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Photo by Wales Hunter
Roberto Gonzalez
Horse groom Roberto Gonzalez calls Churchill Downs home for several months each year.
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Photo by Wales Hunter
Backside Learning Center artwork
Student artwork adds to the ambiance at Churchill Down's Backside Learning Center
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Photo by Wales Hunter
Churchill Downs Backside Horse Walker
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Roberto and his horse
Groom Roberto Gonzalez and the horse in his care
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Gonzalez gets his horse race day ready
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Roberto on the Backside
Horse groom Roberto Gonzalez
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Photo by Wales Hunter
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Roberto Gonzalez watches the race at Churchill Downs
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Tools of the horse groom trade
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Photo by Wales Hunter
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Photo by Wales Hunter
In the pre-dawn light, against the backdrop of Churchill Downs’ historic Twin Spires, the backside comes to life. Scents of strong coffee, hay and horses waft in the brisk morning air. This place—sometimes called the backstretch or barn area—is where Thoroughbreds live in rows of barns, where trainers and owners watch and clock progress, and where legions of workers keep sharp eyes on the horses entrusted to their care.
Roberto Gonzalez, 52, starts his day at 4:30 a.m. Originally from a small town south of Mexico City, Gonzalez came to the United States in 1986 at the urging of his brother, who was working in Miami. Gonzalez began working with horses at Arlington Park near Chicago, where he was employed as a hot walker—an entry-level worker responsible for walking the horses as they cool down after their morning workouts on the track. He is now a groom—a rung up on the ladder of the barn area job hierarchy reporting to the trainer. That gives him more connection to the horses and more responsibility for their well-being.
He began working in Kentucky in 1993 and is now employed by trainer James Baker, who spends part of the year at Churchill Downs. Like most people who work in the Thoroughbred business, Gonzalez travels to tracks across the country for much of the year. While he’s not enthusiastic about some of the places he works (New Orleans in particular), Gonzalez loves Kentucky. “It’s my favorite because I like the town, the people here. You can feel safe here,” he said.
Louisville’s Churchill Downs is Roberto’s home for several months each year. He is among the more than 500 people who live on the backside—in dormitory housing and tack room apartments above the horse barns—during training seasons.
He’s dressed and at the barn by 4:45 a.m., where he checks each horse thoroughly. “I watch the horse for change in the hair, skin, joints. I know if it doesn’t look right,” Gonzalez said. Anything out of the ordinary is reported up the line to the training staff.
“It’s very important for the grooms to notice a change in the horses’ legs or their attitude and be able to communicate that change to us,” Baker said. His grooms typically care for three to five horses. They have closer contact with each horse than a trainer, who may have 25-30 horses in training at any given time and track.
After the horses’ morning workout, they are cooled down and bathed. If needed, Gonzalez wraps the horses’ legs and applies liniment. Liniment—an old-fashioned product in an industry that now utilizes many high-tech veterinary procedures to care for horses—is an oil- or soap-based balm that is massaged into the horse’s body to soothe sore muscles. Gonzalez also ensures the horses’ stalls are clean and each animal’s racing equipment, or tack, is maintained.
Around 11 a.m., Gonzalez is ready for a shower, a change of clothes and lunch. He usually has a few hours as a midday break. By 2:30 p.m., he’s back in the barn, checking on the horses, cleaning the stalls, providing feed and fresh water.
There’s more work on race days, and Gonzalez may not have time for a midday break. The horse must be groomed prior to its stroll through the paddock area and the subsequent race. This includes washing its mouth, cleaning out its nose, spraying its body against flies, and wrapping its legs with racing bandages, which can provide support for tendons and ligaments and shield against abrasions. “I make sure everything is right,” Gonzalez said.
He watches the race from the track’s frontside, like any other fan, and then waits near the track rail to receive the horse at the end of the race, when the jockey jumps off to be weighed and then move on to his or her next race. If Gonzalez’ equine ward finishes in first, second or third place, it heads to the testing barn, where the horse undergoes state-mandated blood and urine tests to monitor for banned substances. (Even if the horse didn’t win, racing stewards can order tests for any horse in any race to ensure the integrity of the sport.) After testing, it’s time to head to the backside, where the horse is walked to cool, bathed and then put in the stall for water and feed.
On days Gonzalez gets a midday break, he typically heads to the Backside Learning Center, a hub of activity for backside residents. It’s something akin to a school, a library, a recreation center, an art studio and a computer lab combined into one location for the convenience and well-being of the backside workers. Similar programs are offered at several tracks across the country, but few offer the depth of service of Churchill’s center.
The center was founded in 2004 as the result of a conversation between Lynn Ashton, executive director of the Kentucky Derby Museum, and Don Richardson, who retired from Churchill Downs following a career as senior vice president of racing. “With such a large number of the workers not being able to speak English, communication issues were a primary concern,” Ashton said. “Our initial thoughts were that we had museum educators, and maybe they could teach English classes in the afternoon. As we researched the issues and the teaching of English as a second language, it became apparent that this was a different type of education, and something more was needed.”
