Tag: Connections

Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Fire’s Finale Is Kenwood’s ‘Icing On The Cake’

The goal in horse racing may be to hit the wire in front, but the real nature of the sport can't be found in a single trip over the racetrack. Wins just wouldn't matter as much if they didn't require us to believe in taking chances, to maintain our hope through all the difficult times, and a little bit of luck.

Those are the reasons Robb Levinsky was unable to contain his joy when his Kenwood Racing homebred Fire's Finale won the Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes on Dec. 7 at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Penn. The 2-year-old Pennsylvania-bred is the last foal out of Levinsky's favorite racemare, Exchanging Fire, and was ridden by Mychel Sanchez, whose agent, Joe Hampshire, was the mare's regular rider.

“This race was like a gathering of old friends, and it's one I'll remember a long time,” Levinsky said, acknowledging that the win stands out as a rare high moment during the day-to-day struggles of the pandemic. “It's not been an easy year for the world, so racing has been an escape from a tough year for all of us. It's not perfect, it doesn't make up for everything, but it has definitely helped.”

Several of the dozen syndicate owners were on hand to watch as Fire's Finale made an impressive rally from behind the field to win by a length, earning his first stakes score in his seventh lifetime start. Levinsky's emotions ran over as he entered the winner's circle.

“We don't breed a lot of horses, but (his dam Exchanging Fire) was just a member of the family,” he explained. “I've been in this business for 35 years, so I try not to get overly attached, but we really loved her.”

Levinsky claimed Exchanging Fire for $50,000 in 2007 at Gulfstream Park. The next year the daughter of Exchange Rate won three listed stakes races and finished fourth in a Grade 3 race at Monmouth Park that year, and ran out earnings of nearly $250,000 through her 27-race career.

The filly retired at the end of 2008, and Levinsky knew that the stock market crash meant she wouldn't bring what she was worth at auction. He decided to keep the mare and breed her himself.

“We always knew she had talent,” Levinsky said. “I felt eventually she was going to reproduce herself, but it didn't happen right away.”

Exchanging Fire's first foal died at birth when he was strangled on his umbilical cord. After giving her a year off to recover, she was able to produce three more foals over the next several years, though none of those were particularly inspiring on the racetrack.

Her fourth foal, a bay colt by Jump Start born in 2018, seemed to have all the right things going for him. Unfortunately, Exchanging Fire colicked a month after the colt was born, and she died on the operating table at New Bolton when she was 14 years old.

“They couldn't save her,” Levinsky said. “With Fire's Finale, we got him onto a nurse mare and he survived, but he'd certainly had a rough start in life. It never seemed to bother him, but obviously it meant a lot to us for him being her last foal.”

The colt's early training was so promising that Levinsky decided he'd offer a portion to new-to-the-game owner Ralph Pastori, a CPA from New York. This year was Pastori's initial foray into the horse racing game, and he'd first approached Levinsky with the idea to buy shares of horses from the 2-year-old sales.

When the pandemic affected the schedule of those sales, Levinsky didn't find as many horses in his target price range, and he started to consider whether it'd be a good idea to offer up 25 percent of Fire's Finale.

“Everything was going well, and I told Pastori, 'Look, I honestly really, really like the horse,'” Levinsky remembered. “I said, 'You can definitely pass if you want, I just think he has a chance to be something special.'

“I took a chance with my reputation, which is very important to me, and I kind of had to go out on a limb a little. But he had trained so well up to that point, and fortunately that worked out!”

Trained by Kelly Breen, Fire's Finale took a couple starts to figure out the racing game, but the colt never finished worse than fourth in his seven starts this season. Following the stakes score, his record stands at 2-2-1 with earnings of $108,315.

Fire's Finale in the Parx Racing winner's circle

“It was certainly emotional to keep him ourselves, rather than try to sell him at one of the sales or something, and to see him have this kind of success,” said Levinsky. “I think Fire's Finale has a chance to be a really good horse for us next year as a 3-year-old.”

