OFF TRACK
JUNE 16, 2012
Starter
Fans anticipate, photographers at the ready, owners hoping,
jockeys and horses tensed and ready to go. All wait for the break of the gate.
For the ring of the bell which will determine Derby dreams, Breeders’ Cup
winners, wagering interests, maiden winners, or claimed horses.
Those precious seconds in the gate. The anticipation that
come with them. The gate breaks and history begins.
All of that starts with one man. The guy with his thumb on
the button. You know him. You see him. He is the guy who stands on the high
metal platform by the rail a few yards ahead of the gate. Waiting. Listening to
his crew. Once all is quiet, he presses the button. Gate swings open. The race
begins.
But do you really know everything the starter does?
I sure as heck didn’t.
Scott Jordan is the starter for Churchill Downs. He is the
guy with his hand on the trigger so to speak.
Jordan has been around horses his entire life. His father
was a trainer and Scott grew up riding Quarter Horses and exercising racehorses.
He first came to Churchill in 1995 as an assistant starter and now works as the
head starter.
He was the one I called to get a better idea of this
position.
“I am the steward on the track,” Jordan said. “I’m the guy
responsible for the horses, jockeys, and the 12 guys who work for me.”
Not only is he the guy who presses the button for the
starting gate, he is the guy that okays them to actually get in there in the
first place.
“I check out horses in the mornings and okay them to run.
My favorite part of the job is seeing a problem horse in the morning who makes
it safely in the gate.”
At most tracks, horses aren’t allowed to start unless
they’ve had a session with the gate crew. The starter assesses how the horse
loads and if there are any particular issues which might concern him later on
that could possess a threat later on to the assistant starters, jockeys or other
horses.
The assistant starters. They’re the ones who hold the
horses. The ones who lead the horses in the gate. Who keep them calm while
awaiting the sound of the bell. Assistant starters are in charge of getting the
horse in and out of the gate safely. They are the guys you sometimes hear
screaming in the gate before the break. It has also been called one of the most
dangerous jobs in sports.
Despite what you think you see on the track, the horses are
not randomly loaded by the assistant starters. Every horse in every race is
assigned to someone in the mornings. Every assistant starter will know any
possible quirks and antics his horse might possess loading into the gate from
what is seen each morning by Jordan. The last thing he wants is one of his guys
getting injured, and these observations try to help ensure that
this doesn’t happen.
Before any horse can ever make a start, they must first
earn their gate card. A gate card can be earned either at the track or a
training center. To earn their card, the horse must show that it can safely
load, stand and break from the gate. This card makes it safer for everyone
involved in the loading process.
Horses are naturally claustrophobic. So putting them in a 2
1/2-foot wide space inside of a 12,000-pound starting gate, is not necessarily a
place they want to be for an extended period of time.
When a horse rears, it can stand almost 12 feet high.
Combine that with hoofs that can whack you upside the head (I know from
experience that this can hurt…really hurt) and you’ve got yourself a job that
possesses more threat than staring at your computer everyday. (But my eyestrain,
you say).
And the starter is in charge of their safety.
So with all of the responsibilities, would Jordan ever
think of changing careers?
“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he says.
Well, there you have it. That is a starter. I hope you
learned something. I sure did. Before I interviewed Jordan, I thought all he did
was press the button, but there is so much more to it.
***
Is there a job in the equine industry you’ve always been
curious about? There are more out there than I ever thought. And I’ve been
around horses since I was a kid. If you would like to know more about any
horse-related occupation, email me at
Jordan.Strickler@brisnet.com
and I’ll find out. And if I don’t know, I’ll bug someone until they tell me.