Just over 10 years ago, Edmund Davis worked at Chipotle during his senior year at Saratoga Springs High School when his father – the well-known retired jockey, Robbie Davis, bought New York-bred Sandyinthesun for $700.
The emerging young adult, who preferred working as an assistant manager while finishing his last year as a high school wrestler, wasn’t that interested in the horse, even though his father encouraged him to come to the barn.
A couple of years later during a Christmas dinner, Edmund asked his father about how much that horse had made. With a chuckle from his sister Jacqueline, his father told him it was over $74,000 through two years of racing.
That’s when Edmund decided to leave the Chipotle kitchen for a career in the horse racing industry. Over the last eight years through the help of his father and others, Edmund has learned about riding horses and becoming a horseman.
Now, Edmund is in his second year of being a trainer with a small, but growing stable of 10 horses, which includes his first Saratoga winner Kinky Sox on July 24.
“It’s an all-around good feeling,” Edmund said. “I took control of the reigns more than last year. It’s all about being logical and how you are training them. It’s going well. I’m getting a little attention. I am really happy about that and the support that I have received.”
One of the things that Robbie has instilled in all six of his children, especially Dylan and Jacqueline who are jockeys at their respective Saratoga and Penn National tracks, as well as Edmund, is the three “Ds:” desire, dedication, and the discipline.
“None of them work without the other,” Robbie said. “If you don’t have the desire, you don’t have the dedication and discipline. I remind them to not get too complacent.”
At 60, Robbie is still resilient as a trainer and exercise rider for trainers that include former Eclipse Apprentice Jockey Champion Wesley Ward, who often got a car ride from Robbie because he was too young to drive when they were riding at Belmont, Aqueduct, and the Meadowlands in 1984.
Robbie believes those three Ds have been an attribute to his remarkable riding career of over 3,300 winners for earnings more than $115.7 million. He also led the jockey colony in stakes wins with six during the 1989 Del Mar meet for Hall of Fame trainers that included Charles Whittingham, Bobby Frankel and Richard Mandella.
At the same time, those three Ds have helped Robbie and his family through challenging moments at both the personal and professional level, even after his retirement and more recently when his wife Marguerite was kicked in the ribs by Dancers for Token, who got skittish from a loose horse on the pony track just before the start of the Belmont meet. A day after that incident, Dancers for Token won his first career race.
“When a horse gets spooked, anything can happen,” Robbie said. “He jumped sideways and caught her on the side and cracked a couple of ribs. She recovered well. She was out for about three weeks, then she came back. She’s still a little tender, but she’s tough. In this business, you have to be Teflon.”
One thing that is tough for Robbie, as well as many horsemen on the backstretch, is the quiet Saratoga Race Course scene in the morning and afternoon as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. For Robbie, this year’s meet feels like an episode from the “Twilight Zone.”
“I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone,” he said. “There is not much traffic. When I get on the track, there is no one around. I ask myself, ‘What’s going on? Can someone wake me up? I’m having a bad dream.’ It’s not Saratoga. It’s hard to get used to. Half of the fun was the crowd and the energy around them. That’s what moves the horses. That’s what moves the riders.”
While the track may not have that energetic atmosphere this season, that has not stopped Robbie and Edmund being motivated for their horses and the sport. The near 29-year-old Edmund has a pulse on all of his horses from riding them in the morning, saddling them in the afternoon, and checking on them in the evening.
“You really have to pay attention,” he said. “I gallop all of my horses. I have a training chart for all of them. I’ll write things down, but when I hit the track, I could change it based on how the horse is feeling that day. I think that is an advantage for me.”
Edmund admitted that he initially lacked confidence around horses and his riding ability until his father provided him knowledge on horses and riding them.
“My dad has taught me so much about horses from looking at the feet to riding them,” Edmund said. “When I started, I wasn’t that confident of an exercise rider. I didn’t feel that I was that good. After watching him ride, I would be in awe. The way he has taught me to ride a horse has been a help to my business.”
Robbie also convinced Edmund to start working with James Jerkens. Through a near three-year internship-like experience from Jerkens, Edmund got to work with stakes winners that included Preservationist, Shaman Ghost and Holy Helena.
“He is a true horseman,” Edmund said about Jerkens. “I wanted to learn and I wanted to be there in the shed row, the paddock, and on the track. It got to the point where I learned a lot and my confidence was up.”
Now that Edmund’s confidence is up, Robbie believes his son, who went from being a lightweight wrestler who competed well in the Section II tournament during his high school career, does have the potential of being a good horseman.
“He’s going to have a future. He’s going to be good,” Robbie said. “It’s fun to see him grow. I’m proud of him.”
