University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

California horsemen

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California horsemen

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Content CALIFORNIA HORSEMEN

by

C. J. Dablo

A Professional Project Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(BROADCAST JOURNALISM)

DECEMBER 2012

Copyright 2012 C. J. Dablo
ii

Table of Contents

Abstract _______________________________________________________________ iii
Script __________________________________________________________________1
Bibliography ___________________________________________________________11
iii

Abstract

This script for a radio documentary is a profile of three Latin-American men living in
California who have dedicated their lives to thoroughbred horse racing: Henry Moreno, a
veteran horse trainer in his 80s who, despite a long list of championship wins, still
dreams of finding the next great horse; Frank Garza, a retired horse rider in his 60s, who
started a school for jockeys in hopes of finding the next star racer; and Francisco Duran, a
respected thoroughbred rider in his 30s who tries to balance his family commitments with
a dangerous career that often takes him far from home.
Each of these men relied on the experience and wisdom of trusted mentors to develop a
livelihood in racing. This project offers a snapshot of their life at the track and their
connected stories.
1

Script

Host: Latino horse jockeys earned the top spots in the Triple Crown races this past
summer. The feat underscores Latin America’s dominance in thoroughbred horse racing,
and Latino jockeys again will be in the spotlight at the Breeders’ Cup, California’s big
weekend of thoroughbred racing. The sport has linked younger riders with veteran
horsemen who remember California racing in its prime. C. J. Dablo profiles three
generations of Latino horsemen who have staked deep roots in the race tracks in the West
Coast.
AMB: Horse and his rider bounces along the track. Garza yells instructions.
Track: At the head of a dusty race track in Ventura County, a short, wiry man in
his late 20s, finishes a lap atop a horse with a squeaky saddle.
AMB: Saddle squeaks as rider and horse jog down track.
Track: The jockey student steers his thoroughbred into a starting gate.
AX Garza: Why are you going to get up there?
AMB: Sound of gate opening.
Track: Frank Garza, jockey teacher and owner of the jockey school that bears his
name, closes the plastic gates behind the horse. He steps up onto a ledge molded into
the faded green metal walls that now surround his jockey student and his horse.
AMB: People moving in the starting gate with horse.
AX Garza: Don’t be talking too much!
Track: Garza is one of three generations of Latino horsemen whose lives and
careers have overlapped in Southern California for more than 60 years. They are
linked, not by family ties, but by their shared experience as horse trainer, jockey
and teacher. Garza has mentored young men and women at his jockey school since
the late 1980s.
AX Garza: I’ll tell you when.
AMB: Horse snorts.
Track: He’s trying to teach a key lesson in handling that anxious horse.
2

AX Garza: You’re in that little hole.
Track: Rider and thoroughbred have little room to move.
AX Garza: It’s very important to learn how to come out of there. It’s very important to go
in there and be calm.
AMB: Horse bangs and snorts.
AX Garza: You hit your head. . .en la cabeza.
Track: The cramped animal bangs against the hollow metal walls.
AX Garza: Cause if you’re screaming and hollering and shaking, the horse feels that.
This horse knows that “Hey, this guy is scared of me or something.” But it’s a good thing
once you learn it. It’s like a piece of cake.
Track: Garza’s waiting to signal to another student standing just outside the
starting gate. The student’s finger is on the button that will buzz to release the gates.
AX Garza: Go!
AX Casandra Branick: Go?
AMB: Bell rings; horse bursts out of the gate.
AX Garza: Pick his head up!
Track: The gates fling open at the bell, and Garza watches the rider hang on to the
thoroughbred as it charges down the track. They kick up dirt behind them.
AMB: Walking.
Track: Garza is a retired jockey.
AX Garza: I retired from riding race horses in 1980….I still get on horses every once in a
while, exercise them, but mostly I kinda just teach the kids. You know, instruct the kids
to ride.
Track: His round weathered face often flattens into a steely expression. He’s known
horses since he was a child living near Corpus Christi, Texas.
AX Garza: I rode my first race when I was 10. I weighed 42 pounds close to Corpus
Christi, Texas….I got $150 bucks for--can you imagine at 10-years-old making a $150
bucks? That’s a lot of money.
3

