Tag: Connections

Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Good Cowboys’ Let Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Real cowboys don't walk around calling themselves cowboys. You'll know you've met one when you come across an individual with an intuitive understanding of horses, who probably doesn't say very much, and who has earned the respect of everyone around them.

By all accounts, outrider Mike Chambless is as good a cowboy as they come. The 66-year-old earned the respect of every trainer, exercise rider, and pony person at Gulfstream Park during his tenure at the South Florida racetrack.

“I'm not that good at standing there talking to people, dealing with different mentalities and personalities,” Chambless said. “The horses are what I thrive on, and I'm only as good as the horse I'm sitting on.”

The Saturday of the Florida Derby, on April 3, was Chambless' last day at Gulfstream, and photographer Gwen Davis captured a powerful image of him during that afternoon's races that made the rounds on social media the next day. 

It shows Chambless leaning against his horse, head bowed, drawing strength from a moment of solitude before climbing back into the saddle to finish out the day's card. 

The moment was an emotional one, Chambless admitted. He had been experiencing severe back pain that afternoon (outriding isn't for the faint of heart), and it was also the last time he'd have a chance to ride the horse, Otis.

Chambless is stepping down from his post at Gulfstream to head home to the West Coast in order to help take care of his family. He'd sold his two outriding horses to a local hunter/jumper trainer in Florida, taking advantage of the opportunity to find them a great home after they'd worked hard for him for several years.

“The chance came up to sell them both at the same time, and it was to a gal I'd known since high school,” Chambless explained. “It was about time for a break.”

Otis made about $60,000 as a racehorse, and first came to Chambless about three years ago. The big gelding is kind and effective as an outriding horse, Chambless said, but just didn't have the early speed of his other horse, a little gray named Zeck. 

Zeck was also the more difficult of the pair.

A sunrise over Gulfstream Park, as seen from the back of Zeck

“The owner that had him, that guy warned me, 'He'll bite your head off,'” Chambless remembered. “Well, I've been bit and I've been kicked, that's no problem. I ended up giving $500 for him. I didn't ride him for 30 days because I wanted him to change mentally. The first time I got on him he bucked the entire length of the racetrack. But that's okay.

“I started riding him to give him the confidence he needed in the mornings, hazing horses that were pulling up from their gallops, off the right, off the left. Letting him run up to the horse, and before he even gets to his head I've got him caught; it's all about the timing.

“Now when I'd go to get on him at 5:15 in the morning, he is like riding a freaking rabbit. He will hear a cricket fart in China, I kid you not. So I might not like him very much for 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day, but during that time when I really need him? That's when he shined.”

Chambless' patience stems from a childhood watching every move of his father, a Quarter Horse trainer. By the the time he was six, his dad would put him atop the pony every morning, hand him a racehorse on each side, and have Chambless leading them around at the walk to cool them out after training. 

“When we were done, he'd pull the stock saddle off the pony, put a flat saddle on, and he never saw me again til feed time,” said Chambless. “My friends and I would ride all around the hills of Ruidoso. If I fell off, that pony would go right back to his stall at the barn, so I would just head back there, climb up on the fence, get back on and head out again.”

Watching his father interact with both his horses and other horsemen had a profound influence on Chambless throughout his life with horses.

“I was fortunate that growing up I was surrounded by good people that my dad had earned their respect, who could help open some doors for me,” he said. “My dad, he ran with good hands and good cowboys. All that adds up to me being fortunate to have had some decent and good horses that I enjoyed being on, and always treating people with some respect.”

In typical cowboy fashion, that respect seems to always go both ways.

“There wasn't anyone here that did not have great respect for him,” said Gulfstream-based trainer Lillian Klesaris.

While both his mind and his body are ready for a sabbatical from the racetrack, Chambless definitely hasn't seen the last of early-morning sunrises over a dirt oval. He may not be sure exactly where he'll end up next, but this cowboy won't stay away for long.

“A good catch horse can come from anywhere, but it's hard to find good outriders,” said Chambless. “I've been fortunate to ride with some good hands. If you can get a couple of good outriders together, then you can get the confidence of the trainers on your side. I think that's the biggest thing.”

Outrider Mike Chambless and “Otis” make a difficult left-handed catch on the Gulfstream Park turf course

 

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Biggest Part’ Of His Father’s Legacy Lives On In DeShawn Parker

Perhaps the greatest legacy a man can leave behind is found in the hearts of the people whose lives he touched along the way.

