HE IS NO SECRET AGENT MAN
By Nick Costa
Unlike his counterparts in baseball and football, Rocco LaTorre's job has nothing to do with negotiating top level salaries. For him, it is literally all about seeing a man, and sometimes a woman, about a horse. He is a jockey agent and every morning before six a.m. LaTorre begins his tour of duty on the Fort Erie backstretch going barn to barn talking to various trainers as he attempts to secure mounts for his rider.
"You have to work in the morning in order to get your mounts" says LaTorre. "I'll approach a trainer and ask if I can do anything, or if my rider can do anything for them, today or in the future. Basically, we (agents) sell a product and to sell it, your selling your jockey."
LaTorre has three jockeys to sell, Real Simard, Cory Spataro and Terry Husbands. The job demands a diverse set of skills, in addition to being a salesman, LaTorre has to be a methodical thinker, sharp handicapper, travel agent, part-time psychiatrist and big-time negotiator. He is familiar with all the trainers on the grounds and possesses an incredible knowledge of all the horses on the backstretch in regards to where each horse fits in relation to its best chances of winning. A monumental task that involves research and analysis.
"I research alot of it right here on the backstretch." He also adds, "Both horses and trainers go through their stages. It works in a cycle with horses. Horses have conditions (non-winners of 2 races lifetime, non-winners of 3 races lifetime) and they start going through their conditions, and now you kind of have to move on, because once a horse finishes its conditions, they may not be able to make it in open company. Sometimes a horse gets hurt or they become tired horses. Trainers at times become stagnant, so I'm always looking for new stock to ride."
To meet the needs of the riders he represents, an agent has to be in constant motion. In other words, before he even approaches a trainer, LaTorre knows what horses fit a race that may not even be drawn for days.
"I always try to get the best horses, try to get horses that fit my riders and their styles as well." LaTorre's morning concludes by attending the post positon draw in which race entries are taken. He is present to make sure his riders get the correct mounts. He then spends his afternoon watching races, looking for a horse that stands a good chance to win its next start. When he spots such an opportunity,
LaTorre says,"if I feel I can get my rider on that horse, I'll approach the trainer." As he trys to get the mount, LaTorre wants to keep in the good graces of the connections of the current rider, as well as other trainers who want his jockey for their horse. "I'm not trying to stab anybody in the back, It's not my style of doing things. Some agents may do things differently than I do, but I don't like to spin people, I don't like to go behind their back and I won't talk down another rider at anytime."
In effect, LaTorre is trying to avoid burning bridges that have taken years to build. Agents need to establish trust with trainers, as that creates their base of business. As LaTorre attempts to supply his rider with a steady diet of live horses (those with a chance to win), the trainer he is soliciting wants a dependable jockey with a measure of loyalty--often it's an uneasy tightrope.
"Trainers have to trust me also, they have to go by my word as far as loyalty goes and my rider. I always trust myself in what I say to the trainers when I'm securing mounts for my rider. If they trust me, then they trust my rider."
For an agent, it's all about seeking out long term stability while negotiating the bumps along the way. LaTorre, 64, is well aware that you can't always oblige trainers, but want to minimize conflict. When asked about trainers resenting jockeys reneging on a commitment to ride, even when a better horse becomes available, LaTorre states, "that's true and it's a difficult situation to be in. A lot of times, agents will do that right at the post position draw. That's another thing I don't do. I've had to do it a couple of times due to circumstances that arose, but it is not a policy of mine. If I have time to do something with it, I'll approach the trainer and ask them if they will let me off the call, and a lot of them do oblige and others do not. You have to know the trainers your dealing with. A trainer may feel that if a rider doesn't want to ride his/her horse, that particular trainer won't hold it against the rider, if they feel the jockey got a better mount. Alot of my clients have been that way with me as far as letting me out of the call. There are very few that don't. Others hold you to it, and I'm stuck, but that's the way it goes." You get more respect from the trainers by doing things that way, instead of doing it and not notifying them.
Over the years, a lot of agents have done it on the sneak, and it's up to the trainers to handle the situation the way they want as far as taking it before the stewards. It's not in me to do that, I'd rather let the trainer know ahead of time." LaTorre's salary is dependant on how well his jockeys perform. Jockeys typically get 10% winners share and fees fluctuate from track to track when they don't win. For obtaining riding commitments, agents typically receive a percentage of 25%. Making sure his riders get the right mounts and are in the right races is extremely important to his livelihood. "I need to ride winners to make money." A jockey agent for the last twenty years, LaTorre is fully aware that his job has no guarantees.
Riders get hurt--"Oh absolutely, and when my rider walks back to the jocks room, I call that winning. If we don't have a winner that day and he walks back to the room, he can ride tomorrow. It's not only riding winners, it's coming back healthy. Your not carried off the track." Agents get fired--"It happens a lot and it can happen quickly" explains LaTorre. "You have to keep moving, you've got to sell your rider and hopefully you get him on the good horses. He agrees that when you have a good rider to sell, it's a great job. When you don't, the job is tougher with a lot more ups and downs. LaTorre adds, "even though I'm going barn to barn talking to trainers, if I have a good rider, trainers will call me, and it makes my job easier when they are calling me."
One of his riders that agents are calling LaTorre about is Real Simard, currently the second leading rider at Fort Erie. Simard has been a revelation this season, and LaTorre shares a smile and enthusiastically begins to tell me how he was united with the rider. "I was driving up from New Orleans and I received a phone call from Robert King (former Fort Erie rider), who is now head of the jockeys guild. He told me this western rider (Simard) was coming to Fort Erie and needed an agent. King suggested me and suggested that I call Simard. So, in the mist of my travels coming back up here, I called Real and after speaking to him on the phone, I told him I would work for him. He was a gentleman, very professional, I liked what I heard. I didn't even have to meet him. Just talking and having conversation on the phone with him was good enough for me. I didn't know a lot of his background or what he had done, but King assured me he was a good rider." King's statement was accurate as LaTorre later found out.
"He has won three Grade 1's, he has won over two thousand races, over one-hundred and thirty stakes winners, so he was already well established. Racing was kind of diminishing out west and he wanted to break ground here. So far, things have been successful for him and for myself and as far as I'm aware, Real wants to be back next year." LaTorre takes pride in the fact that many of the riders he has represented in the past have done well and usually made it into the top ten in the standings. An agent that has an average or un-heralded rider faces his own challenges, for that agent has little chance of securing winning mounts, but must keep on top of things so that he can make use of any opportunities that come along. "Exactly right, and that's what you work for in the morning. If you have a rider that is working hard, trying to get better, it's very important for his agent to be here. It's always working on both ends for an agent and a jockey. Not only do I go around, but it's good for that particular rider to sell him or herself. It's important for a rider to go see a trainer" says LaTorre. He also adds, "I feel if a rider comes out here and works hard and possesses any kind of talent, that rider will do well." LaTorre knows every little nuance about being a jockey. He was a rider for fifteen years and was quite successful. He talks to his riders everyday and his extensive knowledge of race riding helps him when he feeds back answers to their questions regarding riding horses.
The jockey agent job is not an easy one. It's not a job one can walk in off the streets and perform, however, one doesn't have to be a former jockey to become an agent, but for Rocco LaTorre, it certainly has helped.
