Page 17 - September 2005 The Game

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Happy at the Fort
By Harlan Abbey
Many young people dream about becoming a jockey and are willing to make sacrifices to ride beautiful Thoroughbreds in front of racetrack crowds. But no jockey in racing history ever has undergone the challenges facing Japanese-born Hiroshi Ando (a.k.a Happy) when at 18 he revealed his ambition to his parents.
"My father, Tadayoshi, wanted me to go to college and assist him in business, eventually managing a hotel he owned," he said. "He didn't talk to me for a long time after I left home. My mother, Toshiko, was more supportive. My father owned race horses, including stakes winners, and I loved watching the races, starting when I was four years old. I can remember picking up losing mutual tickets."
Japanese racing has the highest purse structure in the world, but perhaps the most stringent licensing requirements for jockeys: They must have perfect eyesight
without the aid of glasses and Ando
had been wearing glasses (now
contact lenses) since age six. He
decided he would have to go to
England, nearly 6,000 miles away,
to attend its jockey school ... after
six months of intensive language
study. There was only one more
slight problem -- by age 18 Ando
had never ridden a horse in his life!
After language school he began working on a breeding farm and was boosted into the saddle for the first time. Then he began riding retired race horses at the jockey school. "I think the British training methods are the world's best and I think it's because of the wide variety of racetracks and training gallops: up and down hills, straight courses, all of them different," he said.
"In races the pace is slower and the riders' positions are different -- it's hard to describe, but the best riders ride North American style. But the purses in England are low."
After two-and-a-half years of being an exercise rider, Ando was unable to get a jockey contract with a trainer, so he set his sights on North America "where someone who's small and skinny finds it easier to be a jockey." In 2001 he came to Canada and rode workouts for Roger Attfield and then Phil England at Woodbine for more than two years.
"No one tells you you're ready to start riding races," said Happy. "And you're probably never completely ready, you learn some- thing every day. Good horses make you look good and they also teach you. I didn't get too many 'live' mounts (those with a good chance to win) at Woodbine and I had better luck at Fort Erie last year. The trainers remembered me and so I decided to ride here full time, with the occasional mount at Woodbine."
On the first Saturday he was in residence in Fort Erie, July 16, he rode three winners in a row. His agent, Bill Lane, has helped him get more mounts and he's just outside the "top ten" in standings. His favorite horses are Supreme Judge, "A funny character with a great heart, like a human being, who has
The Game, September 2005 17
won two races in a row," and Kir, "talented but nervous." "I have a lot of favorites," he adds.
When the Canadian racing season ends, Ando returns home. His father, since retired, now talks to him and his brother, Makoto, is running the hotel. A natural lightweight (109 lbs.), he spends a lot of time in the gym. And for the future?
"Professional soccer players in Japan can compete wearing contact lenses," he said. "Perhaps if I'm having success riding in Canada, they'll change the rules about jockeys."
Jockey Happy Ando aboard race winner Dance Kuntakete at Fort Erie