A6 LAST DAY AT LAUREL?
EZ SU
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST Ahot-walker heads to the paddock after a race. “There’s going to be a lot of unemployed, homeless, helpless people with nowhere to go,” trainer Crystal Pickett said about what will happen if the track closes.
‘This is what we know. This is what we’ve done our entire adult lives.’
laurel from A1
Millsmall, ending a long battle to bring themto Laurel Park, which has no profit-swelling event com- parable to Pimlico’s Preakness. At the commission's nextmeet-
ing, onTuesday, the JockeyClubis expected to offer a compromise: 77 days of live racing leadingup to the Preakness, many more days than the 47 the company first proposed. The tracks held 146 days of racing this year. Meanwhile, those who work
and—inthe caseofmany employ- ees — live at Laurel Park and its sister facility,BowieTrainingCen- ter, strugglewith the unknown. AtLaurel, trainerBenFeliciano
Jr. stands in a barnwith his name on the side.He trains 20 horses at the track, down from50 in a good year, and knows their personali- ties intimately — how one gets angry if he speaks too close to her faceandanotherdrinks sodafrom abottleifallowed.His fatherwasa jockeywith2,802 career victories; hisuncle rode Secretariat, the leg- endary Triple Crown winner, the first time the horsewon a race. Feliciano, 45, beganworking at
the trackwhenhewas 16as a valet intheparkinglot,andhekept that job even after he started training. His early winner’s circle photos show him wearing his valet uni- form, khaki pants and a green jacket. Those are themen hewor- ries about now, he says. “They are the guys you say,
‘Jesus,whataretheygoingtodo?’ ” Feliciano says. “It’s hard enough to get a job for people coming out of school.” Talk to any track worker and
theywill likely do this: brush past their own worries and point to thosewhohave
itworse.Someone always has itworse. MiltQuick, 61, andMike Jeffra,
51, knowthe track has beenlosing money for years. They’ve seen it firsthand from their booth in the parking lot. In the 1970s and ’80s, the lotwas
bustling.Now, they sit there for an hour on a weekday and park a car maybe once. On a recentafternoon, sevenpeople sat in a grandstand with 2,964 seats; maybe a dozen more gathered at the rail towatch the horses zip by. Mostly, people sat inside, in front of TV screens, watching out-of- state races. If the track closes, Quick, who
started as a valet at 21, sayshewill retire early. Jeffra, a track valet since he was 18, will look for an- other job. “This is what we know,” Jeffra
says. “This iswhatwe’ve done our entire adult lives.” Quick has parked fathers and
their sons. He’s been to patrons’ weddings and funerals. He has
6
on
washingtonpost.com At the racetrack
For a Laurel Park photo gallery and for video of the
last day of racing at the track this year, go to
PostLocal.com.
ings and collects urine for testing in the afternoons. Her list stretches on. There are
jobs outsiders know nothing about. For instance, Shannon Spillman checks tattoos on the inside of horses’ lips to certify their identities, and freelancer StephanieO’Connorwalks horses for $5 a pop.When she arrived at Bowie two years ago, O’Connor was homeless, just out of a rehab center where she was treated for crack addiction. She asked for a job, any job, and a room. Now she lives in a 10-foot-by-
10-foot space, bathroom outside. “I ain’t pretending I’m staying at the Hilton, but it’s a roof overmy head,” says O’Connor, 35, plop- ping onto a twin mattress that takes up half the room. Instead of a closet or pantry, there are sag- gingwood planks on thewall.Old peanut cans serve as ashtrays. A tiny, $6 Christmas tree is decorat- edwith $1 ornaments. There are 169 dorm rooms at
There are 68 trainers with 1,059 stalls at Laurel Park and an additional 85 trainers with 969 stalls at a related training center in Bowie.
Laurel Park and 148 at Bowie. Many of the resident workers, O’Connor says, are people, like her,whohavetroubles, fromcrim- inal records to medical issues, that make it tough to get a job elsewhere. “Back here, they are part of
something, they are important,” she says. “There have been days that the only thing that has kept me sober is knowing there are horses waiting forme to show up forwork. I love that there is some- thing else in the world that de- pends onme.” Fearing that next week’s deci-
John and Tricia Collins are among the many Laurel Park employees who will lose their homes, as well as their jobs, if the track closes.
parked cars for Mickey Rooney and J. Edgar Hoover. Jeffra parked for Joe DiMaggio and Da- vidCassidy. “This has been my life,” Quick
says. “I know I’m just a parking attendant and such, but I’m very personable.” He hugs instead of shakes hands, and he speaks en- thusiastically about the thrill of the bet that first drew him to the
tracks. Officially, Laurel Park has 254
full-timeemployees,and41others work at the Bowie facility. But watch a horse go from stable to track and it’s clear how many more livelihoods depend on rac- ing. Crystal Pickett started train- ing at 6
a.mat Bowie one day last week, and within a few hours, a blacksmith showed up to check
“I love racing here. I hope it stays open,” jockey ArtMadrid said after the fourth race Saturday, Laurel Park’s last day of racing this year.
shoes; a hay farmer delivered feed; grooms washed the horses’ legs; and hot-walkers made sure the animals cooled down after running. That’s just one barn, one train-
er. There are 85 trainers with 969 stalls at Bowie and 68 trainers with 1,059 stalls at Laurel Park. “There’s going to be a lot of unem- ployed, homeless, helpless people
with nowhere to go,” says Pickett, 30,whowas one semester shy of a law degree when she chose to workwith horses full time. “Tellers, hot-walkers, camera
folks, grooms, valets, vets, pony people, exercise riders, test barn employees, gate crew, outriders, ambulance crew, racing ID staff, security guards,” saysDotty Jones, who exercises horses in themorn-
sion willmean the loss of job and home, she has posted her resume
onMonster.com— no hits — and started calling shelters. There are no beds, she says. She e-mailedLt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D), ask- ing, “Is there anything at all you can do?” Meanwhile, John and Tricia
Collins — she has taken his last name even thuif they’re not yet legallymarried—try not to dwell on their limited options. Instead, they do as they’ve always done: They cling to victories as they come. “Come on, Tiger!” Tricia yells
from trackside, eyes fixed on a horse she sees everymorning and every night. “Come on, Tiger! Come on!Get us a photo!”
vargast@washpost.com
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