The People Behind the Preakness By Katherine O. Rizzo with photos by Jim McCue
It is that time of year again! T e countdown to the Preakness Stakes is underway and T e Equiery brings you a look behind-the-scenes of what it takes to put on the middle jewel in the Triple Crown. T is year we had a chance to speak with some new people at the Maryland Jockey Club and some others who are taking on new roles in 2019. For more People Behind the Preakness stories, go to
equiery.com and click on Archives.
Chris Merz
Maryland Racing Secretary Shortly after Jus-
tify ran one step closer to his Triple Crown victory, the Maryland
Jockey
Club announced that Chris Merz had joined its team as the new Maryland Rac- ing Secretary. Chris comes from a racing family that has owned racehorses for several genera- tions. When he was just 13 years old, he saw an ad for the racing program at the University of Arizona and made that his fi rst goal towards a career in the racing industry. After graduating from the Animal Science/
Chris Merz
Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona, Chris became an assistant clerk of scales at Del Mar and worked his way up to stakes coordinator for Del Mar and Santa Anita. Before moving to Maryland, he was the assistant racing secretary at Los Alamitos. “I’ve always wanted a job like this and when
the opportunity presented itself, I jumped!” he said. “Maryland is an up and coming place in the racing scene and I want to be a part of its development.” In his position as racing secretary, Chris is
responsible for creating the stakes schedule and fi lling races. “Specifi cally for the Preakness week, we start calling trainers and owners early in the year,” he explained. “T is year we made a mini conditions book just for Black Eyed Su- san and Preakness days and I’ve been traveling to various tracks around the country to bring it to owners and trainers.” Chris, a California native, says the most ex-
citing Preakness he has watched to date was Dortmund and American Pharoah dueling it out at the start of the 2015 Preakness Stakes. “It was amazing to watch and when American Pharoah won… we just knew that horse has something special.”
Michele Enck
Racing Offi cial Straight out of college, 22-year-old Michele
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Enck landed her dream job in the racing offi ces of the Maryland Jockey Club. Born into a Pennsylvania racing family, Michele was at the track often at an early age. While in college working on a business degree, she interned at Penn National and also worked with the Maryland Million crew while shad- owing in the MJC racing offi ce. Although Michele’s main job with MJC is
Michele Enck
as a racing offi cial, working with owners and trainers to fi ll races, she takes on many other roles on race day. “I also process the claims for each claiming race and have been learning how to be a placing judge too,” she explained. “It is so very important to make sure that each horse entered is qualifi ed for the race they are entered in,” Michele added. Looking over all of these records is part of her job. T is will be Michele’s fi rst year working the
Preakness Stakes and she is incredibly excited about the opportunity. Her favorite Preakness memory so far is Rachel Alexandra’s 2009 win. “I just love her jockey Calvin Borel and Steve [Asmussen] is a great trainer,” she stated. “Plus, I always root for the fi llies!”
Dr. Libby Daniel
Equine Medical Director Dr. Libby Dan-
iel became the state veterinarian for the Maryland Racing Commission
at the
end of 2016 when Dr. David Zipf retired from that position. As the state vet for the rac- ing commission, Dr. Daniel headed the veteri- nary team for both Laurel and Pimlico. At the end of 2018, MJC created the new position of Equine Welfare and Medical Director, and Dr. Daniel stepped into that role. In this new role, Dr. Daniel acts as a regula-
Dr. Libby Daniel
tory vet doing pre-race exams as well as track- ing the health of each horse as it travels from track to track. “From the beginning of March right up until the Preakness, we are tracking horses that are Triple Crown nominated,” she said. “We start with hundreds of horses and as we get closer and closer to Preakness, the list gets more and more narrow.” Dr. Daniel is in constant communication with the veterinarians at all the major tracks where Preakness nomi- nated horses will be running and training lead- ing up to the big race.
“Once Preakness week begins, I pretty much
live at Pimlico!” she stated. Dr. Daniel will meet each horse as it arrives at Pimlico to watch how it gets off the trailer, pull blood if needed and do pre-race exams. “We also watch the workout ses- sions to be sure each horse is sound and ready to race.” On Preakness day, offi cial examinations of each Preakness horse are done in the morning. Dr. Daniel comes from a family of veterinar-
ians and like her father and brother, used to work at Charles Town. Even with two children and a private practice, she “couldn’t really get away from the track,” and when her kids were old enough, she started substituting at Maryland tracks knowing that is where she wanted to be. She happene d to be in the right place at the right time in 2015 and became the pre-race ex- amination veterinarian for the Preakness horses. “T at was very special. Getting to be a part of a Triple Crown winner’s race,” she remarked.
Trish Bowman
Horse Identifi er Trish Bowman joined the Mary- land Jockey Club in August 2018 after working with the Kentucky Jockey Club. She has also been a groom on tracks and graduated from the Go- dolphin Flying Start Program. Her offi cial job with MJC is as the horse identifi er, which is the person who makes sure that each horse enter- ing the pre-race paddock is the correct horse entered in the correct race. “I look at their lip tattoos but we are also in
Trish Bowman
a transition to microchipping,” she explained. Traditionally, racehorses are tattooed on the upper lip before their fi rst offi cial start. Micro- chips are now being used and Trish said that all horses at Laurel and Pimlico have been mi- crochipped. “Eventually, these microchips will take over for traditional tattoos,” she added. Trish moved to Maryland to join MJC be-
cause, “To be part of a Triple Crown race is ex- citing!” In 2015, Trish was at Pimlico watching the Preakness from the press box. “Just watch- ing American Pharoah from the roof of Pim- lico in that torrential rain was incredible. It’s something I will never forget.”
Jessica Hammond
President of Beyond the Wire Jessica Hammond has been a lifelong T or-
oughbred racehorse lover and has owned sever- al racehorses over the years. With her husband, trainer Scott Hammond, Jessica also has a deep interest in racehorse aftercare. Jessica was working at Maryland T oroughbred Horse-
continued... MAY 2019 | THE EQUIERY | 27
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