Race Track School Tries to Teach Horse Sense

It took three weeks, but Michael Covallubias of El Sereno said 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 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.

Low Pay

Before the class started, Dominguez said, “trainers were hiring anyone that came up to the gate” for jobs that pay about $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,” he said.

“By the time he left, there was nothing he didn’t know,” Dominguez said of Covallubias, who has to be 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, 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 race tracks.

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 workers who are at least semi-experienced.

‘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.

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 Aug. 23.

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

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 of life.

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 as long as six weeks.

“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 techniques for handling racehorses. She listened intently as they described the 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.

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 lended to Dominguez by trainer friends. Students then learn how to walk, shank, halter, cool and control the spirited racehorses.

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

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 work hours and low pay, have quit. He says he does not know how many former students are working at the track.

One trainer who has hired former students is Danny Valasquez, who keeps five grooms and six hot-walkers on his payroll.