Since his father's passing on March 5 of this year, jockey DeShawn Parker has found himself humbled by the number of people reaching out to tell him stories about Daryl Parker going out of his way to be kind to them.

“Dad loved everybody; there's not one person he came across he didn't try to help,” said DeShawn, 50. “So many people came up to me just to tell me how nice he was. That was the biggest part of him.”

Daryl Parker, the first African-American hired in the U.S. to be a steward in 1986, spent his career adjudicating racing at smaller tracks near the family home Ohio. His reputation was that he was extremely fair in the booth, and always found ways to help people outside his official role.

“You always felt like you should thank him for giving you days, almost,” said DeShawn. “Even when you definitely deserved days, he'd say, 'Well, do this next time, and that'll make it a little better.'”

The sentiments surrounding DeShawn's father echo those in a recent video produced by Sam Houston Race Park announcer Chris Griffin. DeShawn wintered at the track for several years, earning leading rider honors in 2019, and the video depicts members of the local jockey colony congratulating him for being voted the winner of the 2021 George Woolf Memorial Award. 

One of the most prestigious awards in all of racing and named for the legendary late Hall of Fame jockey, the Woolf Award recognizes those riders whose careers and personal character garner esteem for the individual and the sport of Thoroughbred racing. The winner is selected via a nationwide vote by other jockeys.

“He's been incredible to ride against, and he's a great person, too,” jockey Sophie Doyle said in the video from Sam Houston. “He's always helpful and friendly at every racetrack I've ever ridden against him.”

“He's a great ambassador for the sport, a jockey we all look up to,” said Lane Luzzi.

“Not only is he a phenomenal rider, consistently doing it every year, but just being a great person,” added Reylu Gutierrez. “Congratulations DeShawn, you are an amazing rider and an amazing person, and I really look up to you.”

This apple obviously didn't fall far from the tree. Daryl didn't choose to impart his wisdom to his son through his words, however. He showed DeShawn what it meant to be a good man by his actions, inspiring his son to live up to that example.

Father and son grew up around the racetrack, their passions for the animal and the competition fostering an especially close relationship. Though Daryl Parker had to leave the steward's role for races in which DeShawn rode, he was fully supportive of his son entering the sport they both loved.

“They said it was a conflict of interest, but honestly, sometimes my dad was harder on me than anybody else,” DeShawn said, laughing. “He never got on me too bad about anything because I never tried to ride careless, but he wouldn't sugarcoat things. He'd say, 'You definitely deserved to get days for that.'”

Billy Johnson with Deshawn Parker

Since his father was based in Ohio, DeShawn ventured across the state border to Mountaineer Park in West Virginia, where he became the perennial leading rider for more than 20 years. While there, DeShawn worked with the late agent Billy Johnson, who helped him become the No. 1 rider in the country by wins in 2010 and '11.

“Everybody liked Billy, he's just one of those guys,” Parker said. “Never a bad word about him. Even if he spun the trainers, he would smooth it out so they weren't upset with him. He tried hard for everybody.”

They won a title together at Sam Houston in 2015, but with race days and purses declining in West Virginia, Parker made the decision to transfer his home track to Indiana Grand during the summer months. That meant a switch in agent to a mutual friend, Jimmy McNerney, for the 2017 season in Indiana.

DeShawn finished second in the standings in 2017 and 2018, fourth in 2019 despite missing time due to an injury, and finally won the title at Indiana Grand in 2020. 

“This is the best thing of the meet and of my year,” DeShawn told track publicity after the title was official. “I had some chances the past couple of years to win [the title], but I got hurt and it just didn't work out. My agent, Jimmy, always does a good job but he did an exceptional job this year for me, and I was able to stay healthy. I can't put into words what this means. This means so much to me.”

Unfortunately, 2020 was also the year that Daryl Parker spent battling a cancer diagnosis. He missed nearly the entire year of racing, and DeShawn could see how much that wore on his father.

“He loved his job, being on the track, and in fact he turned down some treatments in Cincinnati so he could go back to work,” DeShawn said. “I think he was already kind of getting depressed, sitting there doing nothing all day.”

Though Daryl had been pronounced cancer-free and returned to the stewards' booth for three weeks, the disease returned with a vengeance in December.

“It came on so quick, and he was one of those guys who was never really sick,” DeShawn said. “We knew the cancer could come back at any time, but it really hit him hard.”