Breen wasn't able to attend the race at Parx that Monday afternoon, so Levinsky's long-time friend and former neighbor Ron Dandy was in the paddock before the Nursery Stakes to saddle Fire's Finale. It was Dandy who told Levinsky about the jockey connection, just before the race started.

“I didn't know the rider who was named on him at all, I just knew he was leading the standings at Parx,” Levinsky explained. “Ron said, 'He's a really nice young man, a good up-and-coming rider. You know who his agent is, don't you? Joe Hampshire!'”

Hampshire rode Exchanging Fire at Parx when she was still running, and his wife met Levinsky in the paddock.

“She remembered Exchanging Fire, and I'm sure Joe has ridden a lot of horses,” Levinsky said. “It was really cool, kind of like a full circle thing.”

Despite struggles brought about by the pandemic altering racing schedules, Levinsky's stable has won 19 of its 90 starts in 2020. The syndicate is three-for-three in December alone, with wins in the opening-day feature at Gulfstream and a filly breaking her maiden at Laurel.

“It's been a very fulfilling year for us,” said Levinsky, adding, “This is not the norm, I'm not trying to say that it is; we recognize that it's special. Fire's Finale winning a stakes to end the year was really the icing on the cake.”

Levinsky knows how hard it is to earn those stakes wins, describing Kenwood Racing as a smaller operation with a matching budget. He earned TOBA's Outstanding Thoroughbred Owner – Breeder award in 1989 and won the prestigious California Derby in the 1990s with a horse named Prime Meridean, but he said the day-to-day wins can often be the most emotionally significant ones.

“We've been tied in with this horse, especially, for so long, it's just that much sweeter,” said Levinsky. “I think Fire's Finale has a chance to be a really good horse for us, and next year I hope he gets to have a big 3-year-old season. First and foremost, though, and not to sound like Pollyanna, but I truly hope that the whole world will be better next year.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Fire’s Finale Is Kenwood’s ‘Icing On The Cake’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Breeders’ Cup Connections: At 91 Years Young, Blue-Collar Trainer Dancing His Way Into The Winner’s Circle

It's been a difficult year all around, but there are still a few bright spots out there in the world – you just have to know where to look.

This week, we found that feel-good story down in New Mexico. At the age of 91, trainer Rey Marquez saddled his first winner of 2020 at Zia Park on Dec. 3. It was his 13th starter of the year. 

It was “just” a $10,000 maiden claiming race on a Thursday, but truly it was more than that. It was a rare moment of joy bursting forth from this challenging year, both for Marquez himself and all those who know him.

“I don't know how many 90-year-olds are still training,” Marquez admitted during a telephone interview, noting that he turns 92 on Dec. 22. “But me, I still danced three times a week 'til the place shut down due to COVID – I do a mean cha-cha, gal!”

The horse, Lincoln County Kid, won by a length, and Marquez danced his way into the winner's circle with his trademark grin. It was a good return on investment; Marquez had purchased the 2-year-old gelding for $1,500 just six weeks prior. 

He'd taken a chance on Lincoln County Kid, sight unseen, to help out an old friend: a trainer forced to sell off his stock and leave the business. Marquez remembers telling his fellow horsemen that if things in New Mexico didn't start looking up, and soon, “there'd be a lot of tack for sale.”

It isn't just the pandemic that's dealing raw edges to the state's horse racing industry. Uncertainty about the future of racing at Sunland Park has sent some trainers and owners rushing for the border, and a recent lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Horsemen's Association against the state's commission alleges the latter has been improperly collecting over $8 million since 2004 to pay liability insurance for jockeys.  

“We have a really plum relationship with casinos – we get 20 percent of their net – but right now casinos are closed,” Marquez explained. “On Thursday when I won it was an $8,000 purse, so $4,800 goes to the winner. Last year when I won a maiden race my share was $16,000. 

“Everybody's having a hard time here. I just keep hoping for a miracle.”

Compounding the issue is the fact that account wagering is not legal in New Mexico. With COVID restrictions firmly established at Zia Park, no fans are allowed and thus there are also no mutuels clerks; that meant Marquez didn't have a bet down on Lincoln County Kid when the gelding paid $31.60 to win.

“It's not the best place in the world to be at right now,” Marquez said simply. 

Still, New Mexico has been his home since he and his childhood sweetheart Josephine got married 69 years ago, and he doesn't plan to leave now. There are too many happy memories tucked in around every little corner. 

He and Josephine were married for 35 years, and she passed away 34 years ago this month. 

Rey Marquez (Bernadette Barrios photo)

“We had a great marriage, and everybody loved her,” Marquez said, emotion causing his voice to catch. “That woman never met a stranger, and she loved the horses.”

Marquez still lives in Albuquerque, where he cut his teeth working for the local Health Department. He always enjoyed attending the races with Josephine and their friends on the weekends, and one afternoon on the way home from Ruidoso Downs, one friend suggested they buy a horse together. 

The idea was tempting, sure, but with two young children to support it just wasn't financially feasible. 

A few weeks later, fate intervened.

“One morning, two blocks away from the office, a cabbie had a passenger who was in a real hurry trying to catch a flight,” Marquez remembered. “He T-boned me at a light, and I got a nice insurance payout. So I guess you could say I got into racing by accident, literally.”

It took three horses before Marquez saw his silks head out to the track in the afternoon – his first two suffered injuries before they made it to the races.

“It was just bad luck at first,” said Marquez. “I asked my wife, 'Do you think somebody's trying to tell us to stay out of this business?' And she said, 'Hell no, go get us another one!'”

At first, Marquez hired an experienced trainer to condition his horses, then spent weekends on the backstretch helping out and learning as much as he could. Eventually Marquez got his trainer's license, and began operating a “working man's stable.”

Ruben Garcia, a friend who owned several Mexican restaurants in the city, was the first to offer Marquez a chance to begin training full time. Marquez took him up on the opportunity after retiring from the health department at age 62.

It was a family operation from the start. Marquez' wife was his biggest fan, and their daughter Threse ran the shed row for 17 years until her eldest child was school-aged.

He had a few nice runners over the years, led by 1984 Santa Fe Futurity winner Dan's Diablo. More recently, Marquez said the stakes-placed Strike A Spider was one of his favorites.

“This sport has been good to me,” Marquez said. “I wouldn't say I'm prudent, but I got my first nickel in it, and I haven't lost it yet.”

Marquez has saddled 266 winners from 3,488 starters during his career, according to Equibase. He's had a winner nearly every year since 1976, and said he never spent more than $4,000 on a horse. 

For Marquez, it's the thrill of watching his horses thundering down the stretch in front that keeps him rising early every morning to see to the needs of his small stable. The racing game also gives him a chance to stay close to the memory of his beloved late wife. 

“Most of my friends have passed on now,” Marquez said thoughtfully, then deflected that grim reality with humor via a story about his doctor.  

“I eat mostly fried chicken, fried chicken skin, pork … about two to three years ago my regular doctor retired, and the new doctor started talking to me and asked me what I ate. She was surprised, she said, 'There's the rule and there's the exception, and you're the exception!' I guess maybe she's right.”

 

The post Breeders’ Cup Connections: At 91 Years Young, Blue-Collar Trainer Dancing His Way Into The Winner’s Circle appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Was This A Grade 1?’

Kendrick Carmouche celebrated when he crossed the wire first aboard the Jack Sisterson-trained True Timber in Saturday's Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, but it wasn't until he was jogging back to the winner's circle that the 36-year-old jockey recognized the full scope of his accomplishment.

“Was this a Grade 1?” Carmouche asked, voice full of emotion. “Oh, this is my first Grade 1!”

Asked to relive that moment during a telephone interview, Carmouche's voice wavered before he found the right words.

“What you see (in that video) is just half of it,” he explained. “There was so much that was built up to get up to this point of my career, so much push and so much fight, and not only a Grade 1, but the Cigar Mile. It's just unbelievable. I didn't even know it was a Grade 1 until I came back, because I don't look at the top of the program. I just look at the horses.”

A favorite of fans and fellow jockeys alike, Carmouche has mastered the art of being tough during the races while still retaining a high level of sportsmanship and humility on the ground.

His emotional win in the Cigar Mile came after more than 20,000 career starts and over 20 years in the saddle, but it wasn't Carmouche's only milestone achievement of the weekend. On Sunday, the veteran jockey wrapped up his first New York riding title. 

“I give thanks to everyone who put a good effort into supporting me and pushed me along to win this meet. I'm very appreciative,” Carmouche said. “I seized the opportunity at hand and I'm grateful for all the trainers and owners for letting me show other people that I can win races. I'm very blessed to say that I've come to New York five years ago and I got a title for the fall meet.”

Carmouche has now won 3,314 races since first acquiring a jockey's license. The son of jockey Sylvester Carmouche had spent years following his father around to different racetracks across Louisiana on the weekends, watching and learning everything he could about the sport he loved. 

Some of his favorite memories come from the small bush tracks, though one mount during a match race when he was 15 years old was enough to convince him to stick to exercise riding on a sanctioned racetrack.

“It was fun to watch it every single Saturday and Sunday of my life, and it was the best weekend any kid could have ever had,” Carmouche remembered. “It was just all friends, people coming together and having a good time. People played cards, ate good food, and just enjoyed each other; it was all good people and good memories. It got me where I'm at today.”

When Carmouche earned his apprentice jockey's license at 16, he spent four months riding in his home state, but his first real break didn't come until a family friend suggested he try Pennsylvania.

“My father told me to never pass up an opportunity,” Carmouche said. “You know, my father never really taught me about riding, he just told me to pay attention and listen. If I did have a question he gave me an answer, but mostly I just followed that.”

Over the next 14 years, Carmouche earned seven riding titles at Parx Racing.

He also rode all around the Northeast during his twenties, and remembers well the grind of long days on the track. There were days he would wake up to work horses at Delaware Park before riding the afternoon card there, then drive down to Charles Town in West Virginia to ride another six or seven races that evening. All that time he'd eat little besides a few ice chips, just enough to keep up his energy.

“This a hard world, but I'm from Louisiana, and working hard is the first thing they teach you in life,” Carmouche explained. “I got two kids, I gotta lead the way.”

Since his move to New York in 2015, Carmouche's accomplishments include receiving the 2017 Mike Venezia Memorial Award, the prestigious honor awarded to jockeys who exemplify extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship.

With these latest two accomplishments under his belt, Carmouche said he's humbled by the faith others have put in him.

“It's just been such a journey,” said Carmouche. “I love the people and the racehorses, and the jockeys. I love everything about it.

“Believe me when I tell you, your dreams can come true. You just gotta believe in your skills. You have to stick to a couple things in life and just drill on it, and just know that if you keep fighting in life you can keep strong and your dreams can come true.”

It was extra special to share the triumphs with his agent, Kevin Bubser. Carmouche brought him into the racing business, but the two have been best friends longer than they've been business partners. 

“I knew what I was getting into,” Carmouche said, laughing good-naturedly. “We get mad at each other, but then we forget about it in the next 30 seconds. That's my boy; he's a good guy. He's getting really good at his craft, and I'm doing my part as a rider. 

“I wish he was here with me; I just want to give him a hug! He's just a big teddy bear. He's 6'5” and he's solid, my brother with another mother.”

The distance from his agent and from the backstretch has been one of the most unique challenges presented by 2020, but it won't be the most difficult memory Carmouche has of this year. 

In June, after watching the video of George Floyd's death at the hands of four police officers, Carmouche found himself unable to sleep for four nights until he shared a video of his emotions on social media.

“It is very sad to see what is going on in the world,” Carmouche said in the video, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I have a white wife and two kids and it's sad to see that it just never ends. It just never ends.”

Racism isn't something he's experienced on the racetrack, Carmouche said, but he can't deny that the rest of the world often sees color before anything else.

“I feel some type of way about things that are still going on in 2020, and I just don't understand some people,” he lamented. “The way I was raised is everybody is one, we don't have different colors. That's the way I've always felt.

“I don't want my kids to keep going through it. Come on guys, let's just make it better for our kids and move on. Peace and love, that's what we need more of out in the world.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Was This A Grade 1?’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Want To Be Somebody Who Lifts People Up’

As the “policemen” of the track, outriders have to command the respect of exercise riders and backstretch workers alike in order to be effective at their jobs. Most tend to utilize a tough guy type of attitude on the job, but Oaklawn outrider Chisum Ewing prefers more of a “lead by example” approach. His voice is quiet and calm, but it has an authority in it that can't be denied. His instructions or corrections are always delivered with the same respect he expects in return.

Admittedly, the 32-year-old native of Hot Springs, Ark. used to have a reputation as a “hard a**” on the track and as a “party guy” during his off hours, but that all changed in 2017 when tragedy altered the course of Ewing's life forever.

After the Oaklawn Park meet ended in April that year, Ewing underwent shoulder surgery and needed six months off to recover.

“I've been on the racetrack my whole life; I didn't know what it was like to be off the track,” Ewing said. “There's not a lot of work to be had for the kind of wages I was making on the track, and that was kind of disheartening to me. I mean, I couldn't get a job waiting tables. I thought, 'I'm not even good enough to wait tables, are you kidding me?'”

The hits kept coming.

“I felt kind of lost,” Ewing continued. “Even though I have a lot of faith, I got into this depressive state. My best friend was living with me at the time, and I came home one day and caught him trying to commit suicide. I told him, 'We're still friends, but I need you to move out because I can't be around that kind of energy.' He begged me to let him stay, but I had to ask him to leave the house.

“Then, later on that evening, he killed himself. I really, really took that hard. Through that time, I was just here. I had no money, I'd depleted everything from six months off. I'm just trying to figure out all this stuff at once, past history all crashing down on me.”

He started attending a local church, Encounter, but just going once a week and immediately leaving after the service wasn't enough.

Ewing distinctly remembers one afternoon sitting on the bathroom floor in his house, struggling with suicidal thoughts of his own. He looked up and saw a cobweb under the medicine cabinet, and it made him angry. He got up and knocked it down.

The next day, Ewing found himself in the very same place, hearing those same negative thoughts echoing through his brain.

“I looked up, and I saw a spider rebuilding that web,” Ewing said. “I thought about knocking it down again, but I ended up sitting there and just watching for a while. I'm watching this spider, and I hear, as clear as I'm talking to you, 'You see that spider?' I said, 'Yeah.' And the voice said, 'Do you see what he's doing?' I said, 'Yeah.' The voice explained, 'He's not worried about what he's going to eat, where his next meal is coming from, he's just meticulously working on that web, doing what he's been created to do. He knows if he works at it hard enough and long enough, he's going to catch something.'”

It was so simple, a spider building a web, but the message was enough to silence Ewing's negative thoughts, at least for that day. The very next afternoon, he heard about a last-minute mission trip to Honduras with Encounter Church, and Ewing knew he had to go. The only problem was the cost: $2,400.

Ewing started selling off everything he could think of, but he was still a bit short at the deadline.

“This couple I met at the church, she just sold her wedding ring and handed me the cash,” said Ewing. “To have that kind of love from a stranger, when they don't even really know you, that struck me in such a way… it made a lasting impression for the rest of my life. My family situation isn't really that great, so to have a stranger have that much confidence in me, I was just blown away.”

Chisum Ewing, far left, takes a selfie with kids during his first mission trip to Honduras

That trip to Honduras helped Ewing turn his personal tragedy into a calling to help others. Through all the amazing experiences, one event really stuck out. It involved taking big, yellow pieces of posterboard to schools, on which the kids were supposed to write their dreams.

One child asked, via interpreter, why Ewing didn't write his own dream on the board.

“At first I kind of laughed it off,” Ewing said. “Then I wrote down, 'I want to be used as a light, to show others the way.' You know, there's other things that I'd like to do, but no matter where I am, that's my biggest goal.

“I want to show somebody love or kindness that maybe hadn't ever been shown it. I want to make a mark in this world, not to be famous myself, but to make God famous. Everybody always puts people down; I want to be somebody who lifts people up.”

When he got home to Hot Springs, Ewing began to see things he'd never taken the time to notice before.

“Hot Springs has a massive homelessness problem,” Ewing said. “Being on the racetrack, you sometimes don't realize the rest of the world. I didn't realize that human trafficking is a thing in Arkansas. I didn't realize so many parents were pimping their children out, that so many children were abused… There's a city 2 ½ hours away from here that sends their homeless here on a bus, so that their city doesn't have a homelessness problem.”

Ewing started a new routine: multiple days a week, he would purchase sandwich makings at the grocery store and pass them out to the city's homeless population. A few friends from the church began to volunteer their time to help him, and now, through partnerships with a couple other organizations, the group he started feeds hundreds of people each day.

Chisum Ewing, right, takes a moment to pray with a man in Hot Springs

“I've heard so many amazing stories,” said Ewing. “There was a lady one time who walked out of the store with groceries in her hands. She came up and wanted food. She was mad and cussing me, because another guy just took the last plate, but then he gave her his food. I told him, 'Look man, I'm really sorry, but I don't have anything else.' He said, 'Dude, I'm fine. I'm not worried about my next meal. I wake up and hope that everyone can be as blessed as I am.'

“I sat on a bench for two hours that day, thinking that even though he has nothing, just look at this man. In his heart, he's got it figured out because he knows how to love people. That's really giving. That's when it really struck me, if you reach out and help somebody, not only are you seeing them prosper, they've been touched in such a way that they also want to help people.”

Ewing's future goal is to build a facility near Hot Springs to break young horses, employing kids and young adults who might not otherwise be given a second chance. It'd be almost like a halfway house, he explained.

“If I can teach them a trade, maybe they can pull themselves up and have a chance to succeed in life,” Ewing said. “I'm working to learn more about the system here, so that I know how to work within it when the financials are ready to make this dream a reality.”

He hopes the farm can also run cattle, enough to continue his mission work of feeding those who are hungry. Though Ewing is incredibly pleased with the progress he and his church have made in feeding the homeless population in Hot Springs, he knows there is more work to be done. Still, he hasn't given the operation a name or an official non-profit status.

“I'm not trying to draw attention to myself – I'm not wanting to benefit,” Ewing explained. “I understand the need to advertise and all that, but that makes it about the people, and not the service. I just want everybody else to see how good God is. I want everyone to have an understanding and appreciation for what He can do in your life if you allow Him to.”

Ewing's new perspective has extended to his job on the racetrack, as well. He recalls one morning in particular at Oaklawn, when he was outriding and saw Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas out on the track on his pony. Ewing suddenly felt moved to ride over and pray with Lukas.

“At first he was telling me he was busy, but I've learned to listen to that feeling inside me,” Ewing said. “I could tell he received it because he was just kind of speechless, and he sat there the rest of the morning just talking to me, not about the horse or racing or anything, but about life.”

Ten days later, Lukas rode over to Ewing in the morning with a big small and a bright light shining in his eyes. Lukas relayed that he and his wife had been driving around Hot Springs when he saw an amputee standing on a street corner with his dog. Lukas wanted to stop, but his wife was driving and laughed off his request.

Lukas said they didn't get more than a mile down the road before he asked his wife to turn the car around.

“I don't know what Wayne gave him or did for him, but it doesn't matter,” Ewing said. “Wayne told me that as much as he's won on the track, he'd never won that big in life. This is a Hall of Fame trainer; he's won Derbies! But the joy that was on his face, and the fulfillment he got that he expressed to me, that's what really makes me feel like I'm succeeding in life.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Want To Be Somebody Who Lifts People Up’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights