HORSERACING SUPERSTITION

Not my picture but from the Internet.

I have never been one to seriously bet on the ponies but I did have one close encounter with the inner workings of a race track. I had met Kimmy and Tony years ago at a friends party and we became the type of friends that looked each other up when ever in the other's town. Kimmy and her husband Tony were race horse trainers. At the time in question, they had horses running at Tampa Downs in Oldsmar.

Tampa Bay Downs is the only Thoroughbred race track on the West Coast of Florida, and is known as one of America's oldest and most well-maintained racetracks. Tampa Downs first opened its doors in 1926 and has since had a long and colorful history.

I was heading to Tallahassee and thought I would take a jog in my trip to visit with Kimmy and Tony. I had never been behind the scenes of a race track and was looking forward to it. Kimmy had been with race horses all her working life. Tony, who came from a very wealthy family, gave up going into his family's well known restaurant chain business in favor of his love of horses. This caused him to forgo a well paying corporate position for the dicey one of training horses. If Tony had regrets, he never showed it. He loved working with the horses.

Now I had visited with them at training facilities but never at the track so I was pretty excited. Did not know their day started so darn early however. They dragged me out of bed at 3 and we were at the track at 4 AM. Now I am a morning person, but this was early even for me. It was penetratingly cold as only Florida can get and damp from a heavy fog.

The horses were too valuable and easily spooked to let a rookie like me jump in so I pretty much watched. Now some people may find the track and horse smell unpleasant but I find nothing unpleasant about horses. The sweet smell of hay, the ever present aroma of leather and the distinct smell of a horse, are heady to a horse lover. Throw in a little manure and what is not to love? Ok, it is an acquired taste.

The morning chores were pretty mundane so Kimmy suggested I go to the track and watch the horses being breezed. Breezing is to run a horse easily and carefully under a hold in the morning. Because it was so foggy, it was awesome to see a horse and rider burst from the fog into my vision then disappear again into a damp haze. My field of vision was relatively small thanks to the fog.

Every now and then, a horse would appear out of the fog with out a rider and running free. I learned that somewhere on the other side of the track, was usually a rider with a huge new sore spot on his body and a damaged ego. They stand tall in the stirrups for comfort to breeze a horse which makes them vulnerable to any sudden shift in direction.

The heavy fog gave the grounds a surreal effect. Lots of men, all about my size, would appear, then disappear into the haze. It had a real twilight zone appeal. I went back to see what Kimmy and Tony were doing. I hadn't noticed before but there was a one eyed rooster sitting on the bales of hay out side their stalls. Kimmy told me that he was their rooster and that he was reputed to have mystical powers. If he reached out to a horse and touched its nose with its beak, that horse was destined to win that day.

All the groomers would walk the horses each morning around the barn, keeping them under the overhang in front of the stalls. They would carefully slow the animal as they approached the rooster on his perch, hoping the bird would reach out for their horse. If the rooster did not acknowledge the horse, they would speed up, hoping for better luck on the next trip around. This was serious business.

Gray horses and horses with four white feet are considered unlucky in racing. Kimmy and Tony were selectively superstitious. They were very quiet about the things they believed in. They laughed about the rooster and ignored the gray horse superstition for they had a gray entered in the afternoon race. As it got close to race time in the afternoon, I left them to their jobs and sought a seat in the grandstands after putting a whopping two bucks on their gray. It was so cool to know my horse personally.

The race started smoothly and there were two grays running that race. Not really familiar with racing and without binoculars, I really didn't know which was Kimmy's horse. In the first turn, a gray got bumped, stumbled and threw the rider who was then stomped on by the horses behind him. The field was raggedy for a moment, then they straightened out and continued. It all happened so quickly.

The jockey lay motionless on the track while the riderless horse regained his feet, jumped the rail and ran across the infield, heading right for the still racing field of horses. He jumped back on the track, fortunately behind the group and we all started breathing again. Had he jumped in front of the pack, it could have been even more tragic. Riderless, he flew past all, finishing first but claiming nothing.

The injured rider had been removed from the field professionally and quickly. I later learned he had broken ribs and a concussion but would be good to race again when he healed. These small men and women take their lives in their hands every time they mount a horse. Fortunately it had not been Kimmy's gray that had caused all the damage. However, Kim and Tony never again took on a gray horse to train. Once a superstition is reinforced, it becomes fact to those involved.

Strangely, though not too common, if I am at a track and see a gray, I will not bet on them. Think I caught that particular superstition.

Do you have any superstitions?