This Quarterback Has a Stable Hobby

It’s 5 a.m., about an hour before the Louisiana sun starts baking the tin roof over the Evangeline Downs stables, and Jake Delhomme is exercising his throwing arm.

The Carolina Panthers quarterback is wielding a pitchfork, mucking out the stables for the five thoroughbreds he owns with his father and brother.

“I think it’s good for it,” he said. “It builds up those muscles and the arm strength.”

Long before Delhomme learned to throw a football, he learned about caring for the horses his father raced at Louisiana tracks. Long after he finishes throwing a football for a living, Delhomme expects to be saddling up contenders at tracks around the state.

“I love it,” he said. “I don’t hunt or fish. I don’t play golf. This is what I do for fun.”

How much is racing on Delhomme’s mind? Track announcer Sean Beirne found out last spring.

“When was the Super Bowl, Feb. 1?” Beirne asked. “Well, on Feb. 7 I looked down and there was Jake walking one of his horses from the back. It was so cool. I was watching him on television one day and there he was at the track almost the next day.”

The Delhommes are not the kind of owners who spend time at the race track in a private box. When the call to the post sounds, they’re on the backside working.

“It’s a lot more nerve racking to have a horse in a race than to play in a football game,” Delhomme said. “In a football game I can control what I do. When I have a horse running I have to hope we’re done enough already.”

The reason horsehide rivals pigskin for Delhomme is that it’s a family endeavor, always has been.

Jerry Delhomme, Jake’s father, became the family jockey when he was 11 years old. In turn, he saw to it that Jake and older brother Jeff grew up working with horses.

“I think it helped them with their school work and athletics,” he said. “When you are training a horse, everything is done by the clock. It takes a lot of work and a lot of discipline. I think they learned that and carried it over into other things.”

Currently the Delhomme stable -- Set-Hut Stables -- has two horses actively racing: Miss Excavate and Hail to Bag, which won over $200,000 as a 2-year-old.

Miss Excavate, a 2-year-old filly, may be the top horse in Delhomme’s stable. Miss Excavate qualified for the field for the D.S. “Shine” Young Futurity at Evangeline Downs, but the Delhommes’ pulled her out.

All three of the Delhommes have day jobs. Jake with the Panthers, Jeff is a painter, and Jerry has been with the Louisiana Agriculture Department for 36 years. At some point they plan to work full-time building their stable and racing their horses.

tracks,” Jeff Delhomme said.

Most of the training is now done by Jerry and Jeff Delhomme, while Jake researches potential purchases. The family is always on the lookout for a good horse.

The latest purchase -- a 2-year-old filly -- was originally going to be named Carolina Gal, in honor of the Panthers. But the name changed suddenly after Carolina beat Delhomme’s old team, the New Orleans Saints, 19-13, on Oct. 5.

Rod Smart returned a first-half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown that gave the Panthers the lead for good.

Soon after, the horse was named She Hate Me, as a tribute to Smart, who used “He Hate Me” on his uniform while playing in the XFL.

“As soon as he ran that kickoff back, people started calling telling us that’s what we should name her,” Jeff Delhomme said.

“Now if she just runs as well as Rod, I’ll be all set.”