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TRAGEDY & TRIUMPH
Jockey Robby Albarado takes pride in being a professional, doing his best no matter what's happening in his personal life, good or bad.
"That's one of my strengths as a jockey," Albarado said. "I can kind of separate my emotions from my career. . . . It's a gift that some of us have, that willpower, that strength to do this."
Since last week, Albarado has been on an emotional ride.
While he was on a flight Tuesday to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to ride Curlin in a prep race for the Dubai World Cup, his younger sister, Bobbie Jo Mahagan, 32, died of a heart attack at home in Lafayette. When Albarado called his wife, Kimber, upon reaching his hotel Wednesday morning, he received the jolting news.
"A lot of emotions ran through my mind, like my daddy," Albarado said. "That was a bad summer for me (1998, when his father died of a heart attack). I got my skull crushed. . . .
"I kind of thought of what my little sister would have wanted. . . . This is the highs and lows of life. Everybody has them. You can accept them and move on, or you can drown in your sorrows. I put myself in her shoes. She wanted me to ride horses. She was so proud of me."
Albarado rode Curlin to victory the next night. On Sunday, Albarado was back riding at the Fair Grounds. On Saturday, he'll be riding in five of the six stakes races on the Louisiana Derby Day card, for which entries were taken Monday.
In the four Grade II races, Albarado will be on Blackberry Road in the Louisiana Derby, Wisconsin Lady in the Fair Grounds Oaks, Grasshopper in the New Orleans Handicap and Brilliant in the Mervin Muniz.
Last year, Curlin provided Albarado some of the most significant victories of his career. The colt won the Preakness, Jockey Club Gold Cup and Breeders' Cup Classic on the way to earning Horse of the Year.
In the $175,000 prep race at Nad Al Sheba in Dubai, Curlin showed that he has retained his form. With Albarado keeping him under a tight hold most of the way, Curlin ran 2,000 meters (about a mile-and-a-quarter) in 2:00.60, about a second off the Nad Al Sheba track record of 1:59.50 set by Dubai Millennium in his victory in the Dubai World Cup in 2000.
