Breeders' Cup Connections

The gates are scheduled to open at 9:30 a.m. on Friday. Post time for the first race is 11:35 and the first Breeders' Cup race goes off at 2:45. But long before those bright-eyed Breeders' Cup attendees begin filling the grandstands of Del Mar, the backside will have been awake for hours. For those back in the barns as Breeders' Cup morning dawns, in many ways it's just like any other day. It is the same routine of raking barn aisles, topping off water buckets, checking temps, preparing feed, wrapping...

There are people that work with horses and there are people that love horses. In the case of Katie Tolbert, there is no better example of a person that works with horses because of how much she loves them. You see the devotion on a quiet morning on the backside of Churchill Downs as she sits in the saddle, stroking the neck of the horse she is astride or is ponying alongside her. You hear it in the echo of a nicker from an excited trainee, eager for her company,...

From a young age, Jeramie Fennell was certain that he was born to be a jockey. Addicted to the thrill of riding, becoming a jockey was the only thing he really cared about, the only thing he knew for certain. So when, as he continued growing taller throughout his teenage years and maintaining weight became increasingly difficult, Fennell did what he thought he had to do in order to live out his dream. He turned to a different kind of addiction, but this time the consequences would lead him to...

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...

"Zurdo" Estrada earned his nickname back when he was a kid in Mexico running up and down the soccer field. He would always kick the ball with his left foot so everyone called him Zurdo, the term word for left-handed. The nickname stuck and even still today, it's what everyone knows him as on the Santa Anita backside. Estrada began working as a hot walker at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo, California in 1989. He instantly fell in love with the sport and after a few short months, made...

For many lifelong racetrackers, it's a natural ascent to start out as a hot walker, move up to becoming a groom and perhaps eventually, work your way towards exercise riding. That wasn't the case for Edgar Revolorio, groom of GI Breeders' Cup Classic hopeful Highland Falls (Curlin). Revolorio grew up around horses in his native Guatemala and when he moved to Texas to work with Quarter Horses, he started out there as an exercise rider. As he gained experience on the racetrack and learned more about the art of grooming,...

They say that once horse racing gets in your blood, it never leaves. Lee Vickers has no doubts about that. For him, a passion for the sport was practically embedded into his genetic code. Both his father and his grandfather were jockeys in his native England and Vickers was riding racehorses himself by age 12. Over the past three decades since, Vickers has ridden dozens of top-level horses on both sides of the Atlantic. This year, the assistant trainer and exercise rider for Christophe Clement is enjoying the ride with...

GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes contender Arthur's Ride (Tapit) is all business when he goes out to train in the morning. Coming back to the barn afterwards? Well, that's a different story. Damian Hinds has been assigned to Arthur's Ride as the 4-year-old colt's exercise rider throughout this year's Saratoga meet. He has grown accustomed to the GI Whitney winner's daily antics over the Oklahoma track when they start heading back to the Bill Mott barn after training. "He's a good horse to gallop, quiet and nice, but to...

Byron López was 18 years old when he moved from Guatemala and began working for a talented new trainer named Todd Pletcher. He started out as a hot walker and soon moved up to becoming a groom. Twenty-four years later, he now cares for some of the best of the best among Pletcher's elite stable. López shared his story in Spanish, but the deep devotion he has for his equine charges surpassed any language barriers. "I am motivated by the horses," he said. "They are so affectionate and I get...

For many people, their passion for racing started with a horse. They watched Zenyatta dance to two Breeders' Cup victories, they had a strong opinion in the rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar or maybe they cheered American Pharoah on to a Grand Slam score when he won the 2015 Classic. For Priscilla Schaefer, her love of racing all started with a backstretch. She was in high school when she attended her first horse race at Emerald Downs outside of Seattle, Washington. Watching as the horses entered the starting gate, Schaefer...

Carlos Rosas is running out of fingers to count on as he rattles off the names of Breeders' Cup champions he has sat on over the years. As an exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen for the past two decades, Rosas has played a role in developing an impressive list of superstars. There's 2014 Distaff winner Untapable and 2011 Juvenile Fillies heroine My Miss Aurelia, plus Breeders' Cup runner-ups Midnight Bisou and Tapiture. The list goes on from there. Curlin was one of his earliest claim to...