Are you going to be jockeys?
“Yes. Yes. Maybe.”
That’s how the three young riders answered the first question Tuesday morning.
I can’t remember which one said maybe. Doesn’t matter.
Cassie Lively, Eric Vergara and Sofia Villacres arrived in Saratoga Monday night. Part of the annual young riders’ trip sponsored by the Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation, the trio toured the backstretch Tuesday morning. They were heading to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame by afternoon, the harness track by night. And the races Wednesday.
Wide eyed in Saratoga.
On the last leg of a whirlwind tour that started in Middleburg and ended in Saratoga, the trio had galloped horses at training centers and steeplechase farms. They learned about swimming horses, bandaging horses, vetting horses. They schooled over hurdles, Villacres, for the first time. Her 15-year-old eyes still told the thrill.
They were allowed to sleep in Tuesday morning.
We met at The Special office at 7. Sharp.
Matching shirts and matching enthusiasm, we clambered on board The Special’s golf cart and went on a tour I’ve told a thousand times. Regina Welsh, the muscle behind the endeavor, and her 7-year-old daughter Imogen along for the ride.
We landed at Bill Mott’s barn and waited for the Hall of Famer. He strolled over and introduced himself. Shook hands. Asked questions. “All of you are riders?” We asked about Sovereignty. Erma Scott invited us to see the Derby, Belmont and Jim Dandy winner. We didn’t get close enough to get Erma in trouble.
Taylor Kingsley, a graduate of the program and an exercise rider for Mott bounded over and the students and the alumni compared notes on horses they had been galloping on their trip.
“I saw the list, some of those horses are tough,” Kingsley said.
The trio nodded their heads. The shared thrill of speed and the shared angst over trying to temper that speed.
Lively, 17, gallops for Jack Fisher three days a week. I rode races against her dad, Troy, a thousand years ago. I got the scoop on the Riverdee horses, “Potus is my favorite.” “I love Zabeel.” “Queens Empire would make a good foxhunter.”
Vergara, 16, rides out for Taylor’s dad, Arch, in Camden, S.C. Vergara wants to be an announcer. Will be an announcer – I’ve heard his calls of training flat races at the jump meets. I told him I had set up a meeting with Frank Mirahmadi. His eyes got as big as Villacres’ when she talked about schooling over hurdles. I told him it was good to have a back-up plan.
Villacres, 15, looks like a flat jockey. I asked if her she rode pony races. She nodded. I asked how many. She shook her head. “I can’t remember.” “That many?” “Yes, that many.” She and Regina talked about the Shetland Grand National. I looked up her record when I got back to the office. Thirty races, from Quick Draw McGraw to Good Magic.
We watched horses gallop on the Oklahoma. I explained changing leads, keeping your hands down and staying in school, of course. That’s part of the tour, too. All three pointed out Yomar Ortiz Jr. as he galloped past on a bay for Shug McGaughey. Another green-shoot graduate of a grass-roots project.
We met Javier Castellano and Frankie Dettori. Castellano was looking for his eighth Travers winner while Dettori was going to the harness track, something about challenging another flat rider to a harness race. He talked about the last few places on his bucket list. South America. Uruguay. Chile. He asked Imogen if she liked horses. She nodded. “Me too,” he said as he flitted toward Nelson Avenue.
We rounded the far turn and through the clubhouse, stopped near the outside rail of the main track. “You need to know your poles. The big ones are the eighth poles, the little ones are the sixteenth poles.” A fresh filly dropped a surprised jockey. I walked onto the track and gave the exercise rider a leg up.
“How often does that happen?” One of the students asked.
“Not that often. But often enough.”
The racetrack is a world of riddles.
We circled back across Union Avenue for one more loop and we saw Nick Zito and Angel Cordero Jr. Two Hall of Famers standing under a tree.
“My first year, I lasted three days,” Cordero said. “The second year, a week. I slept in my car. It gets cold at night up here.”
None of these kids had ever slept in a car.
“I would come in the morning and clean all the horses for a guy. He would give me a dollar, ‘Go get some breakfast.’ I would go buy ice, he had a horse I liked, I would put him in ice,” Cordero said. “He got to like me a lot, he was pushing me. I don’t know how I did it, but I was leading rider in ’67. And then I didn’t win any more until ’75.”
Eleven in a row and 14 in all.
“I always tell my friends, ‘One day, I’m going to win the Derby.’ They said, ‘You’re going to win the Kentucky Fried Chicken Derby.’ They would make fun of me,” Cordero said. “But you dream, you have to dream. Life is about the goal that you put on yourself. I would always say, ‘Man, I wish I could win a race.’ And then when you win a race and you say, ‘Man, I wish I could ride in a stake.’ Then you keep wishing more and more. When you get rolling, it’s easy. Like anything, it’s hard to start. It’s like flying a kite, it’s hard to get it up in the air. But when it’s in the air, it’s in the air.”
Cassie, Eric and Sofia, I hope your kite soars.
