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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Was Born For This’

John Hiraldo began learning how to ride horses just three short years ago, but today the 20-year-old is a leading candidate for the Eclipse Award as North America's outstanding apprentice jockey of 2021.

The Puerto Rican-born Hiraldo had always wanted to be a jockey like his father, cousin, and uncle, but his mother took a firm stand on him finishing school and trying other sports before he committed to a life on the racetrack.

“My mom tried to keep me in school and other sports; she tried her best for me to do something different,” Hiraldo said. “I'd always tell her, 'Mom, I was born for this.'

“Now that I'm riding full-time, she's honestly my biggest fan! She records all the races, and she tells me, 'I watch 'em all, scared, I can't just sit back and not watch.' The only time she closes her eyes is when I'm at the top of the stretch and I hook up with another rider, because she doesn't want me to lose that battle to the wire!”

Hiraldo came to the U.S. mainland in 2018 to begin riding, spending time in Maryland learning how to exercise racehorses and in South Carolina, breaking babies at the Elloree Training Center. When Hiraldo returned to Maryland, he got a job working for trainer Brittany Russell. She and her husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, were instrumental in Hiraldo's continuing education.

“Thanks to her I started breezing horses, working horses out of the gate, and got my gate card,” Hiraldo relayed. “My agent asked Brittany if I was ready in November, and she said, 'Not quite yet.' When Sheldon said I was good, that's when she kind of fired me! The next day I just started walking around with my agent. I was booked to ride my first horse on Friday, and then I picked up a mount on that Thursday.

“It was nerve-wracking, and I was definitely anxious, because honestly it was the day I was most waiting for in my life. That first race was different; I never thought I would experience something like that [being nervous]. But when I broke, it was like the most relaxing moment of my life. I was like, 'Okay, I'm here.' That was the moment I was waiting for. When I crossed the wire, I said, 'I wanna do this for the rest of my life.'”

From his first mount on Dec. 10, 2020, it took until New Year's Eve for Hiraldo to make his way to the winner's circle. As is so often the case on the racetrack, that day didn't pan out the way he'd planned it.

“All week I was looking forward to that day, because I was riding a 1-9 shot in the third race and everyone kept telling me she couldn't lose,” said Hiraldo. “Then she stumbled out of the gate, I lost my irons, and we ran third. I was so frustrated, beating myself up and wondering if I was even any good at this. I wanted to just go home, because my last horse was a 30-1 shot.”

Hiraldo bounced back and overcame the frustration to swing his leg over that longshot, and the young jockey is so glad he did.

“He comes out running, so I broke and I just sat off the lead,” he remembered. “I waited, waited, waited, then I asked him and he just took off. Without me knowing what the key to winning is, I just did it. It was patience.”

Flat Rate gives John Hiraldo his first career win at odds of 33-1

Flat Rate paid $69.80 to win, giving Hiraldo the first winner of his career.

“It's something very special, unbelievable really. I can't believe it,” Hiraldo told the Maryland Jockey Club media office from the winner's circle. “I'm very happy. I have to thank God for always watching over me and all the other riders. I'm just very happy. I've worked so hard for this moment and I've dreamed about it since I was a little kid. It's something very special for me.”

Over the ensuing year, Hiraldo worked hard to find as many mounts as possible, riding at up to three tracks in a single day.

In one week, for example, he rode at Parx on Monday and Tuesday; at Colonial on Wednesday; at Delaware Park and Charles Town on Thursday; at Laurel, Delaware, and Charles Town on Friday; at Delaware and Penn National on Saturday; and at Laurel on Sunday.

He has gotten a lot of advice from his cousin, Angel Cruz (an Eclipse Award finalist for outstanding apprentice in 2014), and his uncle, Luis Batista, as well as some of the other riders on the Midatlantic circuit, like Xavier Perez and Victor Carrasco.

“I got a lot of experience, and it helped me to mature more in the game,” said Hiraldo. “Riding different surfaces against good jocks helped me to learn to ride over a lot of different racetracks.”

He celebrated his first stakes win on Oct. 13, winning the Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware Park aboard Red Hot Mess. The filly is trained by Hiraldo's girlfriend, Chelsey Moysey, for whom the win was also a first in stakes company.

“That was pretty cool,” Hiraldo said. “First for both.”

Hiraldo won 81 races in 2021, riding across the Midatlantic region for most of the year and at Oaklawn Park during the month of December. His major competitor for an Eclipse Award appears to be California-based Jessica Pyfer with 56 victories; her earnings of $2.7 million bested Hiraldo's $2.1 million.

