About 20 feet from the podium was his good friend Art Sherman, California Chrome’s trainer. Sherman, as usual, was doing some interviews.
About 25 feet from the podium was his client Victor Espinoza, California Chrome’s jockey. Espinoza wasn’t doing interviews — he was busy talking to David Letterman’s people.
And about 200 feet from the podium was the man himself, jockey agent Brian Beach. Beach wasn’t anywhere near the media throng. He was at a table all by his lonesome. In fact, during Wednesday’s draw at Belmont Park, Beach was nothing more than a speck in the background.
You know, just the way he likes it.
In a pre-race essay from the Preakness last month, Bob Costas noted how horse racing has been replete with tales of unlikely glory in recent years. Embodying that theme in 2014 has been California Chrome — a colt bred for $10,000 and trained by a 77-year-old.
But in one of this story’s quieter crevices sits Beach, an agent who, for more than two decades, was tormented by Triple Crown races. Well, the universe just took notice — and it’s doing everything it can to make it up to him.
“This is the culmination of a lot of hard work, a lot of ups and downs,” said the 52-year-old Beach, a Spokane, Wash., native who’s been a jockey agent for 23 years. “This can be a depressing job sometimes.”
Let’s go over the basics first. A jockey agent’s primary responsibilities are booking mounts for the riders they represent and negotiating various fees and expenses. Typically, an agent gets 25 percent of what the jockey earns — which is usually 10 percent of the purse if he or she wins.
Beach’s problem was never working with winners. Four Hall of Famers — Julie Krone, Gary Stevens, Mike Smith and Kent Desormeaux — are all former clients of his, as is Alex Solis, who will be inducted into the Hall in August.
But when it has come to relishing a victory in any of the sports big 3 races, Beach’s resume was perpetually blank.
It’s not like he hasn’t been close, though. Desormeaux rode Free House to a second-place Preakness finish in 1997, but couldn’t edge out Silver Charm. Desormeaux would go on to win the Kentucky Derby in 1998 and 2000, but had split with Beach beforehand. Meanwhile, Krone, a former Belmont Stakes winning-jockey, fractured her ribs and tore various muscles shortly after hiring Beach.
Beach saw this as a sign.
Many signs would follow. Literally.
Upon moving to San Diego in the mid-2000s, Beach gave up his profession in the horse-racing world and started a business selling digital signs for bars. Unfortunately, the economy didn’t let this last for very long.
A dwindling source of income thrust him back into the business of equines, but not without reluctance. As he said of the prospect of trying to sell trainers on jockeys: “You deal with a lot of rejection all day long. It can be like asking every girl to the prom and having all of them say no.”
Unless, of course, Victor Espinoza is your wingman. Then you start looking for a tux and corsage.
Introduced through a mutual friend and jockey Vann Belvoir, Espinoza and Beach hooked up about a year and a half ago and have stayed together throughout. Espinoza, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness on War Emblem in 2002, first noticed California Chrome as a 2-year-old, and told Beach that he wanted to ride him in the future.
Beach passed this request onto Art Sherman. who stored it away despite already having a jockey. Problem was, that jockey wasn’t winning.
So in late December of last year, Sherman contacted Beach about putting Espinoza on Chrome. Beach had already been approached by other trainers for Espinoza’s, but in the accidental genius move of the year, did not commit.
So he said yes to Sherman, and six straight wins later, is on the verge of being part of a Triple Crown. Can you believe it? Because Beach can’t.
“This was the furthest thing from my mind,” he said.
Nowadays, Beach has what you call good problems. He has to figure out a way to make ESPN, or ABC, or NBC, or Letterman each get access to Espinoza — and admits he dreads checking his inbox when he lands after a long flight.
But ultimately, he’s happy. That happiness could Triple Saturday.
