Tag: People

Pavel Urruchi To Assume New Role As Churchill Downs Chaplain

The Kentucky Race Track Chaplaincy is pleased to announce that Chaplain Pavel Urruchi will assume a new role and serve as Chaplain at Churchill Downs.

Chaplain Pavel has served for the past five years at Turfway and Belterra, where he quickly earned the respect, trust, and friendship of horsemen from the frontside to the starting gate to the backside. Pavel is originally from Lima Peru and has a BA in Religion, a Masters in Divinity, and is working on a PhD in Applied Theology. He speaks both Spanish and English.

Rich Gimmel, Director of Ministry Staff, said: “I am excited that Pavel has accepted this position, and I can assure you he is eager to build on the momentum of human connections already underway at CDRT alongside Women's Ministry Director Melanie Case, Children's Ministry Director Erica Williamson, and Ministry Coordinator Drew Lindman. We are truly blessed to have Chaplain Pavel on our team, and we're excited to see his energy and his love for our Lord and His people brought to our Churchill Downs ministry.”

Chaplain Pavel will be responsible for developing relationships with everyone in the backside community from the workers in the barns and on the track as well as the various organizations located there serving the horse racing community. Chaplain Pavel's experience serving as a chaplain on the backside has given him a unique perspective on how to address the physical and spiritual needs of the backside workers. He enjoys the opportunity to show the love of Christ in word and deed to a group of people who are sometimes forgotten in our society and even in the horse racing world. Whether sharing meals, leading worship services, or providing clothing and transportation, he believes that caring for their souls is essential.

Pavel's love of people and his desire to be a friend will certainly enable him to foster the ministry of presence on the backside that is the Kentucky Race Track Chaplaincy. He will work closely with the Chaplaincy team to ensure that all individuals have access to the resources they need to thrive both personally and professionally.

Pavel said he “wants to earn their trust as I get to know them and be a blessing to them. Primarily, I am here to show them God's love in tangible ways. In the end, I want everyone to experience the love of God, be transformed by Him and find a family to belong.”

Pavel is married to his wife Leah, and they have two children, Isaac and Brianna.

The Kentucky Race Track Chaplaincy is a Christian ministry that provides year-round ministry services for race track workers. We serve most race tracks in Kentucky as well as Belterra in Ohio. Our mission is to provide for the spiritual and physical needs of all people in the horse racing industry and their families through Christian ministry.

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Jockey Of The Week: Tyler Gaffalione Rides 11 Winners At Churchill Downs

Tyler Gaffalione continues to demonstrate why he has been Kentucky's most dominant jockey for the past several years and annually ranks among the nation's top jockeys. Fresh off earning his third leading jockey title at Kentucky Downs, Gaffalione headed to Churchill Downs to defend his September meet riding title one of several he owns at the legendary track.

With two stakes victories during Churchill's opening weekend and a total of 11 wins for the week, the panel of racing experts voted Gaffalione Jockey of the Week for Sept. 11 through Sept. 17. The award recognizes jockeys for riding accomplishments and who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1,050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

On Saturday, trainer Greg Foley gave a leg up to Gaffalione on Bango in the Louisville Thoroughbred Society Stakes. Off as the favorite in the field of six, Bango pressed the pace of Strobe before taking command leaving the turn. Bango was immediately confronted by Gulfstream Way and those two battled down the stretch with Bango prevailing by a diminishing head in 1:09.02 for six furlongs on the dirt. With the win, Bango tied the record held by Ready's Rocket for most wins at Churchill Downs.

“This horse is very special and just loves it here at Churchill,” said Gaffalione. “I'm very grateful for the entire Foley team for letting me ride him. He's very talented and it's great to be part of history.”

Also on Saturday, Gaffalione was aboard Search Results for trainer Chad Brown in the G3 Locust Grove for fillies and mares. Off as the favorite in the field nine, Search Results led all the way to post a 3 1/4-length win in 1:42.40 for 1 1/16 miles on the dirt.

