Catherine Rusoff
Seventeen years ago, Odilia Castillo, now 37, traveled north from her home in Chiapas, Mexico, to work as a “hot walker” at Kentucky racetracks. Every morning she wakes up at 3am and goes to the track at 4am to walk the horses, who need at least 30 to 45 minutes to calm down after training.
Castillo said she has a “connection with horses” and that is what kept her caring for the animals – until, in 2021, she was unable to work because of a stomach ache. She said she didn’t know what the pain was, so she went to the Kentucky Racing Health Services Center. The Louisville clinic was founded in 2005 to serve the needs of those known in the racing world as the “back end,” mostly migrant workers who care for the horses that race at tracks like Churchill Downs.
The mother of two, who is married to another racetrack worker, had to take days off from work – a terrible challenge for these workers – many of them migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela or other Latin American countries – who go to the tracks six days a week to help keep Kentucky guessing US$2.7 billion the annual racing economy was galloping. They are the walkers, riders, grooms and farriers needed to maintain racing shape for the 238,027 horsepower in the State.
Many rear workers are undocumented — and have no job protections — but are essential to caring for the million-dollar horses racing on Saturday in 2024 Kentucky Derbyknown for its fashionable hats, mint juleps and billionaire owners.
That’s where the clinic comes in.
“A transient workforce that needs to stay healthy”
Some rear workers are hired by trainers through the H-2B temporary worker visa program, but many are undocumented because the demand for people to care for and feed the horses far exceeds the visas issued.
An average stable hires one person for every two horses, trainer William Jordan Blair told CBS News, and rear workers are “an integral part of every operation.” Rear workers care for about five to six horses during the day. He said it was a challenge to find regular workers for his stable of 30 horses, Jordan Blair Racingand for many others on the racing circuit, in part due to the transient nature of the business.
“It’s a temporary job, not by choice, but that’s the way it is: it’s not easy to find workers,” Jordan said.
The workers, who are usually hired by the trainers and stables, typically travel with the horses three to four times a year to different racetracks in Florida, Kentucky, New York and other states, and each track is different. Many offer dormitory housing — on a variety of terms, Jordan said — and some of the larger ones offer child care and sometimes health care.
“It’s easier to maintain aid when workers are younger,” said Jordan, who said when workers are younger they don’t mind moving around as much. “But when they have a family, it’s hard to uproot them.” He said the loss of experienced workers has made it challenging for the horses and stables. Workers earn an average of $13 an hour in Kentucky, he said, but can earn more — or sometimes less — in other states.
courtesy Krista Roach
But for many workers it’s a crapshoot, said nurse Krista Roach, who started working at the clinic in 2019.
“It’s hard when they leave for a few months,” Roach said. “It’s like starting from scratch when they come back.”
She said she saw workers not receive medication or help for a variety of illnesses, including conditions like diabetes and, occasionally, STDs.
A common refrain from workers is the fear of missing work, even for a day. The worry permeates the back that if they miss work, other migrants will come to replace them – or they will be fired.
“If you want a job the next day, you won’t take a day off. Unless you have an understanding boss, you will be here every day,” said one worker. a researcher in a study on how these workers treat their health.
Unclaimed race tickets fund a clinic
These are the challenges the clinic tries to address for secondary workers seeking help. Most workers arrive through word of mouth, as “word travels quickly through the back of an often tight-knit community, Roach said.
Unclaimed race tickets collected by the state of Kentucky support the $700,000-a-year clinic – and dedicated nurses, bilingual doctors, physician assistants and administrators ensure workers get the services they need.
Nurse Dedra Hayden, director of the center and associate professor at University of Louisville School of Nursingwhich houses the clinic, has a policy when it comes to caring for the mostly Latino workers on the state’s racing circuit.
“I just don’t ask,” Hayden said, referring to patients’ immigration status.
Kentucky Racing Health Services Center
“We try to provide them with a safe environment,” Roach said. She remembers seeing a worker who asked nurses to cut his toenails. He didn’t wear shoes on the tracks and his feet were in such bad shape that he was afraid to touch them. The nurses cut his toenails and bandaged his feet so he could return to work. “He was very grateful,” Roach said. Since Roach joined the clinic in 2019, she has worked to expand health care for working women who tend to use the clinic for services.
They served 1,010 female patients and expanded their services to include obstetrics and gynecology exams for women, cancer screenings, and help for families and children. Castillo said he went to many doctors to find out what was wrong.
“During those years I was afraid because I didn’t know what was wrong with me,” Castillo said – until I arrived at the clinic.
She had surgery and, after a month and a half, she was able to return to work to take care of the horses that she “feels in her soul”.