With seed money from the Klein Family Foundation and WinStar Farm, the initial work on the center began. Timing is everything, and the Churchill racing office’s move from its old quarters on the backside meant an unused space was available. Racetrack officials agreed to provide the building, telephone service, heat and air conditioning.
The project was new turf for the Kentucky Derby Museum. “Although out of our normal scope of work as a museum, our board viewed this as an opportunity to provide service as a part of community outreach—something that all museums try to do—and because it was the right thing to do,” Ashton said.
The Backside Learning Center is bright and clean, filled with books, student artwork and people who come to learn. Classes include English as a second language (ESL), Spanish for English speakers, art, General Educational Development (GED), computers and preparation for American citizenship. The well-stocked library shelves have rows of student dictionaries as well as many books on horses and their care. Two classrooms were added to the building during a 2007-08 construction project.
“Ultimately, we hope to benefit the horses by providing education and improving the quality of life for the workers,” said Jennifer Hoert. Hoert, who was hired as the Backside Learning Center executive director in 2004, recently left to complete her doctoral dissertation. The center’s board hopes to have a new director in place by summer.
The center is open from March through November, Churchill’s training months, and serves any adult—from hotwalkers to trainers—who is eligible to live and work on the backside.
The center’s paid staff is small: the executive director, an administrative assistant and an AmeriCorps/VISTA worker. Twenty volunteers, many of whom are retired public schoolteachers, instruct the 250 students who attend classes each season.
Dr. Sandra Patterson-Randles, president of the Backside Learning Center’s board of directors, cited language instruction as a major focus of the center’s work. She said 80 percent of the workers are Hispanic, and many of them have little or no English language skills. The center also provides a sense of community for those living far from home by offering movie nights, field trips, karaoke nights and other opportunities to socialize. “When the backside workers feel more a part of the community, they see the horses in a different way. They can provide better care for the horses if they are happier people,” she said.
Roberto Gonzalez has been a star student at the center since it opened. “I wanted to learn English. I come every day it’s open,” he said. “I needed English to be able to communicate with my boss.” He said he also needed to communicate with people as he went about his life in Louisville, such as the barber, his doctor and servers at restaurants.
He started with the beginning ESL class, which is taught six hours a week. As he became fluent in English, he began preparing for U.S. citizenship by taking classes at the center designed to help non-citizens work toward citizenship, which he achieved in 2008.
“I feel happy to have the center here at Churchill. It helps a lot of people live better,” said Gonzalez, who now also is a teacher at the center, instructing English-speaking students—including his former English teacher—in Spanish. “I hope this place stays open a long time.”
The Backside Learning Center recently completed a survey of 40 trainers and 152 workers to better tailor its future services. The survey showed the most popular services are ESL classes, computer access and training, and the library. Patterson-Randles said the center is looking to add two-day mini-courses on animal care and barn basics taught by trainers. “We want to get the trainers actively involved in the classes,” she said.
Baker, Gonzalez’ boss, is an involved trainer who serves on the center’s board. He said long hours are a reality for most of the backside workers, especially on race days.
Before the Backside Learning Center, many workers had a life that included only work and off time living in a tack room. “Anything we can do to improve life on the backside is worth it,” he said.
“For everything they do to care for my horses, I am deeply grateful,” said horse owner and Backside Learning Center board member Anita Cauley. “Any small part in making the backside of the track more accommodating for the workers would feel like a very small payment toward all the joy I have received in being involved in this business.”
“Hola, amigos,” Ron Orwick said, greeting students in the center’s library before his class began. Orwick, a volunteer teacher for more than eight years, retired after a career as a math and German teacher at Butler Traditional High School. At the Backside Learning Center, he teaches English, math and sometimes guitar. One of his former high school students, Dale Romans, a Louisville-based, Eclipse Award-winning trainer, suggested to Orwick he might want to teach there after retiring.
“They want to learn. Any teacher wants students who want to learn,” Orwick said. “They are my students and my very good friends.”
Orwick said the backside work schedule is tough—seven days a week, days that start at 4:30 a.m., no such thing as a sick day. “The hardships these people endure in order to be here, just to work and make a living, are incredible,” he said.
One of the hardships is separation from family. Gonzalez said his wife and three sons, ages 18 to 26, have remained in Mexico even though he has been working in the U.S. for more than 25 years and is a U.S. citizen.
“I don’t make enough money to have them live here,” he said. In addition, despite his own citizenship, it is difficult to get visas for his family to come to the U.S. Each year, he goes home for Christmas and stays for a couple of months.
While he’s in Kentucky, the center helps fill the void of being away from home. “It’s like a recreation to the people here who used to just stay by themselves. You’re making a family here—the people you meet,” Gonzalez said.