“She ran a great race today,” said Gaffalione. “I just sort of inherited the lead and she settled really well. In the stretch when I asked her to quicken, I had a lot of horse beneath me.”

Gaffalione finished the week with a five-win day on Sunday.

At the recently concluded Saratoga meet, Gaffalione recorded 34 victories to finish in the top five. After Churchill's September meet, Gaffalione will ride the fall meet at Keeneland where he owns six riding titles. He posted his 2,000th career win Jan. 20, 2023 at Gulfstream Park, his home track and where his riding career began in 2014. He was awarded the Eclipse Award as top Apprentice in 2015.

Other contenders for Jockey of the Week were Alex M. Cruz who won the jockey title at Emerald Downs for the 4th consecutive year which set a record at a Washington state track, Dylan Davis who won the G1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine, Sheldon Russell with two stakes wins at Pimlico, and John Velazquez whose two stakes wins included the G1 Natalma at Woodbine.

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‘The Strongest Of The Strong’: Cindy Hutter Earns Bill Mooney Award For Courage

The National Turf Writers and Broadcasters will present Cindy Hutter, who continues her inspiring recovery from a severe brain injury sustained in a training accident in July 2022, with the Bill Mooney Award for displaying courage in the face of tremendous adversity.

Born and raised in Romansville, Pennsylvania, near the horse-centric area of Unionville, Hutter started riding at a young age before going to work for trainer Bruce Miller after she turned 16. Hutter later worked for D. Wayne Lukas, galloping such stars as Winning Colors, Thunder Gulch, Open Mind and Flanders; and later for Todd Pletcher, working with more greats such as More Than Ready, Jersey Girl and Graeme Hall.

Hutter and her husband, trainer George Weaver, launched their own stable in 2002. With Hutter serving as assistant and lead exercise rider, the couple campaigned Grade 1 winners Lighthouse Bay and Vekoma and graded stakes winners Christine's Outlaw, Daddy Is a Legend, Devil's Preacher, Drum Major, Falling Sky, Isotherm, Main Event, Majestic Dunhill, Pass the Champagne, Point of Honor, Saratoga County, Tizahit and Together Indy.

Hutter suffered injuries July 3, 2022, when a filly she was galloping on Saratoga's Oklahoma Training Track collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack. Unconscious for several weeks, Hutter continues to bounce back through rehabilitation and therapy all while making her presence felt at the barn even from a distance. 

“We're very honored to win this award,” Weaver said. “Cindy was tough beforehand, and we ended up finding out how much tougher she was after everything happened. We're doing everything we can and she continues to improve. She's still got a strong work ethic. 

“She might come out to the barn once a week, once every couple weeks. She came out the other day, spent the whole morning with us. And, of course, there was no shortage of comments to do this, and to do that.”

Hutter joins five prior Mooney winners – the award's namesake who died after a long battle with cancer in 2017: horseman Kiaran McLaughlin, retired jockey Joy Scott, retired jockey and owner Rene Douglas and horsewoman Martine Bellocq. She will be honored along with the NTWAB's other four award winners at the organization's 63rd annual Awards Dinner at The Woolf Den by The Derby in Arcadia near Santa Anita Park, Wednesday, November 1. 

Hutter was on hand this summer when her husband saddled Crimson Advocate to victory in the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot, one of 10 stakes wins for the stable this year.

Sean Clancy, a longtime Turf writer and former steeplechase jockey who has known Hutter for decades, wrote about the trying times for the couple the last two summers in The Saratoga Special. 

“Last year, I was standing by the outside rail of the Oklahoma talking to George. It had been two weeks, maybe, since Cindy's accident,” Clancy said. “He was always a horse trainer to me. That day, he was a husband. Scared of what lay ahead, scared for what Cindy's life would look like. It was all so uncertain. The thought of Cindy trapped, dependent, unable to live the life she had built … man, it was devastating. The whole racetrack felt it.

