Speaking of Having the Right Attitude
January 29, 2007

There was a great piece in The New York Times this week about Frank Amonte Sr., the oldest living jockey. At 71, he is still racing horses. The article described a race at Aquaduct. It was a bone-chilling Saturday, and his was the last race. "The only people left in the stands and on the track were those down to their last chance."

"Go get ''em, Frankie," someone yelled ... and the race was off. This was Amonte's chance to make the Hall of Fame. Although he hadn't won a race in 61 tries, if he won this one he would become the first jockey in history to win a race at the age of 70 or more. He believed he had a chance. When he was just a day shy of 70, in 2005, he won his last race at Northamption Fair in Massachussetts.

"We all want to be somebody," he explained to the NYT. If he won that race, he'd get the fame he had been riding for all these 56 long years.

Amonte is in amazing shape. He is lean and strong and never has to throw up or sweat off water to make weight. He weighed in at 125 pounds, mounted his horse, and went out for six furlongs (3/4 of a mile). It was a race for older horses with no more than two career wins.

'Amonte's mount, Eightyninecenntsday, was an "anxious 20-1 gelding with speed and what the jockey later called suspect ankles."

The horse started off impressively, and Amonte hunkered down, "his stirrups slung low, old school style," and stayed ahead down the first stretch heading toward the bend. Then Sultry City edged passed him, and then Speeding Jim. Amonte whipped him and Eightyninecents advanced ... but then, coming down the stretch toward the finish line, the horse began to tire. Amonte stopped whipping. Later he said that he didn't want to "ask more of it than it could give."

"People think it's easy to win," he said. "But it's not. Don't worry though. I'll get them next time."

posted by M. Masterson @ 2:23 PM,

1 Comments:

At 9:40 PM, Blogger Lyn said...

As one of your avid ETR readers, I was surprised and pleased to see that you blog. You are the busy guy, eh? Great blog.

 

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