It might be the most dangerous job on the racetrack, Larry Davila says, but 50 years ago, being on a gate crew was like being a part of an elite club. So when Davila, who exercised horses in the 1960s, was offered a job working at a gate, he jumped at the chance.
"I only weighed 130 pounds," said Davila, who has been the starter at Canterbury Park for 19 years. "I had to make those horses think I really loved them because I wasn't big enough to fight them."
Now Davila, 68, has a team of 11 assistants who work together in order to get the horses into the starting gate before each race.
On most days at 7 a.m., Davila's team will spend an hour standing horses that have misbehaved in the gate before races. Then for another hour, they'll work on breaking young horses that are being trained to race for the first time.
The assistants, who weigh but a fraction of the often-unhappy animals they attempt to train, are dressed head to toe in gear to protect them against uncooperative horses.
The job of wrangling the horses is a lot safer now than when he did it with very little protective gear, Davila said. But hHis crew members sustain bumps and bruises on a regular basis. Just a few weeks ago, a 230-pound assistant was kicked by a horse and sent flying.
Despite the danger involved, Davila says he feels privileged to do his job. It's everything he dreamed it would be from a young age.
"And then some," Davila added.
