A Horse-Drawn Life at Pimlico

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In Racetrack's Backstretch, Another World

A look inside the community of 120 grooms, hot walkers and stable workers who live full-time at the Pimlico racetrack, tending to the horses -- and each other -- all year long.

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But there are other perks. By tradition, owners tip the backstretch when one of their horses comes in a winner, which can mean, depending on the purse, an extra $50 to $500 in a groom's pocket. Some trainers race "barn horses," animals essentially owned by the backstretch workers who then split their winnings.

Preakness day is a particular boon to Pimlico stable hands. Soon after the massive crowd clears out, backstretch workers will scour the infield for left-behind treasure: watches, coolers, lawn chairs, entire cases of beer. Scott once found an unclaimed betting ticket worth $800.

Maryland's biggest race is a hot time on the backstretch, where workers have a unbeatable view of the, well, backstretch. They can't see the finish line at all, which is on the grandstand side of the track, but that doesn't stop them from partying on their barn balconies.

"We watch the race. It's a good time for all of us together, black and Mexican," said Jaime Abena, a groom who has worked at Pimlico since 2004. "We put some money together to buy food and beer after the morning work is done."

On normal days, eating can be one of the challenges of backstretch life. Cooking is forbidden in the rooms, but there is a short-order kitchen a few barns away that closes after lunch. For dinner, there is Pimlico Chicken and the other takeout places outside the fence. But crime in the neighborhood keeps many workers inside the gates.

"I go shopping for some of the guys, get their beer and cigarettes," Scott said. "I've lived in Baltimore all my life. I'm not scared out there. They just sit in here and drink."

Pimlico's backstretch, like other tracks', is known for hard drinking, and worse. One of Scott's fellow grooms, Danny Marchant, was critically injured when he was stabbed by two assailants who jumped the fence before dawn one morning in 2006. There's pettier crime, too, including the odd fistfight between grooms who work for competing stables in the same barn.

"Mostly we get along great, but it's like we're playing football and all sharing the same locker room," said trainer Lori Testerman, Scott's boss, who keeps a dozen horses at Pimlico. "The guys can get intense."

Overall, the hard-knock life of the barns has given the backstretch a reputation as the permanent underclass of the racing hierarchy. In response, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, a group representing owners and trainers, offers a collection of benefits to the backstretch employees at three tracks in the state, including health centers staffed by a rotating physician, drug and alcohol counseling, language classes and pension programs.

"It's like its own world back here," said Testerman, who is co-chairman of the group's Pimlico Backstretch Committee. "We have our problems and it drives you crazy sometimes, but ultimately the racetrack takes care of a lot of people."

Offering programs is one thing. Getting workers to participate is another. Scott, for example, said he hasn't bothered to register each year for the pension ever since he interrupted his Pimlico tenure with a stint in Florida several years ago.

"We put up posters, we go barn to barn, we do everything we can to get people to sign up" for the pension, said Wayne Wright, MTHA executive secretary. "It's free money! I tell you, some of them take better care of the horses than they do themselves."