The Canadian flag will fly proudly inside the Woodbine jockey’s room on July 1, alongside the flags of many other nations.
In fact, there may not be a more multicultural workplace in Canada than the room where the Woodbine jockeys put on their silks and helmets and prepare to race. The riders come from all over the world and speak many different languages.
The current Woodbine jockey’s colony includes jocks from Puerto Rico (Rafael Hernandez), Japan (Kazushi Kimura and Daisuke Fukumoto), Spain (Antonio Gallardo), Ireland (David Moran), the U.S. (Declan Carroll), Barbados (Patrick Husbands, Keveh Nicholls, Slade Jones, Jason Hoyte, Juan Crawford), Jamaica (Shaun Bridgmohan), Turkey (Sahin Civaci), Mexico (Luis Contreras, Eswan Flores, Ismael Mosqueira), Brazil (Leo Salles), as well as top Canadian-born jocks Emma-Jayne Wilson, Gary Boulanger, Justin Stein, Steve Bahen and Jeffrey Alderson. Prior to this season, riders from England, Hong Kong, France, Peru, and other nations made Woodbine home. There are probably more riders at Woodbine whose first language is Spanish than English. And yet, there is a deep bond amongst the jockeys, and other than the occasional racing-related dust-up, everyone generally gets along — demonstrating that differences don’t have to divide.
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Not long after Brazilian jockey Eurico Da Silva arrived at Woodbine Racetrack in 2004, he was confronted by a fellow rider inside the jockey’s room.
“Something happened in a race and I didn’t know what it was,” said Da Silva, who retired from racing in 2019 after an incredible career that saw him win seven Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding jockey. “A guy walked up to me and punched me in the face. We fought and when we were through we became friends again. That’s how it goes. We tried not to make a big deal out of it.”
Racing thoroughbred horses is one of the most dangerous sports and jockeys are among the toughest athletes. Serious injuries, even deaths, are not uncommon. An ambulance follows behind each race.
Unlike most professional sports, there are no guaranteed contracts. If you don’t win, you don’t make money. If you get injured, other than a bit of insurance, you don’t get paid. And if you’re off for an extended period, or if you become mired in a slump, owners and trainers will sometimes dump you for another rider.
It’s a dog-eat-dog world, with the jockeys competing hard in each and every race — for mounts and for wins. And yet, as Da Silva told the Toronto Sun this month, the riders can compete tooth and nail in an individual, unforgiving sport and develop deep and lasting friendships. Part of that is because of the nature of riding. It’s inherently dangerous. As veteran Woodbine rider Emma-Jayne Wilson said, there’s a feeling that the jockeys are all in it together.
“There’s a camaraderie right off the hop,” Wilson told the Sun. “We respect what each other has achieved. It’s safety first out there so immediately there’s a level of respect – you know what other guys are going through, the ups and downs of the game.”
Before and after races, you often see the Woodbine jockeys talking and joking around. There is comradeship in the Woodbine jockey’s room despite the fact that many don’t speak each other’s language.
“Horsemanship is its own language,” said Wilson.
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Daisuke Fukumoto, who won the 2020 Queen’s Plate aboard the one-eyed wonder horse Mighty Heart, landed at Woodbine in 2015 as a 17-year-old, without knowing anyone or speaking any English. After two years of working as a groom and hot walker, Fukumoto began his jockey career and now is one of the leading riders at the Rexdale track. His best friends inside the jockey’s room were Jerome Lermyte, who hails from France, and Salles, from Brazil. Fukumoto’s agent, Pram Seebah, whom he met while they both worked at Reade Baker’s barn, is from the Island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean.
“It’s interesting,” said Wilson. “You’ve got people from all walks of life, all different countries, all different cultures that come here. And that’s a testament to Woodbine’s quality of racing. We are recognized on a world stage. A lot of people want to come here and race here because it’s fantastic racing.”
Certainly, not all the jocks are buddies. You hear of the occasional blow-up. Sometimes the riders have to be disciplined by the stewards. But Da Silva said if a jockey gets hurt or is struggling, the other riders will reach out.
“There was a lot of humanity there,” said Da Silva, who won back-to-back Queen’s Plates in 2009 and 2010 with Eye of the Leopard and Big Red Mike. “And if a jockey goes down, it’s like everybody just got a punch in the face.”
On June 20, the Woodbine community organized a ‘Backstretch Baseball Tournament’ at Paul Coffey Park in Malton to raise money for injured jockey Sheena Ryan. Events like that are fairly common. Horse racing people like to boast about how they stick together. When Ryan suffered her injury during an exercise accident early in May, fellow jockey Isabelle Wenc immediately set up a GoFundMe page, that brought in over $15,000 in donations.
“Woodbine is our second home,” said Rafael Hernandez, the track’s leading rider in 2020. “We spend more time here than we spend at home so you don’t want to have an enemy here at work. It’s an intense competition, but it’s also family.”
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For years Woodbine has attracted outstanding riders from all over the world. There are many reasons for that – the purses are good, the track is world-class and the season is long. This year’s racing calendar began on April 16 and goes until Dec.11. In many other countries where horse racing is popular, the top jocks often have to move from track-to-track as the racing calendar at each facility lasts only a few weeks or months.