Drryl was hospitalized from mid-December until his passing on March 5, and initially COVID-19 restrictions meant no family members were able to visit with him. By February, they'd moved to a different hospital and one person at a time was allowed in.

“I went every day that I was home, and we just sat there and talked,” DeShawn said. “I'm glad he got to go back to work; I don't think he would have had it any other way. They'd call him sometimes, the other stewards, like for advice on something, and you could just tell he wanted to be there.”

As the start of the 2021 season approaches at Indiana Grand, DeShawn feels like the best way to honor his father's memory is to continue working every single day at embodying the characteristics the man stood for. Compassion and kindness above all else, even when it's hard — that's Daryl Parker.

It isn't an easy thing to ask of a jockey. Every day, multiple times a day, your coworkers are trying to finish ahead of you out on the track. Add to that pressure the inherent danger of race-riding, and the jockey's quarters can easily become a pressure cooker of negative emotions.

“We all have to put that smile on our face every day, even when you get trainers complaining and maybe you don't want to say 'Thank you' and walk away,” DeShawn said. “On the track, when you get mad, you have to leave it out there because if you keep on being mad you're just going to make yourself look bad. We're all trying hard, doing the same job.”

It's that sportsmanship and positive attitude, maintained over a career of 5,846 wins to date, which earned DeShawn the Woolf Award. If he gets a bit emotional when he sees that award sitting on his shelf, it's easy to understand why. His father's inspiration and ever-present influence are what helped DeShawn to become the man worthy of such an honor.

“Our goal was to one day be stewards together at a track,” DeShawn revealed. “We may not get to do that, but I know he's riding with me now, so I just look at it that way. He's getting to do something he never got to do before, and I get to have him with me in the saddle.”

DeShawn Parker, winner of the 2021 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Think Dad Would Be Proud’

Before entering the Oaklawn winner's circle on March 13, jockey Alex Canchari raised his gaze to the clouds and allowed himself a moment to experience the rolling waves of emotion. He raised his right hand in a salute, acknowledging the man from whom he'd inherited his love of the horses.

When Alex closed his eyes, he felt it: his dad was proud of him.

The 27-year old had just piloted Carlos L. to a $97.40 upset of the $150,000 Temperence Hill, his first stakes win since the death of his father, Luis Canchari, on Dec. 9, 2020. 

“My dad always loved Oaklawn,” Alex said. “I just felt like he was riding with me. He was watching over me.”

It wasn't just his father's passing that was affecting Alex on the way to the winner's circle; it had been a long, arduous 12 months for the entire Canchari family. 

In March of 2020, Alex's older brother, jockey Patrick Canchari, was gravely injured in a car wreck on the way to the racetrack in Arizona. He was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured C4 vertebra (neck), sedated and placed on a ventilator. 

Due to COVID restrictions placing hospitals on lockdown, family members were unable to see and support Patrick in person.

“That's why it was really tough, and it just seemed like the doctors didn't give him much of a chance when the accident happened,” Alex recalled. “He's a strong person, too.”

Patrick overcame all the odds, and enjoyed his 30th birthday at home in Minnesota last week. He lives with sister Ashley Canchari, who renovated her house for wheelchair access, cares for Patrick, and takes him to daily therapy sessions.

“He's in good spirits,” Alex said. “He was really well-liked in our town. There are people there that come every day and help him; he needs help doing everything. But he's doing really well now.”

Patrick Canchari celebrates his 30th birthday

Alex stayed close to home that summer, supporting his family as best he could through the restrictions imposed by the virus, all while riding at both Canterbury and Prairie Meadows.

It was late fall when an unknown respiratory illness sent the family patriarch to the hospital. It wasn't COVID, but doctors were unable to diagnose him and Luis Canchari succumbed on Dec. 9. He was 64 years old. 

“He was kind of like a jack of all trades,” Alex said of his father. “He's been everything from an agent to a trainer, and he was a jockey. He could do everything with horses; that's what I always admired about him.”

Alex and his father had always been close. Luis grew up in Lima, Peru, attending races at the Monterrico oval and, when he was old enough, grooming and galloping horses there.

In fact, Luis Canchari was the groom/exercise rider for the legendary Peruvian horse Santorin, the first ever winner of the country's “Quadruple Crown.” Santorin won at distances from seven furlongs to nearly two miles, tallying eight victories from 13 career starts. Perhaps his biggest triumph came in the 1973 Group 1 Carlos Pellegrini Grand Prix in Argentina, which the horse dominated by 13 lengths.

