Coordinated by Cathalene Hernandez Hagney, many remember her father Ramon “Mike” Hernandez following Sunday’s second race.
There are a lot of people who leave a legacy, and Ramon “Mike” Hernandez is one of those people.
That legacy was illustrated after Sunday’s second race at Saratoga Race Course with a plethora of owners, horseman, horsewomen, and other racing officials gathering in the Winner’s Circle to remember him.
Hernandez passed away on Nov. 6, the same day of his daughter Cathalene Hernandez Hagney’s birthday, at the age of 99 following memorable career as a trainer on the New York Racing Association circuit and a fixture at Barn 76 near the Oklahoma Training Track. The next day, Hagney started planning the memorial race at Saratoga.
“I didn’t see it as a sad thing, but a happy thing for me to always remember him,” Hagney said. “I’ve thought about this for the past five years. I planned this in my thoughts and what we were going to do.”
Hernandez, born in Mexico, was a grassroots horseman by starting as a groom at Hippodromo de las Americas in Mexico City at 18 years old, then earning his trainers license in 1951. He came to the United States in 1967 to eventually establish a training career that resulted in 603 winners and more than $18.8 million in earnings. Prior to his retirement in 2011, Hernandez was the oldest active trainer in New York.
While Hernandez was successful on the track, he had more of an impact on others by offering jobs as an exercise rider, groom, or hotwalker, and he mentoring them. Because of that, many admired him, and Hagney finally saw that in the Winner’s Circle.
“He was loved by so many people,” she said. “[Sunday] was an accumulation of what he did for me to carry on his legacy. That allowed me to meet the people who he knew. For me, he allowed me into his world, which he really never wanted to do.”
One of those people was Carlos R. Figueroa, Jr., who always enjoyed horse racing and wanted to be part of the racetrack since he was 13 years old. He was captivated by Hall of Fame trainer Laz Barrera and his horse Bold Forbes, who beat the heavily-favored Honest Pleasure in the 1976 Kentucky Derby.
Two years later, Figueroa, Jr. and his family moved from Brooklyn to Bay Shore where he would meet another a neighbor who also wanted become involved in horse racing: Richard Migliore.
As both were riding their horses behind a junior high school field near their houses, Figueroa, Jr. was also looking for a job at Belmont Park. Hernandez was the first person to give him a job at the track, and it was eventually going to be at Saratoga.
“I was 15. I couldn’t even get a badge,” Figueroa, Jr. said. “I got dropped off at the track [Belmont] and stayed with one of the grooms. A couple of days later, we were here at Saratoga.”
Figueroa, Jr. started as a hotwalker before learning how to groom horses that included multiple stakes winners Dedicated Rullah, Fratello Ed, Vandy Sue, and Sallys Flight. While being near Barrera’s stable, who had Triple Crown winner Affirmed at the time, Figueroa, Jr. learned about being horseman while having a strong work ethic and being fair.
“He was the hardest-working guy I had seen,” Figueroa, Jr. said about Hernandez. “He was always up really early. In the morning of the races, he got on the horse and warm him up. I remember we worked a lot on the horses with the hoses and ice. It was the old-school horsemanship that stuck with me.”
“He worked you hard, but he was fair,” he added. “There was no elitism. He was a really good guy. He had that kind of confidence in me. He was an inspiration. He made me who I am today.”
Meanwhile, Migliore wanted to be a jockey. When Migliore was 13 years old, he had the opportunity to ride horses. However, it wasn’t at Belmont Park; rather it was at Clermont Farm in Germantown, N.Y. where Hernandez was the farm manager and the late Dominic Galluscio was the assistant.
“I was brought me to get on these New York-breds to see if I thought anything of them were good,” Migliore said. “I met Mr. Hernandez and he was an amazing and classy gentleman. He was a salt-of-the-earth horseman. He can do it at any level.”
After his retirement in 2011, Migliore continued to have a good relationship with Hernandez to the point where he could play a small practical joke. However, Hernandez took that jest more seriously and made it into an opportunity for another jockey trying to make a comeback after suffering an injury to his three fingers: Jean-Luc Samyn.
Migliore pretended to his jockey agent and suggested to Hernandez that Samyn should ride Belongs to Sheila in a claiming race at Aqueduct. Not aware of the prank, Hernandez still gave Samyn the opportunity.
“I was by the rail of the training track and said, ‘Mr. Hernandez, Jean-Luc is coming back and ready to ride.’ He said, ‘In the third race in the book on Friday, this horse will win.’ Later, I went back to his barn and said, ‘Mr. Henrandez, I’m not really working for Jean-Luc. I was just goofing around. I’m sorry.’ He said, ‘That’s OK. He can ride this horse. He’s going to run a big race.’”
Hernandez was correct: Belongs to Sheila ran a huge race with a last-to-first move in the stretch to win the race.
That’s just a couple many memories of those from the backstretch. However, perhaps the person who had the most memorable moment on the backstretch was Hagney.
About two weeks before Hernandez’s passing, she brought him to both the Saratoga main track and the Oklahoma Training Track. It was supposed to be a visit before going to Florida for the winter.
“I brought him where he wanted to go,” Hagney said. “We got ice cream, then drove to the main track. He wanted to see the trees all the way in back. We did the entire main track, then we went to the Oklahoma track. He said, ‘Stop by my trees. Look at them, they are so beautiful.’ We drove all around, but he really didn’t say anything. It was almost like he was taking everything in for the last time.”
It has been nine months since Hernandez’s passing. Today, across the street at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame where Hagney works, there is a bench outside the museum and a brick in the Whitney Garden in memory of her father.
“I try not to be sad,” she said. “A part of him will always be there. There were so many people he met and changed lives for. He had an amazing career.”
