Page 142 - September 2020

THE BACKSIDE
TODD THOMAS
“I should have retired then, but I couldn’t. I still want to ride and race!”
A Jockey’s Perspective
by John Moorehouse
Home Base:
“I was born and raised and still live in the small town of Malad, Idaho.”
Years of Experience: 29
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:
Won his first meet title and first stakes race simultaneously in 2001 at the Oneida County Fair in Malad, Idaho. Has won 15 meet titles at local tracks.
Favorite Hobby: “I pretty much spend all my time with the horses. I really don’t get out and do much else.”
Todd Thomas never planned on being a jockey. And, at 6 feet tall, he doesn’t look like the prototypical professional rider. Nearly 30 years and 3,000 starts later, Thomas is still going strong.
“Most people laughed at me for trying to be a 6-foot jock,” he recalled. “I would walk into the jockey’s room and people would ask me if I was there to play basketball.”
Starting out, Thomas found some unusual routes to mounts—the first of them a nine- year-old Thoroughbred mare that had been traded for a used car. She won a few races in 1992. In 1993, Thomas renewed his license and was pretty much off and running as a pro jockey from there... even though he also kept a full-time job for several years.
“I pretty much only rode our horses for the next few years, but I was winning races and finally other trainers started using me. Mostly, I was getting on stuff no one else wanted to ride, or I was the only jockey available, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to ride,” he said.
More opportunities presented themselves. “Dan Thomas gave me a chance on some really nice Appaloosa horses and did very well with them. Other trainers saw me winning on his colts and our TB’s and I finally started getting more rides and getting on better horses. Good horses definitely make good riders!
“For years I was busy working a full-time job, galloping horses after work and traveling all over the country to ride races,” he added. “I’ve drove to Portland Meadows in the winter to ride and was even flown to Los Alamitos once to ride one for Blane Schvaneveldt.”
In 2015, a mishap on the track yielded opportunity in another facet of the sport. That year, Thomas was working a horse in Boise when she went down. Thomas broke three vertebrae in his back. The surgery and recovery sidelined him for the entire summer. Shortly thereafter, Thomas also lost his full-time job.
“I decided to just take a year and do nothing but ride horses and get it out of my system before looking for another job,” he said. “The Oneida County commissioners came to me and asked if I would be on the Fairboard and take over the horse races in Malad. They said if I didn’t, we probably wouldn’t have races there anymore. I decided I had to try and so far, it has worked out pretty good with a lot of help from my family.
“It’s been a good five years being my own boss. I have been galloping and working 20-25 horses
a day, riding a lot of races and still setting track records and getting more leading rider buckles.”
The Oneida County Fair meet for 2020 wrapped recently, and Thomas was kind enough to share more about his background and career in the latest installment of our “Backside” feature series.
HOW DID YOU BECOME A JOCKEY?
“My dad bought, sold, and traded horses
and I spent most of my time with him. I started galloping racehorses when I was 14 for a friend
of my dad’s. Three weeks later, I got thrown off and broke my left clavicle. My mother told me
no more riding race horses. Six weeks later, I was sneaking to their barn and back galloping. They were paying me $4 a gallop and I felt rich. I spent the next few years just galloping and helping them at the races, never planning on being a jockey, as
I had suddenly shot up to being almost 6 feet tall. Curt Hill was a jockey in Malad back then and we became good friends. He would take me to the races with him and he was always helping me get on horses for other people to gallop and gate school. He really pushed me to get a license and
I finally did, and Curt finally got Mike Taylor
to give me my first mount at the Oneida County races right here at home.”
Todd aboard HR Captain Jack.
140 SPEEDHORSE September 2020
© Ralph Hartline