Carson Sullivan always knew he wanted to be a jockey
From an early age, Carson Sullivan knew he wanted to be a jockey.
He was born into the sport of racing and hung around some of the best riders in the country when he was a kid. But little did he know then, that the road to getting on his first horse, would be so far away.
Sullivan, now an apprentice at Golden Gate Fields, is not the wide-eyed teenager you typically see show up at a new track. Actually, he is just the opposite. Having just celebrated his 30th birthday, Sullivan brings the maturity of a veteran and it’s paying off.
The Ohio born Sullivan, who is following the footsteps of his father S.J. Sullivan, grandfather James C. Kirk, and great grandfather Carson Kirk, showed up in the Bay Area in mid-September with 11 career wins, since beginning to ride in May of 2013. In just two months, he has already won 9 races and has a 33% in the money ratio, in 92 starts.
But what took him so long to start his career? I guess you could say he had a different agenda growing up.
“Basically, I was raised at the track until my early adolescence," Sullivan said. “Then my mom (Christine Sullivan) took an opportunity and went to Japan to work with a few barns. I went and stayed with my father, (who had been done riding for some years.) I got into a private school, and when she got back, they decided it was better for me to stay in the prestigious school system I was in and take that path.”
Because his mom worked for such trainers as Jack Van Berg, D. Wayne Lukas, and Nick Zito; Sullivan had big aspirations early on.
“When I was a kid I wanted to be jockey, but there were no restrictions with my imagination. I wanted to be everything," he said. “Growing up I wanted to ride. I watched Laffit Pincay, Kent Desormeaux, Eddie Delahoussaye, and Chris McCarron. I had been in and out of schools when I was younger moving around from track to track so they (my parents) thought it was more grounded for me to stay in school instead of returning to the track.”
After graduating from High school, he spent 3 ½ years at Ohio University studying Psychology. He worked in a surf shop and as a bartender, while playing guitar in a band that traveled the area performing in whatever gigs they could get. But before he graduated, his college days came to an end.
“I just didn’t want to go anymore. I was in my early 20’s and I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Sullivan said. “l started thinking about riding. I remember I was on the lower East Side of New York at a friend’s party and I texted my mom to see if she thought my grandfather would teach me to ride.”
Her response started the wheels turning.
“She said, she was sure he would, but I’d have to make the call.”
They both made the call and his jockey career began. By this time, his grandfather broke babies and trained some horses that were turned out at a training center.
“He started me from scratch. He put me in charge of his pony. I had to do everything to take care of the pony. I had to get him ready every day, muck his stalls, bathe him…..everything." Sullivan said. “I did everything in the barn, brought the feed , raked the shed row as well as take care of the pony. Then I would sit with my grandfather and watch the horses train and we would talk about what they were doing.”
As time went on, he graduated from the pony, to thoroughbreds. Eventually, it was time to start breezing horses.
His mom called up family friend and top trainer John Servis (who was Sullivan’s dad's agent when he rode). Servis did the family a favor and let the aspiring rider gallop horses at Parx, then later at Palm Meadows in Florida. The more he worked the more people he got in with. As time went on, he breezed horses for Nick Zito and Kelly Breen.
Finally on May 19th, 2013, at the age of 29, Sullivan rode his first race at Parx Race Course in Philadelphia. Just six races later, he won his first race. But the journey was just beginning.
Over the next six months, he rode at 5 different tracks on the east coast, finally settling in at Gulfstream Park. It was there, jockeyagentlou contacted Sullivan and recommended he try the west coast. Not only has he helped manage the career of Kent Desormeaux, he came up with the idea of sending the two to Del Mar in July. Desormeaux went on to finish second in the Del Mar meet. Lou wanted Sullivan to compete with the best in the west while helping the apprentice with his on and off the track professionalism. Although he won just one race at the meet (53-1 outsider Mon Petit), he still learned.
“The biggest thing I learned at Del Mar was not really riding the races but listening," Sullivan said. “I would sit and listen to Kent and Mike Smith talk about the races. I’d hear them say things I had never thought of. I got a lot out of watching Javier Castellano at Gulfstream and riding with Russell Baze here, but for me listening to some of the guys talk, has helped me more than riding the races.”
So is there a downside to being a 30-year-old apprentice?
“Overall it hurts because I won't win as many races as I could have if I started earlier, but being more mature is helping,” he said. “The more I ride in general the more race awareness I’m getting. The race slows down for you. When you first start everything seems to happen so fast. The more you ride, you start seeing things before they happen. The other day in my race, not only did I understand what was going on around me, I knew who every jock was, who was two lengths ahead of me who was two behind me, who is riding their horse, who has horse left. The move up to Northern California has shown me what I’m capable of. Its erased a lot of the self-doubts and has re-energized me."
Currently, Sullivan has 5 wins, 4 seconds and 12 thirds in 68 mounts at the Golden Gate Winter Meet and is looking forward to finishing his bug time in the first half of 2015.