OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Cross-training has typically been used as a method to prepare horses for a second career when their racing days are done. Trainer Amira Chichakly has recently introduced it as a way to prepare horses for success while racing as well. And she is starting to see positive results. Liam’s Fire and Macho Boy, recent winners at Aqueduct; Miss Invincible, a winner at Turfway Park; and After the Wire, a winner Monday at Mountaineer, have all gone through a bit of cross-training in addition to their regular track work. One of the facilities Chichakly uses on Long Island is Cherry Wine Equestrian, which has facilities in Hauppauge and Manorville, both about an hour or so from Belmont Park. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports At Cherry Wine Equestrian, horses may do some jumping over 18-inch-high poles or go over ground poles - similar to dressage training - which helps them pick up their feet and learn how to place them properly. Horses get to jog or gallop in an indoor arena and get turned out in paddocks for hours. “It makes the brain work,” Chichakly said recently outside of her Belmont Park barn. “Most horses here need their brain to work a little bit better. … They do circles and that helps because it gets them to drop one shoulder, pull the other up and get their hind end a little more engaged.” Cherry Wine Equestrian was a place where Chichakly would send her retired horses to be trained for a second career. These are known as Off-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs). Chichakly said her initial inquiries into using cross-training for Thoroughbreds still racing stemmed from her experience at the track with Liam’s Fire. “Initially, I wanted to get in his brain a little bit, give him a way to calm down off track,” Chichakly said. “When that horse trains, he’s on the bit, he never relaxes. He’s too hard on himself. You go to gallop him, he’s running off. I come from a riding background. I know horses are very versatile animals and I’m always thinking about what a horse can do for a second career. Why don’t I think about what they can do in their first career at the same time? “You look at athletes in other professional sports and they cross-train. They don’t just stick to their one profession again and again and again.” Chichakly said last September is when she and Kathleen Nathan, the owner of Cherry Wine, began mapping out a plan to use cross-training for competing Thoroughbreds. “She had the thought that those training tools we utilize once they’re retired might impact them really well while they’re still training on track,” Nathan said. “A lot of these young horses, their foundation and basics need a lot of work. Liam’s Fire, we had him jumping courses in October. Thoroughbreds are so smart and so versatile, but they’re like giant toddlers. Sometimes the more you give them, the more they thrive.” Chichakly and Nathan both said the program is not one size fits all and doesn’t necessarily work for all racehorses. “I’ve had horses that will stay there three or four weeks,” Chichakly said. “Other horses that will stay for a week, breeze [at Belmont] and then send them back out again,” Chichakly said getting horses out of the same daily training routine from the track can be beneficial mentally and physically. “The mental break really helps the athletes,” she said. “They’re not machines, they’re living creatures.” Chichakly, who has about 10 horses based at Belmont, said she will visit Cherry Wine Equine frequently, and sometimes gets on the horses herself. :: Want to start playing with a $510 bankroll and have access to free Formulator? Learn more The cost for stabling at Cherry Wine is about a third cheaper than stabling at the track, both Chichakly and Nathan said. Nathan transports the horses to and from her facilities, charging money for gas “and our time,” she said. “The owners, when they see a break in the price they like it, and when they see the results they like it,” Chichakly said. “I’ve been slow in introducing it to them. Usually, it’s been my horses who go through the program.” One horse in the program is Devious Mo, a restricted stakes winner a year ago who was claimed last fall by Chichakly for $35,000. The horse has not run well in any of his six starts for Chichakly. She has sent the horse to Cherry Wine, and at the owner’s request the horse trains at around 3 p.m., attempting to replicate activity around the time when he would race. “It’s made a difference in his works in the morning,” Chichakly said. “We’ll see if it makes a difference how he runs.”