Alessandro, Italian champion as a driver and coach. Did you expect to become so successful?
No, never. I wouldn’t have thought so even ten years ago. Not even at 40.
But when was the turning point?
Probably when I went abroad, 2012-2013. Unfortunately, Italian horse racing was sinking into an unexpected crisis. When I went to see Ake Svanstedt in Sweden, a world opened up to me. A trainer who is doing very well even now in America. I was fortunate enough to see and get close to new training systems, absolutely cutting-edge. A model to follow that I tried to make my own once I returned home.
Have you now become a role model yourself?
I am constantly looking to improve and better myself. I am passionate about genealogy, crossbreeding, a passion I share with my wife Sinead. It takes more than just training to make horses go fast. That experience abroad made me realise that a stud farm is like a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces that have to be put together are the result of a winning organisation. You need good craftsmen, farriers, vets and, why not, to be assisted by a good star. It is clear that the horse remains the real protagonist.
So each of your collaborators gives the best of themselves?
In the end it’s the results on the track that count, but the great thing is that everyone is a little trainer going in the same direction. Every day 35 people work with me. Including Jori Turja. My best friends in horse racing are the stable men, both in Noceto and those who work with me in Sweden and France.
But do you feel more loved or envied in Italy?
I don’t care, as long as the people around me love me. Sports envy can be there. I admire those who are better than me. Negative feelings do not touch me, but many people wallow in it.
And how do you respond to criticism?
Being a winner in our country is never too positive. It’s in our genes to always criticise. Just read social media. Or at least they report what they write about me. I fortunately don’t follow them. I don’t want to distract myself by giving weight to words that are not needed. They have never found me doping and I have never had horses under investigation. So, words are carried away by the wind.
And abroad, how is your relationship with insiders, with the press?
Paradoxically, I am better loved abroad than in Italy. Outside our borders horse racing is a respected sport and those who are part of it are respected. It is followed, almost like football, and drivers are very happy to give themselves to the press for constructive discussion. Just think, that once a week, drivers such as Bjorn Goop, Eric Raffin and others are normally interviewed by the media, to the delight of horse racing fans.
Could you do that in Italy too? Although you seem a bit allergic to interviews.
I have become one, but I would gladly do it. I am available, as I tried to be with the horse racing magazine, but then I was disappointed. In Italy, good ideas are never carried through. Criticism always prevails over good intentions.
Based on your international experience, what could be done to give a sign of recovery?
Advertise as much as possible. Horse racing is a fantastic sport. The more time passes, I fall more and more in love with it. Friday betting gets a lot of publicity because there is a strong notion that horseracing is a clean discipline. The rules can be changed, but not the mentality. That is our limitation.
Who would you like to thank?
Since I do not forget, I would like to thank the one who was my Pygmalion. The one who entrusted me with the horses thirty years ago, when I was a nobody, Mr.. Guido Guareschi. Of course I want to thank all the owners who renew their trust in me each time. Nothing is taken for granted in the job.
But above all?
A family that supports me in everything. A wife who organises my life like a computer and at the same time eases my worries and the ‘burden’ of scheduling races, especially abroad. She knows English perfectly. A father whom I deeply respect and who gives me a big hand in the training centre and the love of three children who close the natural circle of life.
And what is Alessandro Gocciadoro’s dream?
To work the right way and with this ‘lightness’ until the last day of my life.
