13-year-old aspiring jockey aims to race internationally

VISHANNA PHAGOO

After growing up surrounded by horses and learning everything about them, it was only natural for 13-year-old Richard Balgobin to fall in love with the sport of horse racing.

Richard said his dad Ralph has been taking care of horses for 31 years, so it gave him the opportunity to pick his favourite horse, take care of it and learn to ride it.

At the stables in Carapo, near the Santa Rosa race track, Richard showed off his skills with his favourite horse, Jubb Jubb, and took her for a few laps around the yard.

While riding, Jubb Jubb got a little out of hand, but it wasn't anything Richard couldn't handle. He whispered to her to calm down and pulled her lead so she'd ride slower and follow his instructions.

"I like Jubb Jubb because she's a nice horse, she's short and fast like me even though she's very old."

Jubb Jubb is 22 and this is considered old because of the life expectancy of horses which is between 25 and 30.

Richard, a form two student of Johnson's Finishing School in Arima, said every day before school he maintains and rides one of the horses.

"Some horses take half-hour walks, others take an hour, so every day I ride for an hour or an hour-and-a-half."

He wakes up at 4.30 am and make sure he brushes and shampoos the horse he's going to ride.

He said he finishes around 7 am and heads back home so he can get ready for school.

With this routine, he hopes to follow in the footsteps of his brother Rich, who lives in Canada and races horses internationally.

Richard recalled his brother teaching him and said, "One day we were riding and he's a funny guy, but he's always teaching me how to act serious."

Aside from Jubb Jubb, his favourite horse is Flightline which is an undefeated American thoroughbred racehorse who won the grade one Malibu Stakes in 2021, and the Metropolitan Handicap and Pacific Classic in 2022. Richard is yet to see this horse in action in real life.

Richard spends the rest of his time working on his favourite subject, mathematics. He said he likes how difficult the subject is and stops at nothing to understand the material.

This future jockey said it's been a lifelong dream and is confident he will represent his family on international race tracks. Richard doesn't race just yet as he still needs more training, but expects to race in the next two years. He also offered advice to others who may be interested in the sport or would just like to learn about horses.

"The first thing is, you cannot be afraid of them because if you're afraid, they will get frightened and something bad will happen. All you need to do is brush them, bathe them with a little shampoo to make them smell good and that's about it."

He said though it sounds like a short list of tasks, it usually takes around an hour to complete per horse.