Santamaria was with the colt at Churchill Downs prior to his second-place finish
Though he has
“You never know when you’re going to be here, but these kind of races you always
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Santamaria emigrated to the United States when he was 16 and picked up the job at the training
center because his mother’s husband was working there.
“I said I would
try that job and see what happens,” he said, laughing as he told the story. “I
was afraid of them because of having never been with horses, but I still loved
them because they are beautiful animals. Since the first day, I knew this was
going be to be my job. I definitely fell in love with horses.”
Santamaria said he was timing Carava’s horses one morning in March at Santa
Anita when Callaghan, 32, asked to talk with him for a second. The British-born
Callaghan, who has been training in the United States since 2010, proposed that Santamaria become his assistant.
“I knew who he was,
but I didn’t know he was going to ask me that,” Santamaria said. “When he came
out with the offer I was like, ‘Whoa.'”
Santamaria said he
told Callaghan that he would think about it and he could suggest some other
people to consider.
“He said, ‘No, it’s
just for you. If you can’t, it’s no problem. Just let me know,'” Santamaria
said. “It makes me feel great to know that he was watching me and liked the way
I do my job. That’s something good for me.”
Santamaria told
Callaghan, that he needed assurances that if he took the job he would have a
regular day off and time to spend with his young teenage daughters, who live
with their mother. He said Callaghan supported his need to have that family
time, to take them to school at least once a week and be active in their lives.
“I told Simon
that’s going to be one of things that’s going to help me make up my mind about
this offer from you,” he said. “This way I can spend more time with my girls. I
love to do that.
“For me, working
with the horses, I don’t call it a job. It’s more like a way of living. If you
take this job as a job you’re going to turn crazy. You know what time you have
to be at the barn, but you never know when you’re going to get out of the barn.
You have to love it.”
Firing Line’s
runaway victory in the Sunland Park Derby (G3) on March 22, just a few days after Santamaria joined Callaghan, earned him the qualifying points he needed to get
into the Derby field and stamped him as one of the better three-year-olds in the
land. He turned in a big performance in the Derby under Hall of Fame jockey Gary
Stevens, finishing second by a length after having the lead in the stretch. Santamaria says he expects the colt will be just as game in Baltimore.
“I have a lot of
confidence in him,” Santamaria said. “A lot of people were talking about how
easy American Pharoah had been winning. This time, I think he had to run his
guts out to beat us. I think we have a pretty good chance in the next race
because he is competitive and he came out of the race good. His attitude is that
he thinks he won the race. That will be a nice race.”
Firing Line is
hardly an overnight sensation. Before his Sunland Park triumph, he gave
Dortmund (Big Brown), the third-place finisher in the Derby, everything he could handle in
two races at Santa Anita. Santamaria was confident that another gritty effort
was coming in the Derby.
“Everybody who
knows the horse knows he’s going to give everything he has. Everything,”
Santamaria said. “The only thing you have to think of before the race is you
have to wish for is he breaks good and gets a good position. After that, we knew
the horse was going to do his job.
“When he was laying
second to Dortmund, I knew he was going to be there. He was going to end up
right there. One-eighth of a mile before the wire I thought we had the race. For
one moment, I thought we’ve got it. We know the other horse is really good
horse, but we knew our horse wasn’t going to give up at all.”
Though they haven’t
worked together for very long, Santamaria likes the way he has been treated by
Callaghan.
“I’ve been telling
everybody about Simon. I always call him a kid because he’s younger than me,”
Santamaria said. “Working so long for guys older than me and now working for
Simon, I feel like he’s a kid. But he’s such a great guy. I always say thanks to
him because since the first day working for him, he’s never told me to do this
or that. He’s given me the chance to run the barn like however I think it should
be done
“It’s been
super great. He went back to California and he was like, ‘I know you’re going to
be there. I don’t worry.’ All the things he says make you feel good, super
good. He trusts me, so I’m really happy to be working for him.”
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