Danger Rides : The Thrill of Racing Overcomes Fear of Injury for Laurie Gulas

Laurie Gulas looked a little green around the gills.

“I hate hospitals,” said the Canadian-born jockey as she walked down a corridor at Pomona Valley Medical Center. “I can visit once, but going back again gets to me.”

Gulas was visiting Sandi Gann, who had suffered two broken bones in her neck in an accident at Fairplex Park the previous day. Gann was in traction and could hardly swallow, but that didn’t stop her from talking about the spill.

“I was worried that she was getting too stirred up,” Gulas said later. “But at least she was being a fighter.”

Gulas, 23, is well aware of the dangers of her profession. Her left shoulder is narrower than her right because of a dislocation.

Her collarbones have a way of “popping out” upon serious impact. A horse once slammed her into the concrete wall of a shed row, crushing her sternum. And she will never forget the quarter horse that stumbled and threw her after a race, then kneed her as she fell. The massive bruise doubled the size of her left thigh.

“No broken bones though,” the 4-foot-9 Gulas said with a smile. “It’s amazing, I know. I like to think I owe it all to drinking lots of milk.”

She also figured, late last year, that if she was going to put her body through such torture, she might as well become as good a jockey as she could in the process. Her early apprenticeship in eastern Canada was off to a decent start, but she was yearning to learn, not merely survive.

“Let’s face it, those are B circuit riders up there,” Gulas said.

“If I wanted to do it right, I had to learn from the best. California is where you find the best.”

The native of Welland, Ontario, across the border from Buffalo, has spent most of her first nine months in California ingratiating herself with as many stables as possible. She has ridden for Bill Spawr, Jack Van Berg, Richard Cross, David Cross (no relation to Richard), Tom and Ray Bell and Jude Feld, among others.

With fewer than 100 mounts--most hopeless longshots--Gulas won one race at the Hollywood Park meet, one at Del Mar and scored her first Fairplex victory Wednesday aboard a horse trained byFeld.

“As far as I’m concerned, I was the leading apprentice at Del Mar,” Gulas said.

“I rode twice as many races as the next ‘bug.’ Nobody else won more than one race, and I had a lot of seconds, thirds and fourths.”

Gulas’ 48 Del Mar mounts earned more than $55,000, nearly twice the total of the next apprentice on the list.

Fellow Canadian David Cross says Gulas is doing the right thing by riding here, although she couldn’t have picked a worse time.

“The fields are getting shorter and shorter,” Cross pointed out. “And if you’ve got nothing but six- or seven-horse fields, how’s someone like her even going to get a chance when people have Desormeaux, Delahoussaye, Stevens, McCarron and Valenzuela to choosefrom?”

But Cross said that if Gulas continues to improve, she could become become a Canadian version of Julie Krone, the most successful female jockey in U.S. history.

“She reminds me a lot of Julie,” said Cross, who trained 1983 Kentucky Derby winner Sunny’s Halo.

“Right down to the voice. She’s a cocky little thing, too. Doesn’t back off from those guys at all.”

Gulas says that if she wasn’t riding racehorses, she would be getting banged around in ice hockey, with a lot less earning potential.

“I admit it. I’m accident prone,” she said. “I used to be able to move pieces of cartilage around in my knees.

“Once, after I scored 11 goals in a girls’ league game, my teammates jumped on me and I nearly broke my elbow on theice.”

Ultimately, Gulas said, she rides for the thrill of it.

“It’s like the guys who drive race cars. They feel the power in their control. Only it’s better than driving a car, because it’s live, breathing flesh responding totally to you. That’s the rush. That makes it worthwhile.”