Vladimir Cerin-Horse Racing-1974

Born 1960 in Croatia. Cerin's father directed a large farm which had a variety of domestic animals, including horses. So it’s no wonder Cerin has fashioned a successful yet relatively obscure career as a thoroughbred trainer. He left his native Croatia for Canada at age 14. In 1974 he moved to California where he received a athletic scholarship in soccer at UCLA and was co-captain of the team. After graduating with a degree in Kinesiology (The study of movement) He worked for four years with professional athletes, including former tennis star Tracy Austin and basketball greats Bill Walton, Jamaal Wilkes and Kiki Vandeweghe, before taking out his trainer's license in 1981. Vladmir's experience in coaching ranges from training professional stars to coaching club, high school and college soccer. Always fascinated by the grace and power of thoroughbred horses, Vladimir knew that the training principles he imparted to his professional athlete clients could benefit these animal athletes, Some of his professional athletes purchased some thoroughbred horses and asked Vladimir to train their horses with the same zeal he brought to their training. Thus began the Vladimir Cerin Racing Stables. Vladimir's training techniques and his creative ideas for thoroughbreds proved successful. He learned what worked as well as from what didn't work and over the last 20 years developed Vladimir Cerin Racing Stables into one of the best performing operations in the highly competitive southern California racing circuit. Now Vladimir’s horses win at tracks across the country. Over the years he is somewhere between 20 and 25 percent winner first time out after a trainer change. Cerin's best known client is Frank Stronach, the owner of Santa Anita. It's rare to see trainers at the races in the afternoon unless they have a horse entered that day. Cerin is usually at the races every afternoon, whether he's running a horse or not. He believes training horses is a 24-hour a day job. He is easy to recognize as he always seem to be accompanied by his Golden Retriver Kayla during morning workouts. His horses in 1999 were 31% winners second in the standings behind Bob Baffert the number one trainer in the country. This story is far from complete - Could there be a Kentucky Derby winner in the future or perhaps the elusive triple crown. Contributed by John Mark.
                                                            Back