Ecuador: Ashley Yodice Wins Challenge
Sept 14, 2013 14:35:13 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Sept 14, 2013 14:35:13 GMT -5
I have to admit, I didn't know who she was! Just thought this was a feel good story. She's apparently based in the Mid Atlantic.
Three Chimneys Presents Good News Friday: An American Girl in Ecuador
by Natalie Voss
Paulick Report
Jockey Ashley Yodice may not have made many starts in the last year, but she is a winner in two countries after capturing the recent Válida Campeonato Internacional de Jockettas “Copa Nature ìs Garden” in Ecuador. The competition pitted female riders from six countries against each other for three races at El Hipódromo Miguel Salem Dibo in Samborondón.
The stands were overflowing for the event, generating the track’s highest attendance for the year. Contests of this kind, in which each country is represented by one rider, are big events in South America. This was the first competition for female riders, ‘jockettas,’ only.
In the U.S., it’s common for all the jockeys in a given race to be male with a handful of exceptions, but women are an ever-increasing presence at the track in the mornings as grooms, hot walkers, and exercise riders. In Ecuador, the racetrack is still very much a man’s world.
Manuel Adum, an Ecuador native who now lives in California, spent many years watching races at Hipódromo Miguel Salem Dibo, and his father has been going there weekly for decades. Neither can remember seeing a female exercise rider, trainer, or groom there even once. Sixteen-year-old María José Jaime, who represented Ecuador in the competition, is the country’s only female jockey–ever.
Yodice greeted by a swarm of reporters after winning in Ecuador
Cultural differences may partly explain the rarity of female riders.
“There is a lot of rude, violent behavior and the presence of a woman in that environment starts to be uncomfortable for people,” Adum said.
Jockeys in Ecuador don’t make enough money to have agents, so riders communicate directly with trainers to solicit mounts. For trainers used to dealing with other men, Adum said the prospect of negotiating a deal with a female rider seems very different.
If Yodice knew about the depth of the gender imbalance before she was invited to participate in the contest, she didn’t let it affect her performance.
Yodice squared off against Chile’s Anita Aedo, Brazil’s Jaqueline Cabral, Ecuador’s María José Jaime, Argentina’s Florencia Peñalva, and Ana Sánchez of Peru.
Of the three races in the contest, Yodice won two–aboard Locateli and Amante Mía–and finished fourth in the final race, tying in accumulated points with Peñalva. The contest’s tie breaker was the number of races won, so Yodice emerged victorious.
Yodice lost her bug in 2012 in the U.S. after several years spent on and off the track recovering from injuries and raising her daughter. She had only ridden three races since her last lay-off when she got a Facebook message from a fellow jockey who had been invited to the event in Ecuador and couldn’t go.
“I’ve never been outside the United States so I jumped at the opportunity,” recalled Yodice.
She quickly found that race day in Ecuador had its challenges. The track surface was different from her home base at Calder. Because of the dry, hot climate, water evaporates from the track much more quickly, making the going deep and sandy off the rail. There are no claiming races. Weights are assigned as handicaps for all levels of racing, so Yodice, who had been tacking up at 120 pounds in America, was assigned 125 pounds for one mount and 112 for another.
“There were no valets,” she added. “I was like, ‘Hey where’s my valet?’ and they were like ‘What?’”
Variations in her equipment also proved challenging. In Ecuador, most horses work out with no saddle, just a pad and girth, and their racing saddles are not cinched as tightly as they are here, requiring more exacting balance from the riders. She also noticed a difference in the horses’ attitudes. Ecuadorian horses seemed to her to be much more calm and relaxed than the mounts she was used to, and Yodice said they were extremely sound and comfortable, which surprised her.
Despite all the differences from her home base, Yodice said the Hipódromo Miguel Salem Dibo was electric.
“They’re genuinely interested in racing,” Yodice said. “It’s totally different because here, at Calder, you have seven people in the grandstand, and there the grandstand’s jam-packed and everyone’s screaming your name, willing you to the wire. You hear them when you’re riding.
“I rode at Saratoga one time and it’s the same feeling. Everyone’s coming up to you asking for your picture and your autograph, and you’re like ‘Man who am I? I’m a nobody, but this is great!’”
Both Yodice and Adum hope that the contest, while the first of its kind, will not be the last and will start a trend in the long-running industry in Ecuador.
“However difficult it may be, they keep doing it,” Adum said of the racetrack, which has been running every Sunday (in different locations) for over a century.
If the track holds another ‘jockettas’ competition, Yodice said she would be happy to participate again.
___________________________________________________
More on Ashley:
www.femalejockeys.com/ay.html
www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=People&searchType=J&eID=136367
Three Chimneys Presents Good News Friday: An American Girl in Ecuador
by Natalie Voss
Paulick Report
Jockey Ashley Yodice may not have made many starts in the last year, but she is a winner in two countries after capturing the recent Válida Campeonato Internacional de Jockettas “Copa Nature ìs Garden” in Ecuador. The competition pitted female riders from six countries against each other for three races at El Hipódromo Miguel Salem Dibo in Samborondón.
The stands were overflowing for the event, generating the track’s highest attendance for the year. Contests of this kind, in which each country is represented by one rider, are big events in South America. This was the first competition for female riders, ‘jockettas,’ only.
In the U.S., it’s common for all the jockeys in a given race to be male with a handful of exceptions, but women are an ever-increasing presence at the track in the mornings as grooms, hot walkers, and exercise riders. In Ecuador, the racetrack is still very much a man’s world.
Manuel Adum, an Ecuador native who now lives in California, spent many years watching races at Hipódromo Miguel Salem Dibo, and his father has been going there weekly for decades. Neither can remember seeing a female exercise rider, trainer, or groom there even once. Sixteen-year-old María José Jaime, who represented Ecuador in the competition, is the country’s only female jockey–ever.
Yodice greeted by a swarm of reporters after winning in Ecuador
Cultural differences may partly explain the rarity of female riders.
“There is a lot of rude, violent behavior and the presence of a woman in that environment starts to be uncomfortable for people,” Adum said.
Jockeys in Ecuador don’t make enough money to have agents, so riders communicate directly with trainers to solicit mounts. For trainers used to dealing with other men, Adum said the prospect of negotiating a deal with a female rider seems very different.
If Yodice knew about the depth of the gender imbalance before she was invited to participate in the contest, she didn’t let it affect her performance.
Yodice squared off against Chile’s Anita Aedo, Brazil’s Jaqueline Cabral, Ecuador’s María José Jaime, Argentina’s Florencia Peñalva, and Ana Sánchez of Peru.
Of the three races in the contest, Yodice won two–aboard Locateli and Amante Mía–and finished fourth in the final race, tying in accumulated points with Peñalva. The contest’s tie breaker was the number of races won, so Yodice emerged victorious.
Yodice lost her bug in 2012 in the U.S. after several years spent on and off the track recovering from injuries and raising her daughter. She had only ridden three races since her last lay-off when she got a Facebook message from a fellow jockey who had been invited to the event in Ecuador and couldn’t go.
“I’ve never been outside the United States so I jumped at the opportunity,” recalled Yodice.
She quickly found that race day in Ecuador had its challenges. The track surface was different from her home base at Calder. Because of the dry, hot climate, water evaporates from the track much more quickly, making the going deep and sandy off the rail. There are no claiming races. Weights are assigned as handicaps for all levels of racing, so Yodice, who had been tacking up at 120 pounds in America, was assigned 125 pounds for one mount and 112 for another.
“There were no valets,” she added. “I was like, ‘Hey where’s my valet?’ and they were like ‘What?’”
Variations in her equipment also proved challenging. In Ecuador, most horses work out with no saddle, just a pad and girth, and their racing saddles are not cinched as tightly as they are here, requiring more exacting balance from the riders. She also noticed a difference in the horses’ attitudes. Ecuadorian horses seemed to her to be much more calm and relaxed than the mounts she was used to, and Yodice said they were extremely sound and comfortable, which surprised her.
Despite all the differences from her home base, Yodice said the Hipódromo Miguel Salem Dibo was electric.
“They’re genuinely interested in racing,” Yodice said. “It’s totally different because here, at Calder, you have seven people in the grandstand, and there the grandstand’s jam-packed and everyone’s screaming your name, willing you to the wire. You hear them when you’re riding.
“I rode at Saratoga one time and it’s the same feeling. Everyone’s coming up to you asking for your picture and your autograph, and you’re like ‘Man who am I? I’m a nobody, but this is great!’”
Both Yodice and Adum hope that the contest, while the first of its kind, will not be the last and will start a trend in the long-running industry in Ecuador.
“However difficult it may be, they keep doing it,” Adum said of the racetrack, which has been running every Sunday (in different locations) for over a century.
If the track holds another ‘jockettas’ competition, Yodice said she would be happy to participate again.
___________________________________________________
More on Ashley:
www.femalejockeys.com/ay.html
www.equibase.com/profiles/Results.cfm?type=People&searchType=J&eID=136367