AMB: Horse runs.
AX Garza: April 7, 1957.
Track: Garza says he takes on about 10 students a year at his school where many
aspire to become professional thoroughbred racers. If the jockey students finish the
program to their teacher’s satisfaction, they hope to get a job at the racing track.
AMB: Horse whinnies.
Track: Even though his students ride all the time, Garza still makes sure his
students care for their horses.
AMB: Scraping sounds.
The jockey who just rode a thousand-pound horse out of a starting gate? He’s also
asked to scrape the mud off another horse’s hoofs.
AMB: Scraping sounds.
AX Jockey Student: There we go!
Track: Garza is helping the next generation of riders who hope to follow a path that
Garza himself took as a young man decades ago. He learned the trade from his
adopted father.
AX Garza: He was really tough on me--you know, you know--growing up because you
know, back then, they didn’t spank you. They whipped you. They beat you, you know?
That’s what my dad used to do with me, you know? If I made a mistake or something on
a horse and he didn’t know how to talk, he’d scream and holler or hit me on the head or
something.
Track: Garza had grown up in racing in Texas, but he got his start in California
racing quarter horses at Los Alamitos. He’s part of a generation of California riders
who remember what racing was like in the 60s. By then, there were already Latino
jockeys, but signs of discrimination would surface in unexpected places. Frank
remembers a sign at a barber shop in Los Alamitos.
AX Garza: And it said right in the front….you know if you’re Hispanic or black, you
can’t come in here. And I went in there. I was all dressed up like a cowboy.
Track: The barber asked the young rider for his name. Garza remembers seeing the
shock on some of the men’s faces when they heard his answer.
4

AX Garza: Everybody looked up and says “Oh! You know, did you read the sign
outside?” I said “No, I don’t know how to read. I did it on purpose. And then later on I
just kept going in there. They never bothered me….I love my country and I love who I
am.
Track: Now, Garza says:
AX Garza: The race track is like one big family. We’re all together. We compete against
each other, but we’re all friends. If somebody needs something, we help each other.
Track: Garza says he owes his start to an earlier generation of Latino horsemen. He
especially looked up to Henry Moreno, an old family friend who taught him how to
race thoroughbreds in California.
AX Garza: Mr. Moreno had a lot to do with me doing what I’m doing now, and he helped
me a lot. He was rough. He was a tough man, really tough, you know, but I learned a lot.
He created. . .he kinda made a man out of me.
AX Moreno: But he was a gutty little guy when he was riding. He had a lot of guts and
still does.
AMB: More galloping noises.
Track: At the Pomona Fairplex in LA County, Henry Moreno watches one of the
horses he’s training finish a lap or two in a track full of other horses.
Track: Moreno is an old hand at horses who still trains thoroughbreds and teaches
riders at the age of 83. He’s part of an original generation of riders who witnessed
the transformation of California horse racing since the 1940s. Moreno has fair skin
and grey eyes. He wears a cowboy hat with a work shirt and jeans.
Track: Moreno remembers his own father who came from a family of respected
horse and cattle men.
AX Moreno: And my dad was, was our don.
Track: Moreno’s father and uncles migrated from Mexico and established a cattle
ranch in the Riverside County area. They raised their family in Prado, a tiny town
in the county’s agricultural community. It’s where the Moreno family developed
their talent for finding horses and cattle and where he learned how to train horses.
He worked with his Uncle Eddie who became a jockey. His dad had a keen business
sense too.
5

AX Moreno: Not just our immediate family, but he was (kind of) controlled everybody.
He ran the whole show.
AMB: Moreno makes whistle noises to his horse.
AX Moreno: My dad came from Michoacán….so I don’t know hardly anything about
Mexico. We were raised here. All of us kids were raised here.
AMB: Horse trotting sounds.
Track: Moreno still spends most mornings on a white workhorse to watch over the
jockey he’s hired that morning on the Pomona track. [PAUSE HERE]. Moreno
wears leather chaps that squeak against the saddle.
AMB: Moreno rides with squeaky leather chaps.
Track: He’s at this track for most of Pomona’s short racing circuit in the summer
and moves on to other tracks throughout the year.
AMB: Pomona announcer names horses.
Track: It’s at the track where he’ll mentor new riders and train horses to win races.
AMB: Announcer calls race.
Track: Over more than 60 years, Moreno-trained horses have won a number of key
stake championships with headliner jockeys like William Shoemaker.
AMB: Fair game bell ringing.
Track: It’s an early fall afternoon at the Pomona Fairplex where guests enjoy the
Los Angeles County Fair’s games. Just inside the Fairplex, racing fans leave the
cotton candy and the rides to enjoy a few races at the grandstands.
AMB: Fans cheer.
Track: From his seat just above the race track, Moreno studies the program. His
horse, Brinson, is racing with 15 to 1 odds against him.
AX Moreno: Yes, he’s a long shot, but he’s capable. He’s run a couple, a couple of bad
races, and. . .but I think he’ll improve. If he runs a good race, he could win.
AX Announcer: And away they go.
AMB: Cheers.
6

