Page 34 - NM Spring 2019

“I watched from the back the whole race,’’ says Alfredo.
War Emblem’s owner would later sell the majority interest in the horse to a prince. The prince got Bob Baffert to train War Emblem, who went on to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He came up short of the Triple Crown when he finished eighth in the Belmont after stumbling badly at the start of the race.
Lisa and Alfredo met at the Downs at Albuquerque not long after he arrived in New Mexico. He was 20 years old, she was about to turn 16. Lisa’s parents, Florentino and Yolanda Yanguez had previously met Alfredo because they were friends with Alfredo Sr.
Lisa says her parents didn’t allow her to date at that point and Yolanda didn’t hesitate to get that message across to Alfredo.
“I told him, Alfredo, I’m going to ask you one thing. She’s young. Stay away from her. I don’t mind if you’re friends, but as far as going any further, I want you to respect that. And he always did.’’
Alfredo’s friendship with Lisa extended to her parents as well and he would call them frequently, especially when he was riding outside New Mexico.
“As he went on his adventures to Seattle
and California, he would always call, mostly
to talk to my mom and dad and I would talk
to him for a little bit,’’ says Lisa. “Sometimes he’d write me a letter or send me tapes of songs. The holidays, he’d always send a box of candy, a stuffed animal.’’
They began dating after Lisa turned 19 and went to visit Alfredo in Phoenix. Later, when Alfredo went to Chicago, Lisa decided to join him. At that point her mom knew they were a couple. Not so her dad.
“We were sneaking around,’’ says Yolanda. “She was already going to be 20 and Alfredo wanted her to go see him in Chicago. I told her, `Lisa, you have to tell your dad.’’’
They did—the day before Lisa was to leave.
“I told him (dad), ‘she doesn’t need your permission. They’re in love, so there’s nothing you can do.’ I cried the whole month until she came back,’’ says Yolanda.
“My dad didn’t want me to marry a jockey because he knows what the life of a jockey brings,’’ says Lisa. “He was a jockey too and he didn’t want me to feel the struggles that can come with the business.’’
Struggles that Alfredo and Lisa manage
to work through on a daily basis. Consider what a typical week looks like for the family when Alfredo is riding at Zia Park in Hobbs or Sunland Park outside El Paso.
It’s Tuesday afternoon and Alfredo has ridden his last mount of the day at Zia Park. He showers quickly, jumps in his truck and heads home to Albuquerque. It’s a 300-mile plus trip that takes five hours no matter which route you take. He spends the next two days catching up
Alfredo Juarez, Jr. with his wife Lisa and their children, Ashlee and Giancarlo after winning the Coppertop Futurity under Miss BRH.
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with his kids and Lisa before heading back to Hobbs on Thursday afternoon.
That’s a weekly roundtrip of more than 600 miles. When Alfredo is riding at Sunland—a roundtrip of more than 400 miles—or SunRay Park in Farmington or Ruidoso Downs, he follows the same routine.
Lisa’s day begins at 5:30 in the morning. She’s usually at work by 6:45 and her days sometimes run well past her scheduled 4 p.m. quitting time.
“If I didn’t have my mom, I wouldn’t be able to work,’’ says Lisa. “Mom takes the kids to school and picks them up. She takes them to doctors’ appointments. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t get to do because I’m at work.’’
Alfredo and Lisa talk several times a day just to make sure everything is good on both ends.
Lisa says now that Ashlee and Giancarlo are getting older their interaction with Alfredo gets tested at times because he’s gone so much of the time.
“Sometimes he gets frustrated. He wants the kids to do something a certain way and they’re not used to that. It’s like you live two lives,’’ she says.
“I tell the kids, he’s not here because he’s working and that’s his career and a lot of what we have is because of him. I tell them, I work too and I contribute to the family. I’m very proud of that, but we have different jobs. I can be here and he can’t.’’
Alfredo’s work ethic is such that he rarely takes a day off, even when he suffers the occasional migraine. He laments that he has to spend so much time away from Lisa and the kids.
“I take two days off when I’m here,’’ he says during an interview at home in Albuquerque. “I’ve missed out a lot because I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them when they were babies. But you do what you have to do to make a living.’’
Then there’s the compatability by contrast factor.
Lisa is serious-minded. Alfredo is a jokester. She shuns the limelight. He revels in it. She likes order and stability. He lives in the moment.
“He doesn’t even know what horse or horses he’s going to ride the next day,’’ says Lisa. “Sometimes I get frustrated but I try not to pay too much attention anymore like I used to. I’m like, how do you not know when you’re not riding?’’
Alfredo loves cooking, long walks, clean cars and quirky sayings like: “When you’re a hero, you’re a hero and when you’re a zero, you’re a zero.’’
But there’s also an emotional side in him that shows up at some of the most important times in his life.
He cried when his kids were born. He did
the same when he became a U.S. citizen about five years ago and he still chokes up when talking about winning the Sunland Derby two years ago—a win that he thought might finally get him to Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby.
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