Owner Dennis Amaty and trainer Jose A. Gallegos had horses in the same barn at Gulfstream Park five years ago when they first met. A couple of years later, