The Last Word
Patrick Husbands came from being a second choice jockey to a trip into the winner's circle in the Queen's Plate, Canada most prestigious horse race.
By MIKE ULMER -- Toronto Sun
He was an immigrant, an outsider and the only thing colder than the weather was the reception he got when he showed up looking for work.
His resume meant nothing here.
He had no connections, just his brother and hope.
Patrick Husbands was 21 years old when he gave up his friends, his family, everything he knew in the Barbados, to come to Canada in 1994.
His friends cried when they shook his hand and pushed him toward the plane.
Yesterday, Husbands won the 144th edition of the Queen's Plate. Buried under the $1-million purse and the ostentatious finery and hype surrounding Canada's greatest horse race, is an immigrant's story.
Husbands' brother Simon already had touched down in Canada and caught on at Woodbine. His is a horse family. The boys' father was a jockey.
"Come to Canada," Simon said to his brother. "Come to Canada."
At 16, Husbands already had become the youngest rider to win the Cockspur Cup, the prize for the top rider in Barbados. That didn't leave much of a ceiling for an ambitious kid.
Finally, he gave in to his brother.
"It was so cold and I couldn't get on a horse, not even to gallop," Husbands said yesterday, the dust still fresh on his boots from his nine-length win aboard Wando.
He began the circuit of barns. It took three weeks of begging to ride, let alone race. It took three more weeks to get a mount.
He tried Fort Erie and was given a horse considered all but unridable. He won. He was given another tough assignment. He won.
Who knows what would have happened had Husbands been unable to squeeze out those two victories. He garnered a few more rides and banged out a few more wins. He ended his rookie season with 22 Woodbine victories and a dozen more at Fort Erie.
People were beginning to notice his touch with two-year-olds and his unwillingness to give ground in the turns.
In 1994, Husbands earned a spot in the Queen's Plate. In subsequent Plates, he finished 10th, then eighth, 11th and 16th.
Husbands' purse earnings have spiralled from $315,000 in '94 to $9.2 million last year. Jockeys get a 10% cut. You do the math.
But despite an unprecedented four consecutive Sovereign Awards as the best jockey in the country, Husbands was the second choice for Wando.
Owner Gus Schickedanz and trainer Mike Keogh liked Todd Kabel. Kabel had ridden Wando to his previous three victories. Kabel had also made seven starts in a row on Wando's stablemate, Mobil. Kabel had managed what Husbands had not, Plate wins in 1995 aboard Regal Discovery and 2000 with Scatter the Gold.
Kabel was given the choice of his mounts. Uncertain of Wando's ability to dominate at the 1 1/4 quarter-mile distance, Kabel chose Mobil.
Kabel overcame a bad start to bring Mobil home second. The horse stumbled coming out of the gate and never challenged Husbands and Wando.
"You make the right moves and you make the wrong moves in racing," Kabel said. "That's horse racing."
True enough. But maybe it's part of the immigrant's skill set, this ability to see opportunity in what is left over.
Husbands was glad to take Wando.
"He is the best three-year-old, this is the best horse," he told Simon.
There were no hard feelings about being passed over for Kabel.
"Respect is respect," Husbands said. "I had a lot of luck being able to ride for Mr. Schickedanz. He chose me from jockeys from all over the world."
If Kabel thought he had made the right move, the betting public didn't.
A surge of late money beat Wando's odds from a 9-2 at 1 p.m. all the way to 7-5 at post time.
All day yesterday, people were coming up to Husbands on the backstretch. "Congratulations," they said. They knew.
"I said only the man upstairs knows who is going to win a race," Husbands said.
Wando led from the quarter-pole on and won in 2:02.48.
And so the question was put to Mike Keogh. Who rides Wando in the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Prince of Wales Stakes, July 20?
"That's up to Mr. Schickedanz, but I imagine it will be Patrick," he said.
The Prince of Wales will be run in Fort Erie and it would be tempting to say the immigrant's story is about to come full circle.
That wouldn't be quite right. A better timeline may be November of 2000. That's when Patrick Husbands placed his hand on a Bible and became a Canadian citizen.
