ann and Henry Stern have never had a jumper with anyone else. The same goes for Edie and Fitz Dixon. Jack Fisher's owners are usually happy, and it can't all be results. They don't all win.

"We were one of his first clients, besides his family. We've had a damn good time with him all the time. The whole family is fun. I'm crazy about Sheila (Fisher's wife), his parents, his in-laws," said Henry Stern. "I've always thought an owner would be smart to have more than one trainer, not because one trainer is better than the other but because trainers have different contacts to get horses. I've been approached by a number of people but I've never varied from Jack just because of the personal relationship. He's honest."
The Sterns, famous for owning timber legend Saluter, enjoyed a banner 2004 with seven wins and $162,000 in purse money with just two horses - Paradise's Boss and Darn Tipalarm. The Dixons suffered through a drought in 2004, with just one win (on the last day of the season) from 20 starters, but their 2003 included three horses who earned at least $50,000 each. Regardless, neither owner is going anywhere - and that's because of the trainer.

The 41-year-old enjoyed his second championship season, winning races with new horses like Paradise's Boss and with longtime stable members Darn Tipalarm and Indispensable (who started racing in 1998). Darn Tipalarm died in a training accident late in the year, putting a damper on the title season.

"Obviously the ones you're most proud of are horses like Paradise's Boss but it's tough to be proud of a horse who you've only had for a year versus a horse who you know what they've gone through," said Fisher. "It goes with the ups and downs. I explain it to my owners, if you want everything, if things went perfect all the time, the highs wouldn't be as good. You have to have the lows."