While it's only been three years since he first got into the irons, and the race for the Eclipse is over (voting closes on Jan. 10), Hiraldo is just getting started. He'll keep his “bug,” the weight allowance granted to apprentice riders, through April, and hopes that his alliance with Oaklawn-based agent Jay Fedor will lead to a productive meet. So far, he's ridden five winners from 39 starters at the Hot Springs, Ark., track.

“I just want to make a name for myself here,” Hiraldo said. “The dream is to be in New York or Kentucky, so I've got to keep riding a lot of races, learning, and trying to win!”

Chelsey Moysey and John Hiraldo after their stakes win at Delaware Park

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Trainer Chelsey Moysey Off To Fast Start At Oaklawn Park

Chelsey Moysey has won 3 of 7 starts at the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting that began Dec. 3 and the fast break from the gate coincides with a change of scenery.

She saddled her first career winner in 2019 at Belterra Park in Cincinnati and her second came later that year at nearby Turfway Park in Kentucky. Moysey spent much of 2020 in Kentucky before shifting her summer/fall base to the mid-Atlantic for the first time, specifically Delaware Park, after the 2021 Oaklawn meeting ended in May. Spurred by her success at Delaware Park, Moysey already has a career-high 19 victories overall this year after winning 11 races in 2020 and two in 2019.

“I feel like it was definitely a great career move for me,” said Moysey, 28, a former assistant to the now-retired Buff Bradley. “It makes it a little easier. It's where you can expand and still keep your numbers without having everything claimed from you in two weeks. It's exhausting.”

All three of Moysey's Oaklawn winners, Substantial ($19.60), favored Little Burrito ($4.60) and Izzybella ($24.40), raced in 2021 at Delaware Park. Its meet ran May 26-Oct. 30. Substantial and Little Burrito are owned by the trainer's major client, Lewis Mathews of Bismarck, Ark. Izzybella is owned by a new client, Al Klerlein, who operates a structural steel fabrication and erection company in Delaware.

Moysey said among Delaware Park's biggest perks is location. Although stabled there, she also ran horses at Parx, Monmouth Park, Charles Town, Laurel, Penn National and Belmont Park.

“Everything's under three hours,” Moysey said. “You have all the options. If you can't find a race in one spot, you can find it in another. It was neat. I shipped all over the place.”

Moysey finished the Delaware meeting with 10 victories, including her first career stakes score in the $50,000 White Clay Creek. Through nine days of Oaklawn's scheduled 66-day meeting, Moysey is already poised to surpass her victory total from the 2021 meeting. She was 4 for 42.

“You always hope for a good start, but I didn't expect it to be this good,” Moysey said. “Last year, I think I went 0 for 23 before I even won.”

Red Hot Mess is among 15 horses Moysey has at Oaklawn. Purchased for only $20,000 in May at Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic 2-year-old in training sale, Red Hot Mess is entered in a 1-mile allowance race Friday. Moysey said it could be an audition for the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes Jan. 29, which is Oaklawn's first of three Kentucky Oaks points races. Red Hot Mess is a daughter of 2011 Preakness winner Shackleford.

Another 2-year-old Moysey has for Mathews is recent addition Vodka N Water, a Fed Biz colt who, despite being a maiden, earned $100,710 in seven starts this year and was twice stakes placed, including the $150,000 Bashford Manor (G3) June 26 at Churchill Downs.

Mathews purchased Vodka N Water, previously with Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, for $45,000 at Keeneland's November Breeding Stock Sale. Vodka N Water is being pointed toward an entry-level allowance race next month, Moysey said.

“We're going to stretch him out two turns and see what happens,” Moysey said.

Moysey has eight career Oaklawn victories.

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Buying From The Back Ring: High-Stakes Snap Judgments At Thoroughbred Auctions

A Book 1 purchase at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale can entail months of careful shopping, from farm visits ahead of the auction to countless inspections, phone calls, and veterinary visits when the horses are on the sales grounds. When Book 5 comes around, and buyers are laying eyes on prospects for the first time in the back walking ring, that process is condensed down to about 20 minutes.

With so many horses going through the ring, and limited time and travel budgets to roam the barns inspecting horses at each consignment, many horsemen in the later books of the marathon sale will elect to find a spot in the back walking ring and inspect the horses as they come through, often standing shoulder-to-shoulder with several others doing the same thing. If they find one that meets their criteria, they'll follow the horse up to the ring to place a bid. Then, once the paperwork is complete, they'll often go back to the same spot and start the process over again.

It's a pressure cooker for buyers and sellers alike, as they weave between nervous horses and each other in a crowded, enclosed area, trying to get the best sightline for a yearling on the walk or hunting down the consignor to glance at the vet report.

