Page 13 - July 2007 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper The Game, July 2007 13
It was my first stakes win and it came on the turf. We came from behind, split horses at the top of the lane and just held on. That's the only win picture I have framed."
Robinson said his earliest ambition was "just to be a jockey, but once I started riding I think -- like every aspiring race rider -- I was hoping for the Queen's Plate wins, the fame, the fortune. Now, what I enjoy most is the comradeship of the jocks' room. It's closer than the friends you had in grammar school and high school.
"I don't think the racing public realize how badly most of us want to be successful, how we pour our blood, sweat and tears into a game we love so much. When you're down and out, or have injuries or a string of bad racing luck, the other jockeys help you. And you'll help them in turn."
The needle on the weight scale in the jockeys' room is the bane of nearly every rider. Robinson eats only one meal a day although he declared that his wife Cassandra, an equine masseuse, is "a great cook.
"I've never liked breakfast, although they say that's the most important meal of the day. I just have a small coffee. Anything else seems to leave too much bounc- ing around inside. I'm up early and at the track by 6 a.m. On non-race days I'll gallop about eight horses -- usually one every half hour during training time -- plus a couple more on the sand ring. On race days David likes to keep me fresh, so I'll only gallop five or six. I'll drink a lot of water during race days, and for dinner we usually have steak almost every night, plus a salad with a lot of vegetables. My wife and I just hang out and go to bed early.
"You learn as you get older that the less time you
spend in the feed box, the less time you have to spend in the hot box (losing weight). Now I just spend ten minutes there, before my first ride, to loosen up. The most I've ever weighed was 125 pounds -- and that was after a big Christmas dinner."
Robinson admitted "It felt weird" not to be racing on Saturdays and Sundays in May because of the Fort's cut-back in racing days. But he enjoyed having time to attend a car show and an air show during the idle weekends.
Over the years Robinson believes he's become more comfortable during a race and has developed a "cool head," a better sense of pace and "how to read how a race is unfolding in front of you. I think my calmness is an asset; it takes a lot to get me off my game. If you do (get in a slump), it's usually because of bad racing luck, not the actions of other riders.
"Any jockey who says he or she doesn't have to improve is either a liar or hasn't watched themselves in action. It's like having a bachelor's degree and wanting to get your doctorate."
Robinson says he hasn't consciously tried to copy any other jockey's riding style but especially likes to watch Frankie Dettori and Garret Gomez in action. "No one has told me 'You ride like so-and-so,'" he said, adding: "They tell me who I don't ride like ---'All the good ones!'"
Turning serious, "K-Rob" said he'll ride as long as he can and then try to become a licensed pilot. But right now he's flying pretty high in the jockey standings at Fort Erie.
Unfortunate Injury for Happy Ando
By Harlan Abbey
Racing history is marked by stories of gallant Thoroughbreds who battled down the homestretch to win, despite suffering life-ending or career-ending injuries in the heat of combat.
But how about Japanese-born jockey Happy Ando? In the Fort Erie allowance feature on Tuesday, June 19 he was riding owner- trainer Dick Jukosky's former stakes-winner Get Down Wolfie when the horse scraped the rail, ripping Ando's left boot and foot to shreds. But the gutsy rider pulled his horse back, regrouped, then came charging down the middle of the track to lose by a head to Stronach Stables' Tap Show (Chad Beckon), trained by Nick Gonzalez.
Ando told his agent, Mike Langlais, "I was whipping and driving and kept telling myself 'Don't look down, don't look down'" as his blood spattered rival horses and riders. Emergency medical technicians had to carry Ando from his horse to the scale to make his official weigh out, and then to the ambulance which follows horses and riders around the race track.
He was then taken to hospital where doctors were to decide whether or not his broken toe had to be amputated (because of lack of blood flow) or his foot needed to be placed in a cast, thus keeping the courageous rider out of the saddle eight to ten weeks. If the toe had to be amputated, it was estimated that Ando could return to riding much sooner.
Langlais said Ando told doctors "Take my toe off; I haven't done anything with it for 29 years!" The agent said Ando "is the bravest jockey I've ever seen."
Remarkably, Ando wound up in the same Welland Hospital room where leading jockey Robbie King had been taken earlier in the day because he was feeling ill after the fourth race; in fact, King was supposed to ride Get Down Wolfie in the eighth race, but couldn't, so Ando got the "pick up" mount.
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