Tim Glyshaw
Tim was born in Evansville, Indiana, on November 3rd 1968. Evansville is just across the Ohio River from Henderson, Kentucky, home of Ellis Park. He graduated from Harrison High School in 1987 and in 1992, he graduated from Indiana University, after which he taught school in Illinois for 2 years. Unhappy with his career, he decided to make a change.
In his youth, Tim spent many summer days watching the races at Ellis Park, but had never really thought about a career in the racing industry. When he saw a commercial for Taylor Made Farm and it's internship program during the Kentucky Derby in 1995, he applied immediately. His dream was to one day be a trainer and have his own Derby horse.
After graduating from Taylor Made Farm's internship program, Tim started as a hot walker for trainer Robert Holthus at Churchill Downs. He was a quick study and found himself grooming horses that very first winter. His first win as a groom soon followed with Sooner Wish (which paid almost $140 to win!). The next summer at Ellis Park, Mr. Holthus asked Tim to take his assistant trainer's test and sent him to Hoosier Park with 12 horses in his care.
After a successful first year at Hoosier Park, the following fall the Holthus Stable had the highest win percentage of trainers stabled at Hoosier Park at 35%. Tim was also sent to Turfway Park and Ellis Park while Mr. Holthus remained at Churchill Downs. In 2001 while at Ellis Park, the Holthus Stable finished in a tie for second in the trainer standings, only one win behind the leader.
While Tim worked for Mr. Holthus, he was in charge of many nice allowance and stakes caliber horses such as The Happy Hopper, Ruby Surprise, Leslie's Lady and Kings Command. The Happy Hopper won the Indian Summer at Keeneland and the Safely Kept at Arlington and Ruby Surprise captured the Grade II Humana Distaff Handicap at Churchill. Those are just a few of his stakes victories while working at The Holthus Stable.
In 2002, Tim accepted the assistant trainer position with Cole Norman, who is stabled in the Southwest circuit. Tim wanted to gain more exposure to the claiming part of racing. In 2002, the Norman Stable saddled 266 winners and were ranked third overall for wins in that year and in 2003 they were ranked third again, this time with 290 winners. After two years with Norman, Tim returned to Kentucky to start his own training career.
Tim maintained a close relationship with Mr. Holthus until his passing in the fall of 2011, by training his overflow and getting two year-olds ready for the races. Tim helped get the Arkansas Derby winner, Lawyer Ron, into his winning ways; the horse stabled with Glyshaw for most of his two year old year.
From his beginning at one of the nations most respected farms to his teachings under Robert Holthus, a man with more than 50 years of training experience, to his stint in a claiming stable, Tim has seen all aspects of the racing world. His philosophy has always been that the horses come first. "If you take care of them; they'll take care of you."
Listen to Horse Racing Radio's interview with Tim here: