Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: For Alsagoor, A Long Road To A Dream Come True

Abdullah Alsagoor arrived in California from his Saudi Arabia homeland approximately a year and a half ago. He was 18 years old, a teenager bold enough to dream big but with seemingly no idea how to make those dreams come true.

“I wanted to see another world,” he said of the decision to leave behind his parents, Sarah and Mahdi, and a close-knit family that included five sisters and five brothers.

His parents had strongly endorsed the move and were in position to offer him some financial support. He recalled Sarah telling him, “Go do your goals.” Alsagoor had been taught to ride at a young age by Mahdi, a trainer in Saudi Arabia. One of his goals was to develop his skills until he was good enough to be hired as an exercise rider by Bob Baffert, a trainer of world renown. He intended to use that work to help pay for his studies in pursuit of his ultimate goal – to become a commercial pilot.

Alsagoor arrived at Los Alamitos Race Course with photos intended to display his riding ability to trainers who might need extra help. One problem: He was continually barred from entering.

“I talk to security, 'Please, let me in so I can talk to trainers and see how I can get my license,' “ he recalled.

He struggled to express himself during his first six months in the United States. He had neither family nor friends; no one willing to intercede in his behalf. He recalled one day when he successfully entered Los Alamitos and made his way to the jocks' room. He tried to explain his desire to gallop horses for different trainers in the morning. He said someone asked to check his weight. He stepped onto the scale wearing his riding gear and a jacket.

When the scale read 130 pounds, he said he was subjected to ridicule.

“They make joke,” he recalled. “How are you going to be a jockey?”

When he finally gained access to the backside, that led to more disappointment. He said one trainer asked him to stop by the following week, promising to give him an opportunity then. When he came the next week, he was told he would need to wait another week. That went on for weeks. Once he obtained his license, he said his limited opportunities came on mercurial horses that were a danger to themselves and anyone who attempted to work with them.

Alsagoor was a beaten young man. The “other world” he had so eagerly wanted to explore seemingly wanted nothing to do with him. He felt very much like a stranger in a strange land. He called his mother to arrange to return home.

“I almost cried,” he said. “I said, 'I can't stay here. I can't stay in the United States anymore. I want to come back. I can't talk to anyone. I don't have any friends. I can't order for me food when I go to a restaurant. I can't stay here anymore.'”

Sarah pleaded with him to give it more time. He said she told him, “Keep your ambition. Keep your hard work. Be nice to everyone.”

Abdullah Alsagoor works a horse at Santa Anita

Someone suggested to Alsagoor that he might find more work at Santa Anita. He began getting on a few horses there for different trainers and displayed some ability. Humberto Gomez, a native of Mexico City who is entrusted with Baffert's finest stock, was among those who took notice of the newcomer.

Shortly after that, Jimmy Barnes, Baffert's top assistant, asked Gomez if he knew of any freelance help that might be available.

“It's not easy to make a recommendation or bring somebody to Baffert's barn,” Gomez said, referring to the lofty expectations that surround the operation. “I got a feeling with this guy. I don't know what it was.

“It was his body language, his presence, the way he presented himself. He was a genuine person. The way he presented himself, I said, 'Let me see if I can help him.' Bob likes people who want to improve, who've got ambition.”

Introductions were made and Alsagoor soon proved to be a good student, overcoming early nervousness and mistakes to become a fixture at the barn each morning over the last five months or so. Gomez also assisted Alsagoor in securing a better living arrangement, arranging for him to room with one of his friends. Alsagoor is making steady progress toward his pilot's license as a student at Universal Air Academy.

Alsagoor refers to Gomez as “my brother.” When Baffert assigned Gomez to journey to Saudi Arabia to work with Charlatan in advance of the Saudi Cup, Alsagoor's family welcomed Gomez upon his arrival as if he was one of their own, asking what they could do to make him more comfortable during his stay.

Alsagoor feels as though his new life gets better every day now.

“Before I moved here, my dream was to gallop for Bob, and it's come true,” he said. “Thank God for that. You can't imagine what he's done for me.”

Alsagoor knows he is better for his struggles, as severe as they were.

