Kinnon LaRose was looking for his next move.
Twenty-two, living in Connecticut, a recent graduate. Five years of collegiate basketball, 160 or so games and a thousand others from pickup to playground all behind him. Hoop aspirations had pretty much run their course, high school records had turned into college minutes and eventually professional reality. An opportunity as a shooting guard or a sixth man in some back-court league overseas, maybe. Somewhere, some place, some gamble.
The Liga Endesa in Spain, the Basketbol Süper Ligi in Turkey, the Lega Basket Serie in Italy, the BABA in Barbados…
A lifelong racing fan after childhood trips to Saratoga and to harness tracks in Canada, LaRose watched Saratoga racing on Fox Sports, watched trainer Tom Amoss in between Richard Migliore and Andy Serling on the desk near the paddock and thought about his next move.
“I’ve always loved the game, just as a kid. I played basketball for five years at college and didn’t really have anything to do,” LaRose said. “I was always following racing, in the summertime, even when I was playing basketball, I was always watching racing. I had a big interest in it as a kid. I saw Tom on Fox and said, ‘Look at this guy, looks like he’s doing well.’ A trainer and an analyst, I thought it was something I could try to dip my feet in.”
LaRose searched around for an email address.
It’s not hard to find. AI offers it up in a flash.
You can reach Thoroughbred trainer Tom Amoss directly at [email protected]. Alternatively, you can use the Tom Amoss Racing Stable website to find contact information for his staff.
LaRose took a shot. Hey, email is free and at least it’s a silent rejection. When I was 22, I had to pick up a landline and call a landline with a real person answering on the other end. Some people had answering machines, oh, I’d pray for answering machines when I was working up the nerve to ask for a ride or a job. And, texting, forget it. Imagine Janet Elliot’s phone if I could have texted her to somehow catch a ride on Talamero or Victorian Hill or Flat Top. Jonathan Sheppard would have invented block caller on the barn phone.
In 1989, I remember calling Shug McGaughey looking for a galloping job at Saratoga. As a timid jump jockey (yes, there is such a thing), I stuttered out a few words and the future Hall of Famer stammered out one. That was it. Luckily a friend heard that Mitchell C. Preger needed a rider and set it up for me. My first Saratoga galloping job, all I had to do was show up at his Oklahoma barn. Mr. Preger, and his patience, changed my life.
As for LaRose, he crafted an email, edited it, proofed it, slept on it and sent it. Changing his life wasn’t even on the radar.
“Cold email, not thinking he would ever answer me,” LaRose said. “I sent it to him on Monday. Tuesday morning my phone rings, Louisville, Kentucky, and I said, ‘Who the heck is calling me from Kentucky? Maybe it’s Tom.’ Sure enough it was him. I wouldn’t call it Option B but also at the same time, ‘Let’s try something else, see if we could go a different route.’ This popped up and I said we’re all in. I came to the racetrack and never looked back.”
LaRose joined Amoss’ barn, learned from the shedrow floor up and inherited a 60-horse juggernaut when Amoss retired this spring. LaRose won his first race at Saratoga and has 23 horses bedded down in Amoss’ old barn this summer. All from an email, a gift, a start.
While chatting with LaRose at his barn Tuesday morning for the Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour, hearing about his email, an equine Hail Mary, I got to thinking about the cold emails, the cold calls to The Special over the years. From a few wanting to stay in the game, but mostly from people wanting to get in the game. We answered most and I’d like to think we changed a few lives.
Quint Kessenich, “I was an All-American lacrosse goalie…” Travis Stone, “I’ve dreamed about becoming a racetrack announcer…” John Panagot, “I’m looking to become a jocks’ agent…” Jim Mulvihill, “I’d like to get out of New Orleans for the summer…” Buried in long shuddered Jomo and AOL accounts, those emails, those what-do-I-have-to-lose? lifelines are long gone. Stone and Panagot didn’t even bother looking.
Gabby Gaudet found an email thread from 2012. “I wanted to ask if you think I would have time in the morning to find a job galloping? If not, that is completely fine, working for you is my priority.” I liked her style. Gabby learned quickly she wouldn’t have time for a galloping job. She and I were laughing at the thought while thinking about her showing up the first day in cowboy boots. She made it all summer and so did the boots.
Those are just some of the cold emails that came across our desk over 26 years of The Special. There were others who sent an email, just like LaRose did, hoping for an opportunity. I’m glad we could play a small role in the journey for at least a few.
The moral? Send that email. To whomever you choose, whomever you think can help, to whomever you can find.
And if you receive a cold email from a kid dreaming about joining the ever-contracting sport we play, answer it.
Just answer it.
Read issue three of The Saratoga Special.
