After INS Crackdown, Class Fills Need for Handlers at Santa Anita : Race Track School Tries to Teach Horse Sense

It took three weeks, but Michael Covallubias of El Sereno said that the time he invested in a free horse-handling class at Santa Anita race track paid off the minute he landed a job as a hot-walker for trainer Gary Lewis.

“It’s great and a lot of fun,” Covallubias said. “I had my own horses in my backyard, but these horses are a lot different. They’re really peppery and like to run from you.”

Covallubias is one of about 260 people who have enrolled in the class since it began in mid-September at the Santa Anita track. The class, which is taught by former jockey Tony Dominguez and his brother, Vernon, was started by the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assn. in an effort to ease a critical shortage of experienced and documented “backstretch” workers at Southern California race tracks.

Minimum-Wage Jobs

Before the class started, Dominguez said, “trainers were hiring anyone that came up to the gate” for the jobs that pay about the state minimum wage of $3.50 an hour for a four- to five-hour shift.

“They didn’t know anything at all about horses. There is so much difference between a Thoroughbred and a horse on a ranch. . . . The workers they’re getting now are much, much better,” Dominguez said.

“By the time he left, there was nothing he didn’t know,” Dominguez said of Covallubias, who has be on the job at the track at 5:30 a.m. During his five-hour shift as a hot-walker, Covallubias cares for four horses, cooling them down after workouts and races and taking care of miscellaneous stable chores.

Another student who graduated into a job is Art Husen, 38, who works mornings at the track and then goes to his job as a telephone operator at Pacific Bell. Husen says he has to get up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the track on time.

‘It’s Great Experience’

“It’s still taking me time to adjust to it,” Husen said. “I’m getting the hang of it. It’s worth it . . . just to be able to work with the horses. It’s great experience and it’s a challenge.”

The shortage of backstretch workers came about last year when the U.S Immigration and Naturalization Service staged a series of raids at Southern California tracks, seizing more than 400 illegal aliens and frightening hundreds of others away.

On Jan. 13, in a compromise with trainers who maintain that they cannot find Americans willing to take the jobs, the INS announced that 363 temporary work permits will be issued to illegal aliens for positions as grooms and exercise riders at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar.

But trainers say there are many other backstretch jobs, such as those of the hot-walkers, that must be filled. They say the horse-handling class will help create a pool of at least semi-experienced workers.

‘To Create a Work Force’

“Primarily the class was established to create a work force of legal citizens and documented workers,” said Doug Atkins, secretary-treasurer of the horsemen’s group. “We’re trying to bring in outside workers and give them some very basic horse-handling experience.”

Bob McAnally, assistant secretary-treasurer of the horsemen’s group, said a similar class was not started at Del Mar because the season was about to end when the INS raid took place there on Aug. 23.

“They used the buddy system and family system and got anyone that would pitch in and help to keep the racing going.

“But Santa Anita was going to have horses up until April. We had to replace illegals or individuals without documentation with American citizens or legally documented workers,” McAnally said.

Lauded by INS

The INS, which has been monitoring Santa Anita since the track was raided on Oct. 22, lauded the horsemen’s group for setting up the class.

“They’re educating permanent residents in the care of horses in order to have a pool of legal workers to choose from,” said Gerald Donelly, the assistant director of investigations for the INS. “They’ve acted in response to our actions and are showing us they are trying to correct the problem of illegal aliens working there with us.”

The class is geared to people who have little or no experience with horses.

“The closest most of these people have been to a horse is on television,” said Dominguez, adding that the class attracts people from all walks to life, ranging from cocktail waitresses and preachers to students and housewives.

Laid Off as Custodian

“I didn’t know anything about horses before this class and now I know a lot,” said Alberto Reyes, 42, of La Puente, who was laid off from his job as a custodian at Continental Canning Co. in the City of Industry about four months ago.

“I’d like to be a walker. I have a family to support. . . . My family is helping me out, they help pay for gas and say, ‘Keep it up.’ ”

Two classes are held each weekday, one from 9 to 11 a.m. and other from 1 to 3 p.m., with 20 to 25 students in each class. Although it is billed as a one-week class, Dominguez says it takes most people two or more weeks to satisfactorily complete the course. Some go for as long as six weeks before Dominguez is willing to recommend them to a trainer.

