Wow, that was exciting!!! I was holding onto the edge of my keyboard reading that blog Rosemary. Way to go!!!! Now where are you heading next? Back to Delaware?
| Two time Leading Rider at Colonial Downs |
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| Written by ROSEMARY |
| Thursday, 22 July 2010 20:49 |
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Well it was a fight to the finish to capture the riding title at Colonial Downs. The meet started out good and then started to get a little complicated when I got fired from Hamilton Smiths barn(leading trainer) and then I wasn't getting along with my ex-agent so it made things difficult. Business started to slow and I had to make some changes if I was going to win this meet. I decided that I didn't want to work with my ex-agent anymore. He heard thru the grapevine and resigned with a nasty e-mail to me. No worries, only a little stress trying to figure out who would be a good fit with me to work with. I had called a trainer that I rode for early in the morning saying I was agentless and didn't know what to do or who to take.(this was an entry day for Saturday and I needed an agent to represent me quick) He recommended Marcus Guidry. I had only met him twice briefly in the mornings at Laurel. I decided to give it a go and I called him right away. Marcus immediately said he would love to take my book. I met with him at the track two hours later and I told him how I wanted my business run. We got to work right away calling trainers and texting to let them know of the change of agent for me. It took about a week for our business to kick in. We started really working hard in the mornings at Colonial talking to every trainer that was on the backside. Since I didn't have the leading trainer to ride for anymore we had to make adjustments. Marcus really hustled hard to get us new business and picking the right horses to ride. Our first week working together we won 10 races out of 22 starts. Not bad. We have established a great working plan for every morning we go out to the track. We know what horses we are going to ask for to ride and he has me scheduled horses to work for various trainers. We started going to Laurel Park on the dark days to pick up more clients for Colonial. We worked non stop because we both were determined to get the leading rider title. Then a wrench was thrown at us head first. I got DQ'ed and got a 5 day suspension the 2nd to last week of the meet. Ugh! This was awful. But I kept my focus and tried to win as many races as I could before I had to start my suspension. On my last day before I was to start I won 4 races. It put me ahead in the standings by 3 wins. Now I just had to sit back and wait to see how my other competitors did while I was out. Luckily for me they only caught up to me and one jock was ahead by one win. Im back, finally. I needed to really focus and ride hard to start winning again. I had my game face on and nothing was going to stop me. My first day back was Virginia Derby day. I rode 11 races that day and I won two (one being the $50,000 Kitten's Joy Stakes on Vanquisher for trainer Greg Griffith and the connections of Kinsman Stable and the late George Steinbrenner. I also had 4 seconds, 3 thirds and a fourth) That put me one behind the two leading jocks. The next day I rode 8 out of the 9 races and I only win one.(Grrrrr. I thought I would have won at least two but I got nosed out on a couple), the next day(Monday) I rode 9 out of 9 and only win one again. Ugh! This is getting to be frustrating. I need to open up on my competition so I can clinch this title but it is not happening quick enough. But I need to be patient and stay focused and keep riding aggressive and smart and not get side tracked. Tuesday I only rode 6 out of the nine races but brought two wins home. This put me in front by one win and the other two riders were tied. Last day of the meet I rode 7 out of the 9 races and it was a tight race, nail biter. I had to keep my focus on the horses I was riding and not worry about what my competition was riding or I would lose my focus. When I won the 7th race the Title was mine. I was super excited but still had two more races to ride and focus on. I finished 2nd in the Stake but was DQ'ed because my horse broke out at the start.(not my fault so I didn't get in trouble but it did change the out come of the race) I shook it off, accepted my leading rider trophy along with leading trainer Hamilton Smith and then re-focused and went out and won the last race to close out the meet. I want to give a special thanks to my agent Marcus Guidry, my best friend Nikki Smith, her husband Eric, daughter Sam, my mommy and my friend Nick Beaver for being there to support me thru my tough days and keeping me positive and strong. Also, to all my amazing fans, family and friends who support me thru out my career.
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