A First
Jen Paragallo lunged at the clubhouse television. The one where horsemen hide, where dreamers dream. Arms waving double windmills with each waning stride of the $30,000 New York-bred maiden claimer, the trainer then did the unthinkable, the unbelievable. She turned away – screeching and screaming – from the TV and toward a swarm of friends and fans. She jumped two feet in the air and hugged exercise rider Makaia Carpenter.
There was still work to be done.
“I was dying. I was dying,” Carpenter said. “I was looking over her shoulder at the screen thinking, ‘There’s no going back now, buddy.’ ”
Dunedin Causeway didn’t dare go back, holding steady and holding off Mama’s Middie on the inside to win by three quarters of a length. Not that Paragallo was watching.
“I can’t believe I did that. You never call yourself a winner,” Paragallo said. “That’s the kiss of death what I did today.”
LUNA Racing’s Dunedin Causeway, making his 14th start and still searching for his first win, made sure it was nothing but a kiss to the sky, securing Paragallo’s fifth career win and first at Saratoga.
Paragallo took off at a run, past the old binocular stand, juking and jiving past old men staring at televisions and through a galley way of security guards. She hit the winner’s circle at warp speed, bounding down the ramp and onto the racetrack.
“He did it. He did it. He did it. He did it. He did it.”
She hugged groom Richie Suttle, who doesn’t hug. She hugged valet Tony Millan. Paragallo hugged Carpenter again. She hugged photographer Dona Ann McAdams. She hugged Maggie Wolfendale. She hugged Barbara Livingston. She hugged Tom Amello. She hugged Kevin Cox. She hugged Steve Young. She got a selfie with Jayson Werth.
“Oh, my God. We won at Saratoga. We won at Saratoga,” Paragallo said. “My heart’s beating so hard. I lost feelings in my fingers. I’ve been waiting for this a long time.”
All the way back to when she was selling newspapers for her mom, Nancy “The Paper Lady” Robinson across from the main gate at Saratoga Race Course. A seven-year-old with a stack of Forms, a cup of lucky pencils, a drawer full of money and a loyal line of customers. Vic Gilardi. Jonathan Sheppard. Barclay Tagg on his bicycle. Lenny Goodman. All the jockeys.
“I’m in love with racing,” Paragallo said. “I know it’s what I want to do with my life.”
She made it her life with every wish of every candle on every birthday cake.
“Every year on my birthday, I would blow out the candles and wish to be a jockey,” Paragallo said. “Just to ride one race and finish fourth or better.”
She became a jockey in 1994. Racetracks ridden outnumbered races won. Oaklawn Park, Finger Lakes, Belmont Park, Aqueduct, Atlantic City, Hoosier Park. She won two races from 75 rides. Never got to ride at Saratoga. That’s OK.
“I was full of confidence, but I wasn’t really that good at it,” Paragallo said. “I told everybody I was going to do it, and I did it.”
Jockey filed somewhere as Paragallo filled out the backstretch help wanted ads – newspaper seller, hotwalker, groom, exercise rider, horseman’s bookkeeping, vet’s assistant. And then one day a trainer. She sent out her first runner in December 2022 and now splits her time between Tampa Bay Downs and Saratoga.
“I’ve done it all. I never wanted to be a trainer but to stand here right now…I love racing. Saratoga makes me feel like a kid again. When you win…I want everyone to feel the energy. I want everyone to know we have a passion for racing,” Paragallo said. “This is not a dying sport. I’m so much alive right now. I’m alive. I’m kicking. I want more. When you win, whew, I thought winning at Tampa was fun. This is amazing. Amazing. I didn’t know you could come back to life this much.”
Paragallo walked – bounded – back to her barn, tucked in the treed enclave inside the old Horse Haven track. A five-stall craft-set of a barn and a fountain of hope.
“We did the stable tour last year, I said I’ve got all professional maidens. But every one of them, I’m telling you can win, they can all win here,” Paragallo said. “Every horse is glowing. Every horse is gleaming. I walk in the barn and love every horse. I think every one of my horses has a shot to win every race.”
About 15 minutes and a lot of emotion later, Dunedin Causeway jigged home from the test barn. Carpenter led Dunedin Causeway into a raked round pen, unsnapped the shank and the chestnut gelding, who once frustrated Paragallo for his lack of commitment late in his races, flopped down for a roll. Once, twice, three times.
Paragallo stood in awe. Carpenter, too. Not one to stand around, Suttle, who trained Dontletthebigonego to win the Grade 3 Lafayatte in 1998, was picking stalls.
Five horses. Three lifers. One mission.
“We never set an alarm clock. We wake up every morning and we’re at the barn. We’re here as a team,” Paragallo said. “We take turns doing each other’s horses. We take turns riding them, well, not Richie. We discuss everything as a team. It’s so much fun. I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I can’t even describe how I feel today.”
As the party began to fade, Paragallo was still effusive.
“Hey, I really think I have a shot to win the last race,” Paragallo said. “I really do.”
Althena finished fifth. Not that it mattered.
