By Bill Finley
Karl Broberg has been the leading trainer in the country by wins every year since 2014 and looks to have this year's title already wrapped up. But that doesn't make him a racing insider. In fact, he's anything but. While running an advertising business specializing in products promoting high school sports, he got involved in the sport as a horseplayer. Then he became an owner. He didn't begin training until 2009.
That's among the reasons why Broberg doesn't see the sport through the same prism as so many others. There are racing traditions he doesn't understand and is unwilling to accept, the latest example being the system of jockeys hiring agents and then turning over as much as 30% of their earnings to them.
“It's absolutely absurd that these jockeys, who have such short careers, are giving 25 to 30% of their money solely to have some guy enter horses for a trainer,” Broberg said. “It doesn't make sense.”
While Broberg does acknowledge that some jockey agents earn their money and do more than just help a trainer with entries, he wants to shake up the status quo. He took a pretty big step toward just that when bringing C.J. McMahon on board to be his stable rider at Evangeline Downs and Delta Downs. The two agreed that with Broberg using McMahon exclusively, the jockey did not need an agent.
“When he rides for me, there is no agent,” Broberg said. “He doesn't have to pay anyone anything. He gets to keep all his money, except for taking care of the valet.”
The Broberg-McMahon combination is among the few situations where a jockey likely will thrive without an agent.
McMahon was among the top jockeys in the Southwest and won 216 races in 2016, many of them for Broberg. In 2017, he decided to try to break in on more prominent circuits and rode at Gulfstream and in Kentucky. His numbers plummeted, and he won just 48 races in 2018. He needed a way to revive his career and saw Broberg's proposal as a perfect way to do so.
“This is a tremendous opportunity and I'm ecstatic that he believes in me and is going to give me a chance to show my talent and ride good horses,” McMahon said. “To ride for a guy like Karl, who wins 500 plus races a year, how can you say no? I was in a position where I won 40 something races last year. Now, who knows how many we can win together.”
The relationship should be most lucrative for McMahon at Delta Downs, which opens Oct. 8. Because Delta's purses are significantly higher than those paid out at Evangeline, it's a meet Broberg points for. At the 2018-2019 meet, he won 107 races and his stable earned $2 million. Had McMahon won 107 races at that meet, he would have been the second leading rider at the track.
If Broberg has a horse in a race at Evangeline or Delta, McMahon cannot accept an outside mount. Broberg said he will give McMahon advance notice when he knows there is a race he will not have a starter in and, in that case, McMahon is free to ride for anyone he wants. He will also be required to work for Broberg on all mornings when his Louisiana division is breezing horses.
When Broberg runs more than one horse in a race, he will bring in an outside rider, but one who will likely wind up on the lesser-regarded part of his entry.
“I made this offer with C.J. McMahon because we have had great success in the past,” Broberg said. “A few years ago, he was winning races for us left and right. C.J. has a gift, he's incredibly talented. When he got back [after riding in Florida and Kentucky] he approached me and said he'd like to ride for me again. But he wasn't able to get any outside business. Some agents are earning their money. But here you have a fellow who was not able to get any outside business and I'm able to latch on to what I perceive to be one of the most talented jockeys around here, so why not let the jockey keep all the money and get back up on his feet?”
Depending on the time of year, Broberg has divisions at as many as six tracks and says he's not ready to try this experiment anywhere else. He also doesn't think this would work for most any other trainer or jockey.
Yet, he insists there is a better way of doing things when it comes to jockeys and agents. He believes all racetracks should allow trainers to enter online and not just over the phone, which, he says, would lessen the need for an agent. He also doesn't understand why, in most states, agents are allowed to represent no more than two jockeys.
“I could easily foresee a future where the numbers of agents was less, and if they had more jockeys, they could charge a smaller percentage,” he said. “At most tracks, two agents could handle all the business. It would cut in half what they'd have to pay the agents. It would be practical and it would work.”
Bringing McMahon on board means that Broberg has stopped using Tim Thornton and Colby Hernandez, the two jockeys who were riding most of his horses on the Delta-Evangeline circuit. They can't be pleased and neither can their agents. Broberg said he has dealt with a lot of negative feedback.
“One hundred percent, I've taken bunch of heat over this,” he said. “I don't care. I get it. If I were an agent, I'd be mad, too. Even the jockeys seem repulsed by the idea. They don't seem to get it.”
But Broberg doesn't think racing should be so resistant to change and new ideas.
“People feel the way they do about this only because this is the way racing has always done it and so people feel that's the way it has to be,” he said. “Sometimes, there are just better ways of doing things.”
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