Becoming a multiple race-winning jockey was the least likely of career paths Abigail Able envisioned for herself.
“Honestly, nursing was my first choice,” she admits, looking back at the medical profession she abandoned eight years ago after discovering an immediate connection with horses.
On one of her regular visits to her sister Kerry, who worked at the Caymanas Park pool where the horses swim, a then 19-year-old Able had a transformative moment when she asked horse trainer Rowan Mathie if she could ride one of his horses during a training exercise.
“He said yes, and I went on Polly B going back down on the track,” Able recalls. “Then, a tractor was coming onto the track and it spooked the horse and he broke off. I didn’t know what to do, and he was bolting, but, for some reason, everything felt amazing.”
Able’s reminiscence has her smiling ear-to-ear as the conversation of her jockey life unfolds in the stables of horse owner and trainer Jason DaCosta at Caymanas in Portmore, St Catherine.
“Eventually, Polly B stopped and everyone came to my rescue. I was not thrown off. It was amazing, and I was like ‘I love this!’” she shared.
After the adrenaline rush of her fortuitous episode, Able, a resident in the Park’s nearby Caymanas Gardens community, started visiting the track every morning.
She enrolled and graduated from the Jamaica Racing Commission racing school in 2018. Of the education received there, she disclosed: “I went for six months. They take you to the gym and to polo grounds and give you the basics, the dos and the don’ts of how to look after the horse, polo jumping, and what you need to know.” Upon graduation, she worked as an apprentice for three years before transitioning to being a full-time jockey.
“Rohan Mathie used to give me several horses to go on until I moved on from Rohan and Wayne DaCosta, and I was with Wayne until I turned over to Jason DaCosta. So I am still right here,” remarked the now-seasoned jockey, who has won more than 20 races, two of them last year, riding her beloved Equinox, now a five-year filly.
The diminutive jockey, as ardent a fan of tattoos as she is of horses, is gifted with an agreeable disposition.
Naturally, she is passionate about horses. “They are amazing,” Able piped up in-between feeding her beloved Equinox stalks of pasture grass. “I really love them and spending time with them. You will find me kissing them, and they actually love me also. They fascinate me.”
Walking us through what her average day as a jockey resembles, Able said she’s typically awake by 4:30 a.m.
“I get ready and come to the track. Then, the trainer arrives around 6:30 a.m. and will give riding instructions [as to which of the four-horse gaits] to the jockey. After this, I would give the trainer feedback on how the horses feel, and move on to the next horse, and go until we are through with the different horses.”
Able, like all other jockeys at Caymanas, in preparation for race days, takes the horses through four standard practice exercises daily: trotting, cantering, galloping, and walking.
The live-wire jockey, the seventh of 10 children for her call-centre janitor mother Nerissa Brown, reflected on how she has evolved since first mounting a horse.
“When I just started, I never knew anything,” Able, a graduate of Waterford High School, noted, adding, “I am not going to say I was brave at the time I started out, you just a learn something, you take your time, and make everything process. But, growing in the saddle, growing to get to know the horses, growing to know everything, it has changed rapidly. I have improved a lot whereby I am not afraid of the horses anymore. I can literally work any horse and tell what happen to any horse right now.”
Pleased at her growth, owner and trainer Jason DaCosta, who is Able’s boss, sang her praises.
“She has made a lot of improvements. Abi is very good in the mornings. I think that is where a lot of her skills come in. She gets along well with the horses and creates that bond with them, and that translates to the races.”
He also praised Able’s overall demeanour, noting it as a defining quality that sets her apart from her counterparts: “Her work ethic is what she has on the male jockeys, she is here every day. She is here when the track opens to almost when it closes.”
Able is sponsored by Bearings and Accessories Q8 Oils. “They signed me to be their brand ambassador from February last year,” she said. “They have been super supportive and I really do appreciate them and hope our relationship will last for a long time.”
GENDER DYNAMICS
As for the gender dynamics at play in the sport, Able counts herself among four other women currently in the saddle at Caymanas. With two female jockeys who recently graduated from racing school expected to join the Caymanas Park family any day now, she said: “It’s never going to be equal, because it’s a male sport, so you will find more males in the sport than females.”
Nonetheless, she remains confident in her abilities.
“You have to prove yourself. Most owners are going to look for a male jockey because they are going to say, ‘A male jockey is stronger’, but, once you prove yourself as a female jockey that you can do the same, then you will get the ride every now and then. I have beaten most male jockeys in races. What they can do, I can do also.”
Readily acknowledging that she feels respected among her peers, Able encourages female jockey aspirants to join her at the racetrack’s starting gate.
“The more [women] here, the more interesting it will get. It’s an enjoyable sport but not every female is going to look at it and say ‘Hey, me a come ride horse’ because it can be rough at times.”
Able is undaunted and rides on. There are, after all, more races she has her sights on winning.
