By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
It takes dedication to be a jockey.
Victor Rodriguez had only completed fifth grade in the Mexican border city of Juárez where he grew up, when his father threw him on a horse and said “start galloping and don't get scared.”
Rodriguez appreciated the advice. Being a jockey north of the border gave him a future.
Rodriguez is 5' 3” tall and weighs 125 pounds, perfect for a quarterhorse jockey but too heavy to ride thoroughbreds.
After he broke his ankle in three places two years ago and had to take eight months off, Rodriguez began the process of getting a license as a trainer.
But he still loves to ride horses and to win.
“I feel a lot of emotion. When you win, it's a lot of emotion. It's one of the best things,” Rodriguez said.
He was wearing crocodile skin boots and driving a customized truck to the stables of the Downs at Albuquerque.
Smith and West, a 3-year-old gelding, is one of eight quarterhorses stabled at the Downs that Rodriguez trains.
The horse has earned about $100,000 in ten races.
“I showed him how to run,” Rodriguez said.
The horse's fifth win was a stakes race at the New Mexico Breeders' Quarter Horse Championship on June 14 at Sun-Ray Park in Farmington, said Stuart Slagle, racing secretary at the Downs.
Stakes races come with a higher purse, meaning they bring in more money for the winners, said Wayne Conwell, director of racing at the Downs.
“Generally what happens is that 60 percent goes to the winner, 20 percent to second place, and then it goes down from there. When you're talking about a $50,000 purse, it's a pretty good race,” Conwell said.
The New Mexico Breeders' Quarter Horse Championship, a 440-yard race for 3-year-olds and older, will run on Oct. 12 at the Downs and bring with it a guaranteed $60,000 purse.
Conwell and Slagle work together to determine how much each horse race is worth.
“It's fairly complicated and (the purse money) comes from several sources and the percentage is from sources set by state law,” Conwell said.
“That money goes to the owner of the horse that wins. He gets the 60 percent. Ten percent of what he gets goes to the winning trainer and 10 percent goes to the winning jockey,” Conwell said.
But jockeys make more money “in the long run,” Conwell said.
Rodriguez walked around the stables checking out the quarterhorses but clearly favored Smith and West.
The average person cannot distinguish between a thoroughbred and a quarterhorse, which in general runs shorter races than the heavier horse.
“The average horse will run once every four or five weeks. A race horse probably has maybe 20 really good races in his lifetime,” Conwell said.
At 125 pounds, Rodriguez was too heavy to ride thoroughbreds. But even so, he dieted, ran in a plastic outfit to sweat out excess water weight and took weight loss pills that a doctor had prescribed.
It takes perseverance to become a jockey.
“You go to a racetrack and demonstrate your proficiency in riding” along with going through an apprenticeship and showing mastery by having a certain amount of wins, Conwell said.
You might even sleep on the track near the horses to demonstrate to the trainer your resolve.
“It's a 24/7 commitment to be a jockey, until you get to be a top jockey,” Conwell said.
According to Conwell, there are only about 100 top jockeys in the country who are well-known and sought after.
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