After Paying Dues, She’ll Get Her Due

The first racetrack job Laura de Seroux had was at a track in East St. Louis, Ill., that’s not there anymore.

Cahokia Downs, about 300 miles south of here, might not have been the ideal career launch for a college English major who was driving cross-country from California in her Volkswagen. For at Cahokia, you could leave after the night’s last race and find your whole car, not just the hubcaps, missing. That’s what’s known as a bad night at the races.

Cahokia is also where a couple of bartenders, heading home, got into their car and were blown into eternity.

“Please be careful driving home, and please be careful starting your cars,” track announcer Tod Creed intoned as the crowd moved toward the exits a night later.

But heck, about 25 years ago, De Seroux was only halfway to Belmont Park and there wasn’t much money left in her kick. At Cahokia Downs, they were paying $2 a head and she was able to exercise 16 horses a day. A veritable windfall.

De Seroux eventually landed in the big leagues at Keeneland, where she worked for the veteran trainer Del Carroll, who, like the California nonpareil Charlie Whittingham, preferred the reliability of female help around the barn. “From Cahokia Downs to Keeneland,” De Seroux said. “Quite a contrast.”

After some time with Carroll, a homesick De Seroux heard California’s clarion call. She phoned Whittingham, whom she had never met, and asked for a job. The Hall of Fame conditioner told her to come out to Santa Anita for a tryout.

The way De Seroux remembers it, Whittingham said hello and asked her to mount the toughest horse in the stable.

“I galloped him straight, kept his head down and got him back to the paddock, where Charlie was waiting,” De Seroux said.

“OK,” Whittingham said. “You’re in.”

On a rainy, bone-chilling morning at Arlington Park in suburban Chicago, De Seroux recalled that story and many others from her formative years. The 19th Breeders’ Cup--eight races worth $13 million--will be run Saturday. De Seroux, a newcomer to this scene, will take a shot at three races--the $1-million Distaff with Azeri, the $1-million Filly & Mare Turf with Dublino and the $2-million Turf with Ballingarry, a sturdy Irish colt that her husband, international bloodstock agent Emmanuel de Seroux, bought for Chicagoan Sidney Port and others less than a month ago.

De Seroux’s late mentor, Whittingham, would say, “I didn’t bring them here to be watchdogs,” and with just as much confidence but not as much bravado, the little girl who grew up in Alhambra feels that she has license to have a big day. Her best chance, the oddsmakers would say, is Azeri, virtually an unerring filly who is the 6-5 favorite in her heat.

“I’ve never been in a Breeders’ Cup, but I know how they work,” De Seroux said. “I can remember when [trainer] Bob Baffert went to Florida, supposedly loaded with several horses, a few years ago. He didn’t win a race.”

Another California trainer, Jenine Sahadi, is the only woman who’s saddled a Breeders’ Cup winner. Sahadi won the Sprint twice, with Lit De Justice in 1996 and Elmhurst in 1997. Only eight female conditioners have run horses, a total of 22 in all.

To De Seroux, this is no more than minutiae.

“Gender is not an issue,” she said Thursday. “There’s a big pie out here, and I’m happy that some of us are able to get our slice.”

De Seroux got her trainer’s license only three years ago, because after working six years with Whittingham -- the workout brigade got to be known as “Charlie’s Angels” -- she moved on to other facets of the business. She had a major hand in upgrading Bruce McNall’s racing interests, and syndicating Nelson Bunker Hunt’s yearling crops. Posthaste, De Seroux was orchestrating the futures of more than 300 horses.

One day, when she still was Laura Lubisich, McNall handed her the business card of one Emmanuel de Seroux, whose Narvick International bloodstock service was humming on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Give him a call, he’s a nice guy,” McNall said. “But I don’t think you’ll ever speak French, and I don’t think you’d ever marry him.”

Early this year, at De Seroux’s 50th birthday party, the guest of honor began her remarks in fluent French. McNall, free from federal prison, where he served four years after pleading guilty to bank and wire fraud, roared. With Laura de Seroux, he had been wrong on both counts. The Charlie’s Angels grad and the French bloodstock agent have been married since 1986.

Emmanuel de Seroux is the No. 1 advisor for Michael Paulson, the son of the late Allen Paulson, who bred and raced Cigar, a two-time horse of the year. Allen Paulson bred Azeri, who runs in the name of his living trust.

Doing some early campaigning, Laura de Seroux tossed Azeri’s hat into the 2002 horse-of-the-year ring. The 4-year-old filly has been beaten once in eight tries this year, and has earned $1.1 million. She would need to hit a Breeders’ Cup home run, in only her second start outside California, to even have an outside chance in the year-end voting.

“I think horse of the year implies who’s the best all year, and not a horse who’s best in just one race,” De Seroux said. “What this filly has done, in my mind, is the best performance by any horse over the course of the year. She could have won the only race she lost, if a couple of things had gone differently, and many of her wins were the opposite of hair-pulling performances. She’s shown a dominance over her rivals, and I think she should strongly be considered.”

In a lengthy interview, trainer of the year didn’t come up. A woman has never won, never come close. It might be a subject for another day. Sunday, perhaps, if De Seroux bats 1.000 on Saturday.

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The rain that was supposed to end Wednesday night was still around Thursday, with a 60% chance of more showers today and 30% Saturday. The temperature hasn’t reached 50 degrees since last weekend, and the high Saturday will be in the low 50s. The soggy grass course will agree with most of the Europeans, and a muddy main track will send all handicappers back to Square 1.