“I was told before that it would only be a week, but other people have been here for five and six weeks,” said Lisa Muller, an experienced horsewoman who sat on an old wooden bench, watching a videotape of famous horse trainers explaining the proper techniques for handling Thoroughbred race horses. She listened intently as they described the various race track jobs and outlined the steps a person would have to take to eventually become a trainer.

Managed Carriage Horses

Before she moved to Southern California three months ago, Muller, 23, managed a team of horses that pulled carriages carrying tourists along the streets of downtown Chicago. Looking for something racier, she came to the West Coast and started looking for a job at the track.

“I saw an add for groom and exercise riders, and in order to get a job here they suggest you take this class,” said Muller, who has a part-time job teaching the handicapped to jump horses at Ahead With Horses, a nonprofit group in Sun Valley.

Atkins, a licensed trainer, and Dominguez developed the curriculum for the class, which stresses basic safety and ways to control the skittish and jumpy Thoroughbreds.

The students start by working on a life-size plastic model, haltering it and bandaging its legs. Within a day or two, they begin handling and walking older Thoroughbreds loaned to Dominguez by trainer friends. Students then learn how to walk, shank, halter, cool and control the spirited race horses.

Up to $10 Million

“The cheapest horse they’ll be working with is $10,000 and they go to $10 million,” Dominguez said. “So you’d better know what you’re doing. I don’t want to send someone back there who’s going to hurt the horses or let them loose.”

Track officials say they know of only one other horse-handling program offered in the area, a five-day program run by the Pacific School of Racing in Chino that costs $225.

McAnally said that the class is open to anyone, and neither Dominguez nor the sponsoring horsemen’s group makes any attempt to verify the documentation of students.

“We accept all applications. If an illegal goes to the hiring hall we don’t stop him from taking the class,” said McAnally.

Another more experienced student is Lynn Stubblefield, an Arcadia housewife who said she was taking the class to learn more about taking care of her own horses.

Wants to Be Groom

“I wanted to learn more about taking care of animals from professionals. I hope to maybe work here as a groom,” she said.

“I’ve learned so much, and this has given me a lot more confidence working with horses. It taught me the correct way to work with horses without getting my teeth kicked in.”

Stubblefield said she plans to continue in the class until Dominguez recommends her for a job.

After a student satisfactorily completes the class, Dominguez writes a letter of recommendation and refers the student to a trainer in need of a hot-walker. The student is then placed on the trainer’s employee list.

But before the new hot-walker can begin working, he or she must obtain a hot-walker’s license from the California Horse Racing Board, McAnally said.

License Is $25

Prospective employees apply for licenses at the board office at the Santa Anita track. The license costs $25 for the first year and $10 annually thereafter.

No horsemanship tests are required, but applicants must provide Social Security cards, photo identification and fingerprints. Immigration and Naturalization Service workers stationed at the track verify documentation before the license is approved.

McAnally said that of the 260 who have completed the class, about 120 have been hired as hot-walkers by Santa Anita trainers. But some, discouraged by the early morning work hours and low pay, have quit. He says he does not know how many former students are working at the track.

“Some don’t last,” said Atkins. “The hours aren’t the greatest. They have limited hours, usually from 6 to 10. The trainers pay on an individual basis. . . . It (the pay) isn’t a lot of money. They get pension benefits and medical benefits that we provide.”

Trains 20 Horses

One trainer who has hired former students is Danny Valasquez, who keeps five grooms and six hot-walkers on his payroll to care for the 20 horses he trains.

“You’ve got to love horses,” Valasquez said. “The guys that have stayed with me really love horses.”

Valasquez said he has hired about 20 people from the class, but that only five of them are still working for him.

“Some don’t work out or they find better jobs. . . . Some just want to get a license to get in and out of the track,” Valasquez said. “Sometimes they don’t show up to work. You have to work and that’s all there is to it. I can’t trust one of my client’s horses with someone who really doesn’t care. I have some very valuable horses.”

However, Valasquez said he will continue to hire students from the class.

“Obviously if we keep having problems with the INS, I want to have a stable that will keep on racing,” Valasquez said.

Despite the bad hours and low pay, the class has become so popular that it is booked up until April, and officials say they plan to continue and perhaps expand it to include groom training.

McAnally said the horsemen’s group is also considering starting a class at Del Mar when that track opens in July.

Dominguez said that he has not flunked any students.

“There are some people that are very slow,” Dominguez said. “But some people here, they just won’t make it.” Most of those just stop coming to class, he said.