Today, there is a statue of Santorin in front of Monterrico. 

“I still have that picture of my dad walking the horse into the winner's circle,” Alex said, pride evident in his voice. “The grooms would gallop horses without saddles there. He was amazing.”

Luis Canchari moved to the United States in the mid-1980s, working and riding races in Florida for a few years. However, it was a trip to Minnesota's Canterbury Park that altered the man's life forever.

“My mom was on the rail watching the horses, but when he passed her she had her head down, and he thought she was crying,” Alex said. “He asked her if she was okay, and that's how they met.”

Luis and his wife settled down and raised four children in Minnesota, working with the horses at Canterbury Park every summer.

There must be something in the air at Canterbury, because Alex met and fell in love with his fiancée there as well.

“I had broken my hand, and I was at the races with my friends,” Alex explained. “She bumped into me and she got ice cream on my shirt, and we just started talking.”

Looking back on his childhood, Alex can't remember a time when both the racetrack and his family weren't a major part of his life. He spent endless hours at the track with his father and his brothers, learning horses from the ground up. 

His father wasn't the kind of man who taught by way of instruction; no, Luis' children learned by doing.

“I remember when I was 10 years old, I was cleaning stalls for a Quarter Horse trainer in Minnesota,” Alex said. “Part of my pay was that she would let me ride the pony. One day, my pony freaked out for some reason and took off full speed across the blacktop. I couldn't slow him down. There is a chain link fence surrounding the track up there, and he was heading straight for it. Well, he hit the brakes, and I flew right over the top of his neck into the fence.

“I thought, 'I don't want to get back on him.' My dad, he was wearing a dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes, and he came over and got on the pony and started galloping him around in figure eights with one finger on the reins.

“That was the only time I can remember being scared around horses, but seeing my dad do that, it took away all the fear. He said, 'It's easy Alex, you just gotta enjoy it.'”

When Alex committed to a career as a jockey in his early teens, his father was right alongside him.

“I used to run around all of Shakopee,” Alex said, referring to the town in Minnesota in which Canterbury Park is located. “Dad would follow me in the car, while I was running with the sauna suit and carrying a whip, practicing switching hands and stuff. Dad built me an equicizer at our house, and he would come out and coach me on it.”

Understandably, Alex felt bereft after Luis's death in early December. 

Alex stayed home for the birth of his daughter, Penelope, on Dec. 21, then made his way to Turfway Park in Kentucky. Things weren't quite clicking: he went 3 for 59 over the next two months.

A fellow Canterbury regular, trainer Mac Robertson, called to check in on Alex. When he heard how the rider was doing, Robertson offered him the chance to ride for his barn at Oaklawn. Alex jumped at the opportunity.

Alex piloted Robertson's Glacken's Ghost to an allowance victory in his first Oaklawn mount of the meet on Feb. 26, and the momentum has continued to build. There was the win with Carlos L. on March 13, and the very next weekend Alex brought home another stakes winner for Robertson with Sir Wellington in the Gazebo, paying $15.40.

Alex Canchari, wearing a helmet cover embroidered with his brother's name, gives Sir Wellington a pat after their win in the Gazebo Stakes on March 20

Carlos L.'s stakes win was extra special, however, because the horse is owned by former jockey Rene Douglas, who suffered a career-ending injury in 2009 at Arlington Park. Douglas is one of Alex's childhood idols, so the mount was especially important to him.

Even at the eighth pole, when Alex's whip flew out of his hand after connecting with that of a nearby rival, the jockey refused to give up. He urged Carlos L. onward with his hands and his heels, giving the horse everything he had. 

The pair crossed the wire a neck in front, and Alex saluted the heavens after the wire.

Things are definitely looking up, and Alex is excited to spend the summer at home in Minnesota where he can ride at Canterbury and help take care of his brother, as well as spending time “being a dad” to his own two kids. 

“Everybody has tough times,” Alex summarized. “I pray a lot, and work every day, and try to look for the good side of things, like my brother walking again some day.

“I think Dad would be proud.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Russell Family ‘Lucky’ To Have Each Other

It seems like some things are just meant to be.  

Then-assistant trainer Brittany Trimble Russell first met and dated the man who is now her husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, in 2012. Then, Brittany's boss at the time, Tim Ritchey, offered her the chance to travel the country working at different racetracks, and she couldn't pass up the opportunity.

