Jockey Karaoke benefits worthy cause
One of my favorite traditions of summer in upstate New York is equal parts wacky, loving, humiliating, and inspiring.
Earlier this week, the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund held its annual Jockey Karaoke Night at VAPOR Night Club at Saratoga Casino and Raceway. The PDJF supports several dozen jockeys whose lives were forever changed by injuries suffered in the saddle, and some of those riders do not have any other source of steady income.
For the most part, the singing was atrocious. Mike Luzzi and David Cohen, in particular, were announced to be singing “Cruise” by Florida-Georgia Line, and what came out was a song that had some of the same lyrics, but was otherwise unrecognizable.
“That was ‘Edgar Prado’ bad,” judge Todd Pletcher remarked, referencing one of the lesser performances from the 2012 event.
Still, fulfilling the tenet of, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?,” the show went on. Rosie Napravnik and her husband added choreography to their performance of “Time of My Life” from the movie “Dirty Dancing,” including an attempt at the famous lift. Joe Rocco, Jr., and Alex Solis sang Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” while dressed in Hawaiian shirts and sipping beverages of their own. Rajiv Maragh bounced around the stage singing Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite,” while duet partner Joel Rosario mostly smiled and nodded.
“I think if Joel was singing with Corey Lanerie, he’d have shut it off well
before the eighth pole,” Pletcher quipped, referencing Rosario’s ride in the Grade 2 Adirondack on Sunday to laughs and gasps from the audience.
Most uplifting, though, was the winning performance by Michael Straight and Andrew Lakeman. Both are disabled former jockeys who sang from their wheelchairs, and they, along with the rest of the jockeys and most of the crowd, belted out Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” They took first place in a landslide, and received at least one standing ovation in the process.
Many influential figures in the horse racing world donated their time and money to make the event a resounding success. Track announcer Tom Durkin was the master of ceremonies, and warned people ahead of time that the jockeys were “not exactly the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.”
Pletcher, Angel Cordero, YNN’s Marisa Jacques, and Tred Hulse from 99.5 the River served as judges and traded barbs with the singers throughout the evening, including Hulse flirting with Maylan Studart and Jacques comparing Javier Castellano’s dance moves to those of New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz.
There was also a silent auction featuring several autographed items, as well as packages to events such as the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita. However, the auction that will likely go down as the most memorable one was a separate sale that came just after intermission.
Ramon Dominguez, who was forced to retire due to injuries sustained in a fall earlier this year at Aqueduct, came out to a standing ovation and spoke briefly about the services the PDJF provides. He then presented a wooden rocking horse he had carved, which immediately went up for bids.
After a long battle, the winner of the rocking horse and hugs and handshakes from every jockey in attendance was Martin Schwartz, who paid $22,000 that went directly to the fund. By comparison, per Fasig-Tipton’s website, 50 of the yearlings at last weekend’s New Yorkbred sale fetched amounts less than or equal to $22,000, and those are live horses who may have a chance to recoup those investments.
But hey, that’s how much people in the horse racing community care about this cause.
Kudos to Schwartz and everyone else who donated their time and money Monday night. What was raised will go to people who genuinely need it, and the effort put forth by everyone involved did not go unnoticed.
Donations to the PDJF can be made through their website (www.pdjf.org), and if you want to relive the evening by watching clips of some of the performances (warning: some may be hazardous to your health), go to my Twitter page (@AndrewChampagne) and scroll down to the videos I linked to Monday night.