“I think that’s one of Woodbine’s biggest assets,” said Wilson, who rode Mike Fox to a Queen’s Plate score in 2007, the first woman to win Canada’s most prestigious race. “In the States, you have a circuit. You used to go Arlington, Kentucky, New Orleans and then back up. So it’s three different locations.
Someone plying their trade and wanting to have a family, you want to settle down somewhere. That’s a difficult thing to do. Woodbine is one of the longest continuously run meets in North America. You can buy a house, raise a family.”
Horse racing fans can watch and bet on races from all over the world now. All the major tracks are well-known and Woodbine enjoys a reputation as a good place to work. Because of that, many international riders flock to the Etobicoke track. But that also makes it a tough place to succeed. In fact, there aren’t as many local stars in the jockey’s room as there used to be. As of June 20, only two of the top 10 jockeys in terms of earnings this season were Canadian-born.
“I’ve seen a few younger, Canadian-born and raised jockeys trying to ply their trade here (and not make it) and I think it’s a testament to the quality of the colony. I mean it’s deep. It’s really deep,” said Wilson.
“I’ve seen guys come here thinking it’s going to be easy. And they find out it’s not as easy. Guys have come, guys have gone, guys have stayed.”
Each year, new jocks with solid reputations from other tracks join the Woodbine colony. There is some resentment. That’s inevitable given that there are only so many mounts to go around. But Wilson said the best riders welcome the challenge.
“Right now with the horse population issues, we have smaller fields, and every time you cut the pie a little bit more, the horses get divided up a little bit more. But I welcome the competition,” she said. “The only way to be the best is to compete against the best and over the years we’ve had numerous jocks come and go. You’ve had your guys who have stayed here and have been successful from other jurisdictions. You have young guys like Kuzushi and Daisuke who came here to ply their trade. They’re from Japan and they saw Woodbine as a beacon, an opportunity. It’s no surprise to me that people want to come here and race.”
Wilson said as far as the trainers and owners go, they want quality riders and don’t care where they’re from, or their gender.
“Woodbine has had its fair share of female riders and the bias that goes along with being a woman jockey has been eliminated,” the Brampton native said. “I think trainers, owners, everyone, are judging the riders based on their abilities, not on their gender. You have to show that you’re capable. Don’t judge these riders on their gender, judge them on their abilities. Are they good enough? Are they fit enough? Are they strong enough? Do they have the horsemanship skills? That’s the question. It has nothing to do with gender. Woodbine has developed enough riders, male and female, that have proven that it’s not about gender. It’s about ability.”
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Hernandez showed up for an interview with Toronto Sun wearing a red Blue Jays maple leaf cap. Clearly, the personable jockey is very happy to be in Canada and racing at Woodbine. But like most of his fellow jocks, he is proud of his homeland, in Hernandez’s case, Puerto Rico. Throughout the jockey’s room, little flags from different countries are displayed. Hernandez has a flag of his native land at his locker.
Hernandez moved from Puerto Rico to race at Tampa Bay Downs when he was 19 before moving on to Fairmont Park, near St. Louis for about 10 years. But like a lot of jocks, he did the circuit, constantly moving from track and track, including the occasional ride in big stakes races at Woodbine. Hernandez won the 2015 Queen’s Plate on Shaman Ghost. An interesting side: Fukumoto’s first-ever visit to Woodbine, after arriving in Canada in 2015, was on Plate Day when Hernandez won on Shaman Ghost.
“I see racetrack, I thought, ‘Holy. This is a nice racetrack,’” said Fukumoto. “And so many people. I saw Rafi (Hernandez) win that day. I thought I want to ride here. I want to ride in the Queen’s Plate.”
Five years later, Fukumoto won the Plate with Mighty Heart.
During his days racing at different tracks in the U.S., Hernandez and his wife decided to start a family and Woodbine seemed like the perfect spot, and he has called the Etobicoke track home since 2016.
Hernandez said he has a lot of friends in the jockey’s room but admitted that the intense competition of racing does make friendships difficult. Arguments and even physical altercations do happen.
“You get hot and sometimes you yell,” said Hernandez. “But we try not to get to that point. We are family. If we see two guys too hot, we try to separate them and try to get them to talk to each other.”
It’s important, Hernandez said, not to let any beefs fester. There’s too much a stake. It’s too dangerous to ride when you’re angry.
“You don’t want to have an enemy at work. We try our best on the track, but nothing dangerous,” he said. “But it’s a horse. You don’t have a gas peddle, brake, and steering wheel to control the horse. You do your best, but sometimes something happens in the race. But you come back to the (jockey’s room) and talk to the guy and say, ‘Buddy, that was not my intention. My horse moved out, I bumped you but I tried my best to keep the race safe.’
“We always talk to each other but sometimes you get hot because you get frustrated. It’s a competition, you want to win. And in this game, you don’t win, you don’t make money. So you don’t go out there and give it 100%. You have to give it 200% to try to win the race. So, it’s hard.”
Da Silva said it’s the nature of the business that nobody wants to show any weakness on or off the track. But if someone is struggling, someone else will reach out.
No matter where they’re from or what language they speak.
SBuffery@postmedia.com
Twitter @Beezersun
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