“It opened my mind to everything and made me strong,” he said.

He is finally happy that he came. And even happier that he stayed.

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

If you wish to suggest a backstretch worker as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the employee's background.

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Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Labarre, Montanez ‘Stronger Together’ After Harrowing Accident

Exercise rider Chloe Labarre tuned in to watch the first race at Laurel Park in Maryland on July 17, a 5 1/2-furlong turf contest. Her fiancé, Rosario Montanez, had picked up the mount on Hendaya due to an injury to another rider.

Labarre remembers feeling some concern as the runners advanced to the starting gate because neither of them was familiar with the 4-year-old filly. She breathed a sigh of relief when Hendaya broke cleanly and the field began to string out.

She was filled with doubt and fear by the time the race ended. Montanez and Hendaya were nowhere to be found as the horses flashed across the finish line. Then came the call.

It was from Brittany Russell, the trainer who employs Labarre. “Chloe,” she said, “he went down.”

Hendaya, seemingly too headstrong for Montanez to handle, had clipped heels with a horse in front of her, causing both of them to fall. Hendaya rolled over Montanez before regaining her feet. Montanez was not so fortunate.

“It happened so fast,” Labarre said. “I didn't see it happen.”

They live five minutes from Laurel Park. Fortunately, medical help arrived so quickly that Montanez was already being rushed to the hospital by the time Labarre reached the track. She waited hours while her fiancé was evaluated. He would have full use of his extremities but was found to have a traumatic brain injury, a broken back, broken ribs and facial fractures.

Montanez is 30, two years older than Labarre. They never envisioned such hardship when they became engaged on Nov. 3, 2019. No one could have.

Montanez, one of three finalists for the Eclipse Award as North America's leading apprentice in 2011, underwent successful back surgery at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore the next day. As Montanez spent the next two weeks recovering in intensive care, he understood as never before how strong a woman he had chosen as his future wife.

“Chloe is my rock, honestly. She is my everything,” he said. “If I wasn't with her, my life would be completely destroyed.”

Labarre found inner strength she never knew existed.

“I wasn't okay, but I was fine,” she said. “I was getting through it because he needed me to be there. I couldn't be the one falling apart, having a meltdown.”

She stayed at a hotel near the hospital in those critical early days before returning to work, even though Russell had urged her to take as much time as she needed.

“She reached out to me and said, 'I want to come back,'“ Russell recalled. “I was very surprised. But, at the same time, she loves what she does. I think it was a little bit of a sense of normalcy for her to get on horses and get back to the barn.”

Russell went on: “It's the nature of the business. Horse people, we don't really know how to take time off. It's kind of been bred into us to put your head down and go to work regardless of what is going on in your personal life.”

“I've loved horses since I was a little kid,” said Labarre after returning to the saddle following her fiance's racing injury. “They're my life.”

Labarre had grown up with horses and ridden at an early age. She has been an exercise rider since she was 16 and has worked for a series of prominent trainers, among them Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Chad Brown and Michael Matz.

Labarre never thought twice about returning to horseback, even after seeing firsthand how perilous that can be.

“I love it. I love horses,” she said. “I've loved horses since I was a little kid. They're my life.”

She had always been aware of the danger without experiencing it. “Thank God, I've never been injured badly on a horse,” she said. “I thank God for that right now because I don't want it to happen.”

While Montanez continues an encouraging recovery by attending physical therapy three days a week and talks hopefully about returning to competition, Labarre has helped make Russell one of the leading trainers at Laurel Park's fall meet.

“She is a huge asset in the barn for more reasons than one,” Russell said. “She gets along with pretty much anything she sits on and she's a good read of a horse. She can breeze horses. She works horses from the gate. She gets on babies. She helps older horses.”

Russell and Labarre enjoy much more than a typical employer-employee relationship. Russell arranged a GoFundMe account that ultimately raised more than $40,000 to benefit Montanez. Almost $3,000 poured in during the first hour.

“I have no words to say how thankful I am to them,” said Montanez.

Some good has come from the ordeal. If Labarre and Montanez had the slightest doubt about their relationship, they now know one thing with certainty. They are stronger together.