“Then this year. What a difference a year makes. We finished a Stable Tour and I said to George, 'Hey, if a year ago, someone said you would win a race at Royal Ascot, with Cindy there, you'd win nine at Saratoga and Cindy would be watching the horses and offering her insights, her valuable insights…' George shook his head and smiled, 'She's come so far. I'm so proud of her. If someone told me a year ago that this is what it would be like, I'd have taken it. Sign me up, give me the contract.'

“Cindy wrote the contract. She worked her way from a farm in Pennsylvania, galloping jumpers in fields to the pinnacle of Thoroughbred racing, first on Wayne Lukas' burners, then Todd Pletcher's, then her husbands' horses. We always knew she was a strong rider. In the last year, she showed she's a strong woman, the strongest of the strong. Not that I'm surprised.”

Other honorees at the NTWAB Annual Awards Dinner will be Edwin Gregson Foundation (Joe Palmer Award), Team Cody's Wish (Mr. Fitz Award), Kenny Rice (Jim McKay Award) and Mike Kane (Walter Haight Award), along with other writing award winners announced that evening.

The NTWAB Awards Dinner is traditionally held during Breeders' Cup Week and is the organization's only fundraiser. A portion of the proceeds from the event are used toward internships for prospective Thoroughbred racing journalists and to support Thoroughbred industry charities.

Tickets are available for the event either by contacting Jennifer Kelly at thesirbarton@gmail.com, NTWAB at ntwab2016@gmail.com or on the NTWAB website here: https://www.ntwab.org/order-ntwab-annual-awards-dinner-tickets 

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Charlsie Cantey To Be Honored At Horse Racing Women’s Summit

Pioneering horse racing television commentator Charlsie Cantey will be honored with the Jane Goldstein Exemplary Leadership Award at the second annual Horse Racing Women's Summit, Sept. 27-29, at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif.

A native of North Carolina, Cantey started her career with race horses in New York after graduating from George Washington University in 1968. She worked with trainers Elliott Burch, Frank Whiteley Jr., David Whiteley, and Sidney Watters, as well as Joe Cantey after their 1969 marriage.

She was persuaded by Frank Wright and Dave Johnson, co-hosts of the WOR-TV weekly racing show in New York, to join them in 1975.  Two years later she made her network debut on CBS for the Travers Stakes, alongside Wright and Jack Whitaker. During nine years with CBS she originated interviews from horseback.

When ABC was contracted for Triple Crown coverage in 1986, Cantey was part of the talent team that included Jim McKay, Al Michaels, Whitaker, and Johnson. In 2001 the contract went to NBC, where she worked with Tom Hammond and others for the Triple Crown, as well as the Breeders' Cup World Championships.

Cantey brought unique insight about horses to the telecasts, and despite ongoing nervousness about her live appearances she offered poise and professionalism that brought her immediate acceptance.

“I never thought of myself as a pioneer,” Cantey told Jay Hovdey in a 2020 Bloodhorse interview. “I never stopped to think that I was a woman trying to work in a man's world, because I came out of the backstretch. The people I was interviewing in the afternoon were people I worked alongside in the morning…And I have to say I never faced any discrimination.”

Cantey's past honors include being part of some two dozen Eclipse Award-winning telecasts, selection to the National Museum of Racing's Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor, the Jim McKay Award for broadcasting excellence by National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, and Pimlico's Old Hilltop Award at the Preakness Alibi Breakfast.

“I am honored, and beyond humbled, to receive the Jane Goldstein Leadership Award,” Cantey said. “To be recognized by Jane and the Horse Racing Women's Summit is a stunning surprise, and I am so grateful to be remembered by this important collective force committed to advancing all facets of our mutual lifelong passion, thoroughbred racing.”

She retired in 2005 and enjoys time with three grandsons.

The award is named for ground-breaking turf publicist Jane Goldstein, who was recognized for the inaugural presentation last year.

Tickets to HRWS 2023 are still available and can be purchased online. Visit www.womeninracingsummit.com for more information.

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