Breeders' Cup Connections: Taylor Cambra and Subsanador, Born for This

His voice was hoarse from yelling and his hand was a little sore after an overly exuberant high five, but Taylor Cambra was grinning from ear to ear as he weaved through the crowd at Santa Anita and made his way down to the winner's circle. The assistant trainer to Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella was one of the first out on the track to greet Mike Smith and Subsanador (Arg) (Fortify) after their hair-raising victory in the GI California Crown Stakes.

It was the inaugural running of the $1 million Grade I and with his hard-fought win in a three-way photo over National Treasure (Quality Road) and Newgate (Into Mischief), Subsanador earned an automatic entry into the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

The following morning as Subsanador enthusiastically inhaled his breakfast in the stall just outside Mandella's office, Cambra proudly reflected on the win.

“That was all heart,” he said. “To fight on like that was very impressive. We're very proud of him. Not many horses will fight when they have a horse on each side of them, but he dug in and that's kind of how he is. He's got that grit.”

A champion juvenile and three-time Group 1 winner in his native Argentina, Subsanador moved to the U.S. late last year and made his first two starts in California for John Sadler and Stud Facundito, including a narrow second in the GI Santa Anita Handicap. He was then sold privately to Wathnan Racing and transferred to the Mandella barn this spring.

Cambra said the first two things he noticed about the 5-year-old chestnut were his looks and his intelligence.

“He's a beautiful horse,” he noted. “He wasn't very big, but he had a presence about him that stood out a bit. We already knew he was a good horse coming in, but he was pretty. It was definitely the first thing I noticed. And he's smart. He's got a mind of his own. With the pony, sometimes he tries to out-strengthen them. He's a little bully.”

In his debut for Mandella, Subsanador sat nicely in second in the GII Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes, but faded in the stretch and settled for fourth. He more than made up for it in his next two starts, scoring his first graded victory in the U.S. in the GIII Philip Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park on Aug. 17 and then earning his 'Win and You're In' berth in the California Crown.

All systems are now go for the colt to take a trip to Del Mar next month for the Breeders' Cup.

“The Breeders' Cup is our Olympics; it's the end goal,” said Cambra. “As long as he just keeps improving the way he's doing right now, I think we'll have a pretty good shot.”

Subsanador battles to the wire in the GI California Crown Stakes | Benoit

Living a Childhood Dream

Usually seen on the Santa Anita backside sporting his signature cowboy hat and belt buckle, 27-year-old Cambra looks as if he would be just as comfortable sitting on the back of a roping horse as he would the track pony. And he has plenty of experience with both. From growing up on the backside of a racetrack to his teenage years following the rodeo circuit, all the chapters of Cambra's young life have led him to his current role as assistant trainer to Richard Mandella.

Growing up, Cambra tuned into big races like the Breeders' Cup and the Kentucky Derby from his home in Northern California and he dreamed of what it would be like to work with those equine stars. His father was an outrider and trained a few racehorses on the side at Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows, so Cambra would go along with him to the track every morning before school.

“All I ever wanted to do is be a racehorse trainer,” Cambra reflected. “My first job was raking hot walking rings. I'd go around barn to barn and exercise riders would pay me $5 or $10 to clean bridles for them so that they could go home earlier. I started walking horses for Monty Meier when I was ten years old. I've groomed, I've hot walked and I've ridden the pony. I've done just about everything.”

As a young teenager, Cambra had firm goals of first becoming a jockey and then eventually making his way to a training career, but those dreams of riding were dashed when he hit a growth spurt and soared past six foot.

Taylor Cambra in the shedrow at Richard Mandella's barn | Katie Petrunyak

“I was really trying to keep my weight down, but by the time I was 16 I was 6'1 and 130 pounds and killing myself trying to make weight. I knew it wasn't going to happen.”

Still, he hoped that he could maintain a weight that would allow him to continue exercise riding.

When he was 19, Cambra spent his first summer in Southern California and decided that he was there to stay. He wandered the backstretch at Santa Anita for two weeks in search of a job.

“I would get an odd horse here and a horse there galloping, but nobody wanted to hire me,” he recalled. “Everybody said I was too big to gallop, even though I wasn't that heavy. Finally, I was going to give up and go home back to Northern California. There were two trainers who I hadn't asked yet. One was Richard and one was Bob Baffert. So I said, 'You know what? Before I leave I might as well give it a shot. They're probably going to say no. They're Hall of Famers and all the little trainers are telling me no, so these guys will surely say no.' But when I came here, Richard asked me if I could ride bad colts. I told him I could ride anything he had.”

Not only had Cambra developed a strong seat from years of riding racehorses, but he had furthered his abilities at the rodeo. Cambra's father and other family members were all involved in the rodeo and Cambra had starting riding calves when he was around seven. He moved on to junior bulls and then started riding bucking horses professionally when he turned 18, traveling to competitions all throughout the West.

“It was a lot of broken bones and an empty wallet, so I said it was probably time to go back to racehorses,” Cambra said with a laugh.

Looking back, Cambra readily acknowledges that the experience was more than worth it as being a cowboy made him a better rider and vice versa. On his first day with Mandella when he was assigned a tough colt that flipped over on him, Cambra hopped back on the horse without so much as blinking an eye.

Over the years since, Cambra has ridden many of Mandella's top trainees. There was United (Giant's Causeway), a multiple graded stakes winner who was second in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Turf, and Jolie Olimpica (Brz) (Drosselmeyer), another multiple graded winner who was second to Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) in a record-setting edition of the GI Jenny Wiley Stakes in 2020.

The star of Cambra's riding career was undoubtedly Omaha Beach (War Front), a three-time Grade I winner who was runner-up in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

“He was the full package,” Cambra said. “He was classy. It's hard to explain the way he felt underneath you. He was so strong, so smooth, so intelligent. And he's turning out to be a pretty good sire too.”

Eventually, Cambra's riding days came to an end when the battle to maintain an exercise rider's weight became impossible to overcome. He transitioned into the position of barn foreman and last year, was promoted to assistant trainer.

This new role came with a new set of responsibilities.

“There's a lot more you have to do,” explained Cambra. “You don't just have to worry about getting on your horses and going home. In my case, I have 45 horses that I've got to make sure are all sound and happy and I have 45 employees that I have to make sure are happy and doing their jobs correctly. There's a lot to do, a lot to oversee and obviously I report to Richard.”

In Mandella, Cambra said that he could not have picked a better boss and teacher.

“He's hard on me, which is good,” he noted with a grin. “I need that, keeps me in line. He's fair though and he's very sharp. He finds things that I miss. Iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another and he's a pretty sharp man, so he's working on me.”

Cambra's aspirations to become a trainer one day are as strong as ever, but for now he is content with where he is, honing his horsemanship skills and living his childhood dream.

“A day not learning something new is a day wasted, so I'm very happy with where I'm at,” he said. “It's a dream come true. We used to watch the great horses on TV when I was a kid. Never did I ever think that I would get to be around them, let alone ride a horse like Omaha Beach or get to work with a horse like Subsanador every day. It's a dream come true.”