California Chrome and Gladney Form a Perfect Partnership

The first time Dihigi Gladney swung his right leg over California Chrome’s back, eased his seat in the saddle, and slipped his boots into the stirrups, the exercise rider wasn’t at all prepared for what he would feel next.  

“This horse was like a beast,” Gladney exclaimed recently when he recalled their first moment as horse and rider in the fall of 2015 at Los Alamitos Race Course in Southern California. “I would see California Chrome all the time . . . from atop another horse or watching him from the ground. It’s one thing to see him, but when I actually got on him, it was like, man, they just set me on King Kong.”

This reflection comes as Gladney’s morning rides aboard North America’s richest racehorse are coming to an end. The 6-year-old will complete his storied career with one final run in the $12 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) at Gulfstream Park Jan. 28, and then will head to Kentucky for stud duties at Taylor Made Farm.

Gladney, whose effervescent smile is seemingly ever-present, said he has been doing his best to keep thoughts of farewells at bay.

“We haven’t had our cry party yet, but it will be a change for all of us on the California Chrome team, and for his fans because people love this horse all over the world,” said Gladney, who traveled to Dubai with California Chrome for the 2016 Dubai World Cup, where the horse’s dominate victory avenged his loss as the runner-up in the previous year’s running.

It made perfect sense that California Chrome’s trainer, Art Sherman, designated Gladney as the horse’s exercise rider when the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner returned to California in October of 2015 from a Kentucky vacation at Taylor Made Farm, where he had been recovering from a cannon bone bruise. 

California Chrome is an exceptionally good-feeling horse, and one who requires someone who has the finesse to handle a head-strong animal, without fighting with him. Gladney, whose formative years were spent riding bulls and rogue ponies, fit the bill.

“They are a match made in heaven,” Sherman said of California Chrome and Gladney. “The horse loves him. He has had some scary moments, with Chrome, too. I’ve seen him walk on his hind legs, front legs up in the air, and I get palpitations.”

Gladney grew up in Compton, CA, an area in Los Angeles known for its gang-related crime. For Gladney perhaps the biggest danger he faced as a kid was from the wild ponies he rode at breakneck speed down dusty horse paths surrounding his grandfather’s riding stable in nearby Gardena.

“That stable was a great place for me to grow up,” Gladney said. “My grandfather would tell me, ‘If I have you pushing this wheelbarrow you can’t do anything bad because you will be too tired to get in trouble. 

“When I was 6 years old, I was riding a 30-year-old Thoroughbred and acting as a trail guide at my grandfather’s stable,” he continued. “I was basically the trail snitch because when the horses and riders got out of line, I would whistle and point. And then there were the wild ponies I rode . . . my grandfather bought some of the rankest horses, but he wanted me to ride my best.”

Maybe because he became immune to tumbling to the ground at an early age, Gladney’s teenage years were spent at rodeos, trying his best not to be rocketed into the air by bucking bulls. Charlie “Pee Wee” Sampson, the first African-American to win a world title in bull riding, was Gladney’s inspiration in that particular pursuit.

In his 20s, Gladney came to Los Alamitos and began working as an exercise rider. Later he became a jockey, piloting Arabians, Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds, and even mules. A serious riding accident, in which he broke his back and was confined to a metal body brace for months, kept Gladney out of the saddle for several years. During that time he struggled mentally from the depression associated with being deprived of doing what he loved most. But he was determined to return to competitive riding, so he picked up where he left off, winning races at Los Alamitos. He finally called time on his career in 2012, after riding 199 winners.

Gladney’s main job these days has allowed him to relive some of his favorite childhood memories. Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, John Davis, Gladney owns Got Ponies, a business which provides pony rides at Santa Anita and Del Mar, as well as private parties and events outside the track.

“I love my pony rides. My ponies are at Santa Anita every Saturday and Sunday, and we meet a lot of great people there,” said the father of three. “I love doing the birthday parties when we have the time because they’re fun. It’s exciting when you meet kids who went to a party a few years ago and you see them again at another party and they ask about such-and-such pony.”

But his partnership with the copper-colored chestnut with the four white stockings was truly what was occupying Gladney’s mind on this recent January morning at Gulfstream Park. 

“He has moves that are unbelievable and people wonder how I stay on him,” Gladney said as he gazed with affection at America’s most beloved racehorse, who was placidly looking out of his stall in Barn 2. “He’s just strong and so athletic. When he does put all four feet on the ground, I look at all his feet to see if they’re springs on his hooves. There is no way a horse that is 16.3 hands should get in the air and do the things he does. 

“He hasn’t [thrown me], knock wood,” he added as he rapped his fist on the side of the barn for good measure. “You know how you say someone is looking over you? I think it’s my granddad and every cowboy that has ridden a horse like this.”

This particular cowboy won’t be able to ride off in the sunset with his horse, but you know Gladney will never forget the journey he and California Chrome shared.

Source: Gulfstream Park, story by Karen Johnson