By Susan Thurston, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, March 10, 2011
When jockey agent Dan Mellul heads to Tampa Bay Downs for Saturday's Festival Day, you can be sure he'll have two felt pens in his pocket, and he'll watch the races from the same television.
Ask him to borrow a pen, and he'll refuse. Invite him to go to another TV, and he'll decline.
Call him quirky or superstitious, but both bring him good luck, he says. Do things differently, and who knows what might happen?
In a sport often won and lost by fractions of a second and the moods of large animals, it should come as no surprise that luck plays a significant role.
Jockeys have their racing rituals, owners have their lucky ties and gamblers have their favorite numbers.
Every bit can make a difference.
"There are a million ways to lose a race and only one way to win it — get there first,'' wrote Mellul, who represents two jockeys at Tampa Bay Downs on his blog, the Hustling Book (hustlingbook.blogspot.com).
A few horse-racing superstitions are universal, like hanging a horse shoe over a barn door. Always put the prongs facing upward to hold in the good luck.
But most traditions are custom-made based on an individual's experiences, whims and beliefs.
"It's such a personal thing,'' said Michael Compton, editor of Florida Horse magazine in Ocala. "Horse racing is so uncertain that I think a lot of people like to try to demonstrate control over that.''
Good luck can come in all forms, he said. Some owners wear the same tie every time their horse runs a particular race. Bettors often pick horses wearing their favorite colored silks. And gray horses? Bet them to win on rainy days.
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., doesn't keep track of good luck charms and superstitions but occasionally hears of them. Some jockeys insist on using the same saddle, said historian Allan Carter. Among gamblers, some consider it bad luck to declare midrace that your leading horse is going to win.
Word around Tampa Bay Downs is that owners should never change a horse's name, and you shouldn't change your mind while placing a bet, said spokeswoman Margo Flynn. And, never, ever eat peanuts around the track, a widely held belief shared by the auto racing community. According to legend, peanut shells were found in a cockpit of a car that crashed in the '30s or '40s.
The Encyclopedia of Superstitions by Richard Webster devotes a short section to horse racing and jockeys.
• It's good luck to pick up a coin at a track with the heads side up and bad luck to pick up one showing tails.
• Like other athletes, jockeys have lucky clothing, such as a certain color of underwear.
• It's bad luck to tell a jockey break a leg before a race.
Of course, the validity of these beliefs is unproven. But many in the industry don't dare dispute them. With so many variables in each race, they need all the luck they can get.