The horses purchased in these books are crucial to filling the ranks for pinhookers and trainers around the country, and while the prices might not turn heads the way a seven-figure star might earlier in the sale, the buyers still shoulder a significant risk relative to their initial capital. To succeed in the long-term, their quick-twitch judgement with back ring horses has to be right more often than not.

So, what do keen judges lean on during the bloodstock realm's version of speed dating? For most, it comes down to the walk, the mind, and the budget.

“You can pick apart the book by pedigree at this point as much as you want, but honestly, we just look at individuals, and if we see something that catches our eye, we kind of go from there,” said Delaware Park-based trainer Chelsey Moysey. “You see the horse, see the page, and go on to vet reports and all of that. At this stage in the game, it moves fast, and that's what works for us.

“The biggest thing for me is the walk,” Moysey continued. “I want a good walker, a good shoulder, and a good hip. I can work with anything from the knees down, give or take, but I want to see a horse with a good shoulder and a good hip.”

In addition to how the young horses move, buyers often judged prospects on how they handled their surroundings. A yearling that could handle the sensory overload of the auction process was more likely to warrant a longer look than one hanging on to its composure by a thread.

“They've got to be smart-looking to me,” said Eric Foster, a trainer based in Kentucky and Indiana. “I haven't had a lot of luck with horses that weren't smart. I want to hang around with smart people and smart horses. And never back in the knee. A lot of my rules I make, I wind up having to break them a little bit, so it's hard for me to say, 'I'll never do this,' because then I'll be right there doing it.”

Foster said he comes to the sale with a number in his head in terms of setting a budget, but he allows some wiggle room if he feels he'd be getting adequate value at a higher price.

Moysey also said the horse will dictate the price in her eyes, but her goal was to come back with as many prospects within her overall budget as she could.

“We're still on the lower end of racing, so for us to spend $50,000 on an individual is a lot, but for us to spend $50,000 on two is great,” she said We try to look between the $20,000 to $30,000 range, and if we get something cheaper, great. That isn't happening right now, but we're trying.”

The intent of the buyer can also swing the type of horse they're looking for in the back ring. As buyers looking to race, Foster and Moysey said they were able to forgive certain conditions found on a vet report. Pinhook buyers, on the other hand, will need their horses to stand up to veterinary scrutiny when they're offered again in the spring, and it's hard to have a clean vet report as a 2-year-old if they didn't start with one as a yearling.

Crystal Ryan of South Carolina-based pinhook operation Mason Springs said she prefers to do her homework back at the barns, but the volume of horses in the catalog sometimes makes back ring buying a necessity. When it does, due diligence has to be done quickly, and juggling prospects can be a challenge.

“It all happens so fast, and it's so easy to lose track of one, when you get on one and you have to check on all those things,” she said. “It can be really hard, because one you like might not pass the vet, and then you look and the next horse you like is already going to the ring, and there's not enough time to call it in to the vet.”

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Whereas Moysey was willing to forgive anything below the legs on a horse, Ryan's checklist was the exact opposite.

“First off, I try to look from the legs up, because if I look from the side, I will tend to like something that I probably shouldn't, so I really try to watch that walk, and see how correct they are,” she said. “Of course, there's no perfect horse, so they'll have a little deviation and you have to be a little forgiving.”

Buying to pinhook also means Ryan was not necessarily shopping for the horses she'd like, but the ones she expects potential buyers will like during the 2-year-old sales, both from a physical and pedigree standpoint. She admitted this has taken some fine-tuning of her critical eye.

“It does knock a lot of horses out that I would otherwise really like,” Ryan said. “I have an affinity for a turf horse and that doesn't really fit the bill, so I have to be really careful about that.”

What a back ring buyer does when they fall on a potential purchase can differ wildly, as well. Querying the consignor for the vet report is standard procedure, but how much conversation they have with the agent about the horse and the economics around it depends on the buyer.

“I really kind of keep myself to myself and just do my own thing,” said Midwest trainer John Ennis. “I just paddle my own canoe, really.

“It's a big investment that you're buying, so you want to make sure you're buying something with no soundness issues,” he continued. “Starting out on the right foot is the main thing.”

Book 5 of this year's Keeneland September sale has been unusually robust, and that has given the traditional back ring buyers more competition than they might have expected. Because buyers in the higher books have gotten pushed down into the later sessions, prices have been driven up, and buyers on a tighter budget have had to be even more shrewd than before about picking their spots.

Just because it's later in the sale and the average price has gone down, that doesn't mean it's gotten any easier to buy a horse than it was on the auction's opening day.

“It's hard to have a stone plan for it,” Foster said. “You need to be a little bit lucky.”

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