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

If you wish to suggest a backstretch worker as a potential subject for In Their Care, please send an email to info@paulickreport.com that includes the person's name and contact information in addition to a brief description of the employee's background.

The post Kirkpatrick & Co Presents In Their Care: Labarre, Montanez ‘Stronger Together’ After Harrowing Accident appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Racing’s Worker Shortage Isn’t Just A Lack Of Grooms — In Some Places, It’s Exercise Riders Too

As racing continues to grapple with questions about how to offset labor shortages for grooms and hotwalkers, some trainers tell Thoroughbred Daily News they worry the talented exercise rider is also becoming a dying breed.

Though some larger operations have not encountered this problem, some smaller shedrows have seen experienced hands retire without an influx of young riders to replace them. Some trainers attribute the issue to a lack of an educational pipeline, saying that many riders show up at the track wanting to gallop without having learned proper equitation or horsemanship outside a racetrack setting. In some places, like California, a shrinking number of training centers and farms also reduce the number of learning centers that have traditionally educated young riders and young horses together.

Besides that, the TDN reported, the pay for most exercise riders hasn't kept up with inflation, and there are limited opportunities for an experienced exercise rider to advance (unless they plan to become a jockey). Combined with the seven-day-a-week nature of a physically demanding and risky role, the job doesn't look like a good bet to young people with other employment choices.

A poor or inexperienced rider can be dangerous to others on the track if they can't stop or settle a horse, or can fail to identify lameness or asymmetry that could signal a problem with the horse.

Some in the industry are hopeful that training schools like the North American Racing Academy can help fill the gap of upcoming riders, while others wonder if trainers should reach out to other equestrian disciplines like show jumping to find riders who can modify existing skills for the track.

Read more at Thoroughbred Daily News

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Fewster Returns To Race-Riding In Maryland After 11-Year Absence

Emily Fewster, a jockey who rode 40 winners between 2004 and 2009, had her first mount in more than 11 years aboard Justin Nixon owned-and-trained gelding I Idolize You in Friday's seventh race at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

I Idolize You, making his fifth start this year but first since Feb. 29, pressed eventual runner-up The Forty Factor through a quarter-mile in 23.07 seconds before dropping back and finishing last of seven as Smokin Hot Factor rallied to give trainer Kieron Magee his first win of the summer meet in the six-furlong waiver maiden claimer for 3-year-olds and up.

Born in Korea but raised in Maryland, the 33-year-old Fewster first began riding at the age of 5, showed and broke horses and schooled timber horses before turning pro Jan. 31, 2004 at Fair Grounds. Last a winner on Aug. 21, 2008, she hadn't ridden in a race since Jan. 22, 2009 – both at Laurel Park.

Fewster began galloping on a farm at 13 and later galloped for late Maryland training legend Dickie Small before moving to New Orleans, where she got a job working for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen. She rode her first winner Feb. 22, 2004, at Fair Grounds with Princessofthebayou, owned and trained by Donald Moran Sr.

In addition to Fair Grounds, Fewster also rode at Evangeline Downs, Yavapai Downs and Sam Houston during her rookie season before making Maryland her primary base in 2005. She also competed at tracks such as Colonial Downs, Delaware Park and Philadelphia Park and won the 2007 John Henry Stakes aboard Dubai Cat at The Meadowlands.

Currently, Fewster works as the main stable rider for Nixon's Laurel-based string in the morning, and he said the mount was a reward for her hard work and dedication.

“She joined the team in December when we came back down from Woodbine. She's been a real asset to the team,” Nixon said. “She gets on him in the morning, does a great job, so she deserved a shot here in the afternoon.

“She's dedicated to all my horses,” he added. “I don't think any one of them gets any more than another. She's involved with all of them.”

I Idolize You was racing first time for Nixon since being claimed for $5,000 out of his previous start, also at six furlongs over the main track. Shortly afterward, live racing was paused for 2 ½ months in Maryland amid the coronavirus pandemic before returning May 30.

“We obviously had to shut down and I elected to turn him out,” Nixon said. “He came in a little unfit and we're just trying to get him right.”

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