Page 12 - July 2007 The Game

12 The Game, July 2007
New Jockeys - Continued from Page 11
New apprentice Stephanie Fedora recorded her first
win at Woodbine aboard the Noel Randall trained, Black Tea for $50,000 on Plate day June 24. However the new bug had already made an impression at Woodbine with a couple of really close finishes.
The first glimpse of Stephanie’s riding ability was witnessed during evening racing on June 6, when she came flying down the middle of the racetrack on the John Cardella trained, Jilted Lover, to finish second by a nose to Willow Beach. The spotlight immediately fell on the new apprentice who says that she was purposely trying to keep low key this early in her career. It wasn’t the first mount for Stephanie as she achieved her apprentice license in the United States last year and rode at Hawthorne Racecourse in the suburbs of Chicago for the winter and
spring meets.
“I was having a hard time.” said Stephanie about her
experience in the windy city, “They don’t like newcomers there, especially apprentices. And I was the only female there. It took a long time to break in and I
lost heart for a little bit.”
Her ride on June 6 was her first race in three months
and she says it gave her back her enthusiasm, “I can’t wait to get back on her! It made me remember why I wanted to race ride.”
Born in Etobicoke, Stephanie began riding horses at the age of five. She had a Great Uncle in England who used to trailer race horses which would be her only connection to the world of horses prior to her getting in the saddle.
Stephanie did the show circuit with the hopes of one day riding in the Grand Prix ring.
She described her introduction to the racetrack as a sad story.
Bill Sorokolit Sr. was a friend of Stephanie’s father’s uncle, who had passed away. While at the funeral, Bill Sorokolit Jr. had mentioned that he had horses at the racetrack.
Stephanie was sixteen when she began hotwalking for the Sorokolit barn at the track on weekends and during the summer months during highschool. She then attended Kempville College in Ottawa for Equine Management after which returning to the racetrack, this time to gallop horses.
Her dreams of going to the Grand Prix were put aside as Stephanie realized that she didn’t have the time or the money to make it. “It is one in a million to make it to the
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Grand Prix ring. It takes discipline and I didn’t have the patience.”
It was with that realization that things started coming together for her at the racetrack. After galloping for a few barns the past couple of years, Stephanie found herself back where she started, with the Sorokolits and trainer Darwin Banach.
People began asking Stephanie if she was planning on becoming a jockey. Hesitant at first, Stephanie knew how hard it was to keep the weight down and saw what the jockeys went through, the “fun” aspect got the better of her and in June 2006 she began race riding quarter horses at Picov Downs (now Ajax Downs) on Sundays.
“I did well. I had 3 wins in 17 starts and they were all back to back races.”
That August she began riding thoroughbreds at Hawthorne in the US.
Upon her return to Woodbine, agent Jim McCallen, tracked her down and gave her the encouragement she needed to continue on with her apprenticeship after her poorinitialexperience.
“I am very happy and I take each day as it comes.” said Stephanie who was preparing for a race at Fort Erie, “It is great to win however I also want to appreciate the here and now. I am concentrating on improving myself and my skills and to just have fun.”
Stephanie Fedora
KRIS ROBINSON FLYING HIGH IN FORT JOCKEY STANDINGS
Jockey Kristopher Robinson is currently the meets sec- ond leading jockey by one win behind Robert King Jr. at Fort Erie
By Harlan Abbey
Fort Erie's "Champion Apprentice" of 2002, Kristopher Robinson, also was named "Outstanding Jockey" by his peers that season after recording 73 winners and finishing fifth among all riders. But injuries cost him major parts of the next four years. Kristopher now seems to have returned to form and is currently battling defending champion Robbie King Jr. for leading jockey honors at the Fort as of mid-June.
Surprisingly, none of his string of injuries were as a result of the typical morning or racing accidents -- no clipped heels, no bumps, no getting shut off, no mishaps in the starting gate.
"All my injuries came during races, but none of them were because I (or someone else) did something wrong, they were just bad situations," emphasized Kris. "In 2003
I was looking for a good meet, with 30 wins in about ten weeks, keeping up the momentum from my apprentice year. It was a turf race and my horse didn't quite make the turn and fell. I was out the rest of the year with broken vertebrae in my back.
"My worst fall came the next year when a three-year- old filly, sprinting out of the six-and-a-half furlong chute, saw the gap, tried to go back to her stable, and hit the rail. I separated my shoulder and also wound up with nerve damage. They did an auxiliary nerve graft, taking a nerve from my leg and putting it in my shoulder.
"I was out over a year and wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to ride again. The doctors kept tell me "No, not yet' until it was three weeks before the season opened. Mentally, I wasn't ready; I hadn't been getting up early and galloping horses. In 2005 I didn't have any injuries, it was just a slow
year. I fell out of the top ten riders listed in each day's program, which I'm sure the owners and trainers look at every day.
"Then last year a horse broke down, I fractured my collarbone... It seemed like every year I was breaking something."
But the broken collarbone turned into a "break" of the good kind. During the past winter veteran jockey agent David O'Connor called to ask about representing him for the coming season. "I was honored," Robinson admitted. "It showed he was thinking about the 2007 season before I was. He's a good agent and takes good care of me. A lot of barns I hadn't ridden for since my apprenticeship are showing interest again."
O'Connor is also the agent for former Fort Erie champion rider Chris Griffith this season and in
the past he has handled the books of Canada's winningest woman rider, Francine Villeneuve; his brother-in-law Jocko Lauzon; Brian Bochinski and Mike Quong, among others.
Robinson, 29, is the son of Jack Robinson, who was a jockey at the old Blue Bonnets Race Track in Montreal in the early 1970s, then became an exercise rider in the Toronto area.
"I never rode a pony," said "K-Rob" Robinson, who picked up the nickname as an apprentice to distinguish him from veteran jockey Eddie Robinson and solidify his first-name recognition in contrast to Eddie's father, former jockey Keith Robinson.
"There was a Thoroughbred farm near our home," he continued, "and I started riding race horses in an indoor arena, a controlled environment. After Grade 9, in 1992, I'd come to Fort Erie for the summers and worked for such trainers as John Le Blanc, Dennis Erwin and Mike Luider. After I graduated I spent six years just galloping horses. I wanted to really be ready when I began race riding and I didn't want to start and then find out what I was lacking.
"But I think I could have started my apprenticeship after three years, because nothing really prepares you for being a jockey like the real thing, riding at racing speed. It's like driving a car on the highway for the first time.
"My first ride was for Vito Armata at Woodbine and my first win was on Sweeping Odessa at the Fort for Danny Yu. That was my first ride carrying a whip so it must have been my sixth mount. Paul Souter was riding the favorite and he got unseated in the gate, but fortunately wasn't hurt. I remember yelling to Cory Clark, 'What do we do with a loose horse (running with us)?' I won in a squeaker.
"I guess my biggest win was on Prospective Gal for Daryl Ezra in one of the 'cup' race stakes. -cont. Next Page
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