Horse Racing in Decline

We were living the dream- I was getting paid top-dollar to ride for one of the top trainers- part of a formidable, respected team.

Over the past 23 years, I have witnessed an intense mutation of the horseracing business.

I retired from riding races for a reason, but I really did not understand my own reasoning until time had passed, and the industry continued on its downward spiral.

My decision to retire began on my way to the track on a horse for John Servis. The assistant trainer’s name at the time was Darren.

I had galloped for Mr. Servis at Monmouth Park that season. They were mainly interested in me, because I was working his stakes filly at the time- a tough horse to gallop, but I got along with her; she relaxed for me.

We were living the dream- I was getting paid top-dollar to ride for one of the top trainers- part of a formidable, respected team. Everything was going great! The horses felt great! I was riding at the top of my game. All things at Monmouth pointed towards a successful season down south, training at Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Florida.
We shipped to Palm Meadows.

On the first horse I rode to the track, things just did not feel right. As I was getting, “tied-on,” I simply was not feeling the magic. On the second horse I rode to the track, the same thing happened! After the fourth horse that morning, I realized why I could not get tied-on as gracefully as I have perfected to do so.

The horses jogged and galloped around there in a very sluggish, tranquilized manner. I realized that Darren, the assistant, was pumping ace promazine, a tranquilizer, into the horses!

The animals were so tranquilized, I was actually yelling at them as I rode them around the track to keep their attention, so they would not fall down! It was horrifying!

I had never felt so unsafe on a horse in all my life! Mr. Servis was not tranquilizing the horses at Monmouth Park, but, all of the sudden, Darren was giving every, single horse way too much ace, every, single day; and it was dangerous and impossible to do my job!!!

I did not mentioned it to Darren. However, after a week of surviving the horrifying ordeal, not realizing that Darren was coked-up out of his mind, I walked into the office and said,

“Darren, everything was going great at Monmouth! I feels like we are doing something a little different here.”

I did not mention the tranquilizer. That was the only sentence which came out of my mouth.

“Get out of my office; you’re fired!” was Darren’s response.

Palm Meadows Management posted a 24 hour eviction notice on my door promptly, and I was unemployed and homeless in an instant!