As Brittany spent the next several years working for trainers like Jimmy Jerkens, Jonathan Thomas, Ron Moquett, and Brad Cox all across the Eastern half of the United States, she and Sheldon remained long-distance friends. 

Eventually, the racing game brought them back together again.

“I think everything just worked out the way it was meant to,” Brittany said simply. “It was like I'd never left.”

Each made their way back to Maryland in 2017, and things picked up almost where they'd left off. Today, the couple has built both a relationship and a successful Thoroughbred training business at Laurel Park. 

They were married in August of 2018, and their daughter, Edy, was born a year later. 

“She is our why; she's why we work so hard,” said Brittany. “I love that I'm able to enjoy this game with my family. It's 24-7 and a lot of dedication and can be a lot to handle, but the fact that Sheldon can ride for us and we can enjoy it together, it's so special.”

Sheldon helps out at the barn and breezes horses in the mornings, while their daughter stays with either his mother or the mother of Brittany's top assistant, Luis Barajas. 

“Their family is like our family now,” Brittany said. 

Edy is young yet, but she's already fearless with the horses.

“She struts down the shed row like she owns the place,” Brittany laughed. “She has no fear, and you have to watch her or she'll duck right under the webbings. She does have a pony, of course. Sheldon says she's not going to be a jockey, but you know she already loves to ride!”

Both Brittany and Sheldon's careers have been booming over the past four years. Sheldon, a four-time leading rider in Maryland, has won 80 or more starts each season, and Brittany has increased her number of winners each year she's been in business. 

She began with 11 wins in 2018, improved to 17 in 2019, and built up to 46 wins and over $1.6 million in earnings in 2020. With 13 wins thus far in 2021, Brittany is on target for her best year yet. 

Five-time stakes winner Hello Beautiful has played the starring role in Brittany's career thus far. The Maryland-bred 4-year-old has won seven of her 14 lifetime starts to earn $384,610, well out-performing her $6,500 purchase price.

“She's special for many reasons, and she's really done a lot for us,” Brittany said. 

Brittany has come a long way from her beginnings in Peach Bottom,  Pa., where her family didn't have anything to do with horses. 

“We lived in Amish country, and they're farmers, but not horse farmers,” Brittany quipped. “As a young girl, I always wanted to be able to do everything, right? First I wanted to be a ballerina, then to play softball, then to learn an instrument. … It was always something new. But when I started riding horses, that was the one thing that stuck.”

Her primary equine learning came at nearby Breakaway Farm. She was cleaning stalls on weekends by the age of 12, and by 14 she started to learn how to break and gallop the babies.

“It was a good way to learn how to gallop, the babies and I kind of learned together,” Brittany said. “I didn't really have any formal riding lessons.”

She rode a few amateur jockey races along the way, but Brittany learned she preferred puzzling out the horses from the training side of the industry. 

Trainer Jimmy Jerkens was the biggest influence on that part of her horse racing education. Learning from the veteran master horseman taught Brittany what questions she needed to be asking to understand her equine charges.

“I still have the 'Jerkens text hotline,'” she joked. “If I ever have a question or wonder what to do in a specific situation, he's always willing to help. He's wonderful.”

Working for Brad Cox in Saratoga sealed the deal in terms of Brittany's career choice. 

“He really intrigued me when he offered me a job, even though I wasn't sure about making the move up to Saratoga at the time,” said Brittany. “That was the job that made me realize I want to do it, to be a trainer. He left me on my own, he trusted me. He was a good teacher, he's a good horseman, and he knows how to win races. He's really good to people, you see so much of his staff stays with him. In this game that says a lot about a person.”

In turn, the thing that says a lot about Brittany is her enduring positive attitude. She doesn't acknowledge the industry treating her any differently due to her gender, and she is grateful for all the time spent as a nomad assistant trainer traveling around the country.

“Being away from family when I was younger, that's sort of what molded me into the person I am today,” Brittany said. “It gave me that education I needed to go out on my own. I missed holidays and things with my family, and they don't quite understand because they're not horse people. But I wouldn't trade it.”

In addition, she and Sheldon have learned to work together in harmony, win or lose.

“At the end of the day you have to realize that the rider doesn't want to mess up,” Brittany explained. “Sheldon will be the first one to say, 'I'm sorry,' and he's done way more good for us than bad. It's one of those things where I'm lucky to have him.”

 

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