Jorge Navarro – Successful Horse Trainer
Originally from Panama City, Panama, Jorge Navarro began his racing career working for his hard-working, honest step-father, Julian Canet. Jorge was recently indicted along with 26 others, including Jason Servis, disqualified winning trainer of the 2019 Kentucky Derby. Navarro trained super-star horse, XY Jet, until the horse dropped dead from a heart attack earlier this year at only 8 years old. Unthinkable.
To win a race in horse racing is a wonderful experience. There’s nothing like the rush of crossing the finish line first, knowing you made all the right moves at the right time in order to prevail. The feeling is incomparable.
Owners of race horses have worked hard, long hours to acquire their fortunes which enables them to buy race horses and hire a horse trainer to train them. The owners are undoubtedly Type A people, used to besting their competition, used to finishing first.
Ya Gotta Win!
Jorge Navarro, “I know nothink. Nothink.” Like Schultz and those other guys like him
In horse racing, if a trainer does not finish first very often, the trainer does not get to train any horses of note, because the owners want a trainer who wins in life, just like they do. This means the trainers who don’t win very often are not going to get better horses to train because they don’t know “how” to win. Their careers languish.
It’s a vicious cycle, unless you can somehow break out of it…
In the meantime, the owners look elsewhere for a trainer who wins. That’s the game, in a nutshell. You have to win. Same goes for being a jockey. If you don’t win, you don’t have a career. No one wants a jockey who doesn’t ride winners.
This kind of pressure leads some trainers to find a different field of work. It leads others to cheat, at any and all costs.
Roy Sedlacek, a life-long horse trainer, was banned for 5 years from horse racing in New York when his only two horses came up positive for a banned substance. Roy had only two horses at the time he was banned. He had fallen on hard times and needed to win. He did whatever it took to win: he cheated. Roy only had two horses. The horse racing “machine” didn’t need Roy and his two stinky horses in order to keep operating. If they banned Roy, they wouldn’t lose much, but they would set an example of what could happen if…
This makes me wonder if these other fellas, and a couple of gals, will receive deservedly lengthy suspensions now, or will all this be swept under the already considerably bumpy rug that is, was, always has been, and always will be horse racing?
Click here to read the article where Jorge Navarro says , “An owner of mine once said ‘How many times can you go in the cookie jar?’ Prophetic words, these days.