Track: At the bell, the other thoroughbreds burst out of the gate. Brinson powers
through the race and chases the lead horse through a good stretch of track.
Moreno’s horse hangs onto his number two spot, but towards the last turn Brinson
can’t keep up. He comes in fourth.
AX CJ Dablo: What happened at the turn?
AX Moreno: He got. He probably got a little tired.
Track: Lately Moreno’s business has been slowing. He’s been losing clients, owners
of thoroughbreds who hire him to work to prepare the jockey and the horse for a
race.
AX Moreno: Four of them died and one of them went to the penitentiary. And he got
some business deals that he got. . .he got in trouble. And four of them are dead. They
were great people to work for, generous with their money. I haven’t really tried my best
to hustle anybody up.
Track: These days, Moreno is working with riders a fraction of his age. He’s still
hoping to find a better horse to train. He has no plans to stop.
AX Moreno: I don’t intend to leave unless I die, but as long as I’m alive I’m going to try
and train horses.
Track: And teach the men and women who ride them.
AMB: Train noise.
AMB: Horse whinny.
AX CJ: Tell me what you’re doing, right now, Francisco.
AX Duran: I’m just adjusting my saddle, the stirrups. Just making sure they’re to my
likings: the shortness or the length that I want it to be.
Track: On a cold, overcast morning, jockey Francisco Duran, stands next to one
rich-brown chestnut thoroughbred at a barn at the Emerald Downs Race track in
Auburn, Washington.
AX Rider: Good Morning!
AMB: Rider passes by; laughter.

7

Track: Moreno’s influence on horse riders from all over the state extends beyond
the stables and tracks in Southern California. While Moreno gave Garza an
opportunity to ride thoroughbreds in California, Garza took on students who
moved on to other parts of the world. Some of his students had no experience on a
horse and needed Garza to get their break. Garza’s star student is Francisco Duran.
Duran is getting ready for a race.
AX Duran: Making sure that the saddle’s on tight. [Slap] Rechecking, recheck and
recheck.
AMB: Horse trots.
AMB: Sound of horses running.
AMB: Race called.
AMB: Fan yells.
Track: Duran is part of a new generation of riders who learned how to ride through
formal training. Like Moreno and Garza, Duran has learned to sacrifice a lot just
for the chance to succeed in horse racing. But that lesson didn’t sink in immediately
for the kid from Oxnard.
AX Duran: I was hanging around with a lot of those gang members and gangsters and all
that--you know--and that lifestyle and you know, and most of my friends that were in the
gang. You know, they’re either dead, drug addicts or in jail. A lot of them.
Track: He didn’t become a gang member. Duran saw a chance at another life in a
sport where he could excel.
AX Duran: I knew that there’s more out there to life than just staying in the same place
for twenty years. I mean. A friend of mine that’s lived there….he’s been involved in the
gang banging and the gang life and all that stuff. You know, it’s just same guy, still there.
It’s like dude, so many years have gone by, and you’re still doing the same thing?
Track: Garza was skeptical when he first interviewed the 19-year-old before Duran
joined his school.
AX Garza: So finally, one day I asked him I said, well, have you ever rode a horse, did
you ever ride a horse before? He said, “One time.” I said “Where?” He said, “At Kmart,
you go out and put a quarter in the thing and like I said like a little wooden horse that
bounces up and down….Yeah, I started laughing. I’m saying “You’re kidding me!” he
said, “No, that’s the only horse I ever rode.”….He worked at a golf course here in
Camarillo. . . And he’d get off and go home, and I think rest a while then go clean offices
8

at night. Three, four o’clock in the morning, and then I’d come to the ranch and who’s
parked here? Francisco Duran in his old Toyota truck, drinking coffee and eating a
muffin. Every morning he would beat me.
AMB: Sound of race fans.
AX Garza: He’s the only one in 20-something years that’s ever beat me to the ranch.
Track: Duran stands just over 5 feet tall. He wears a black padded vest, and it’s
clipped tight over a white jersey. His love for horses wasn’t understood by his mom
and dad. Duran’s father knew farming, not horse racing.
AX Duran: He picked orchards in Bakersfield….He did a lot of farm-working, you know,
growing corn, vegetables and….He’d leave at Jesus at 5:00 o’clock in the morning and
didn’t come back till 5:00 in the afternoon. I mean, he’d put in those 12-hour shifts too.
Track: Duran’s dad spent long days away from his kids at work. That influenced
Duran.
AX Duran: It’s pretty funny to say, I’d be putting in the same hours as him, and you
know, I didn’t want to do that. And lo and behold, here I am doing that.
AMB: Horse trots.
AX Duran: My daughter. She’s, I think 11 now. And you know, she’s all, “Daddy, I hate
that you’re gone and how come you’re never home with us….and why do you have to
work so far and why do you have to be so gone all the time?” And you know, sorry, I
gotta work.
Track: He dislocated his shoulder a couple of years ago. Recovery at home was
maddening for Duran, even if it meant more time with his family. Duran couldn’t
help himself from thinking about the track.
AX Duran: I’d wake up at 4:30 in the morning with no alarm, and your head just is
spinning 'cause you just got to get on your horse. And you can’t, and you know just going
crazy at the house ‘cause you can’t do anything else but you know, to recoup. And it’s
another addictive thing to me. . .you know, being around horses. Even if I don’t get on
‘em, you know, I have to be around them.
AMB: Horse running past.

9

Track: Duran’s trying to figure out the next step for his career once the day comes
when he won’t be able to ride any longer. In this way, he’s no different from his
mentor Garza and Garza’s mentor, Moreno. None of them want to be too far from
the track. Garza admits he can’t stay away.
AX Garza: I joke around with my wife sometimes and my kids, and, “Well, I think
maybe I should come out of retirement for just a year or two.” My wife says, "No, you
shouldn’t do that. You know, you’re a little old.” I don’t feel old.
Track: Even Moreno at 83 years old doesn’t want to leave racing. His grandfather
lived until he was 104. Moreno wants to break that record.
AX Moreno: I want to hit another good lick before I leave. Another real good lick.
Track: And so does Duran. He knows that he won’t be a jockey forever.
Duran: I can’t do anything else but be a jockey. That’s all I know to do. That’s my life.
AMB: Announcer signals loading into the gate.
AMB: Coronet plays.
Track: It’s Emerald Downs’ closing weekend on a late fall evening. Duran guides
his thoroughbred through a narrow spot in the tall white starting gates. A crew of
handlers climbs onto the metal gates. Each takes a spot behind a horse. They’re
ready to help jockey and thoroughbred stay calm in very tight quarters.
AX Starting Gate Staff Member: Make sure he likes it!
AX Announcer: Stand by for start. . .all in, locked down.
AMB: Bell rings.
AMB: Cars speeds by.
AMB: Horses race by microphone.
AMB: Country music fades in.
Track: A country music band plays close to the winner’s circle between races. Some
track visitors dance while others slip away to the betting window. [PAUSE] In the
winner’s circle, Francisco Duran, part of this latest generation of Latino jockeys,
celebrates one victory. He’s clad in white and red jockey silks. The jockey eases his
horse towards a group of well wishers who have gathered near him for a moment.
10

Photographers snap their picture. Duran grins, then rider and horse trot towards
the stables, away from the bright lights. This is C. J. Dablo reporting.
AMB: Country music fades out.
11

Bibliography

Duran, Francisco. Interview by author. Digital recording. Auburn, WA., September 24,
2010.
Garza, Frank. Interview by author. Digital recording. Somis, CA., January 24, 2010.
Garza, Frank. Interview by author. Digital recording. Somis, CA., February 4, 2010.
Garza, Frank. Interview by author. Digital recording. Somis, CA., February 19, 2010.
Garza, Frank. Interview by author. Digital recording. Somis, CA., March 1, 2010.
Garza, Frank. Interview by author. Digital recording. Somis, CA., March 5, 2010.
Garza, Frank. Interview by author. Digital recording. Somis, CA., September 13, 2010.
Moreno, Henry, Interview by author. Digital recording. Pomona, CA., September 16,
2010.
Moreno, Henry. Interview by author. Digital recording. Pomona, CA., September 19,
2010.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This script for a radio documentary is a profile of three Latin-American men living in California who have dedicated their lives to thoroughbred horse racing: Henry Moreno, a veteran horse trainer in his 80s who, despite a long list of championship wins, still dreams of finding the next great horse

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Asset Metadata

Creator Dablo, C.J. (author), Dablo, Cheryl J. (author)

Core Title California horsemen

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Journalism (Broadcast Journalism)

Publication Date 11/10/2014

Defense Date 11/10/2012

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Horse racing,hosemen,jockey,Latin-American,Latino,OAI-PMH Harvest,thoroughbred

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Tolan, Sandy (committee chair), Deverell, William F. (committee member), Muller, Judy (committee member)

Creator Email dablo@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-109307

Unique identifier UC11289258

Identifier usctheses-c3-109307 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-DabloChery-1281.pdf

Dmrecord 109307

Document Type Thesis

Rights Dablo, Cheryl J.; Dablo, C.J.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA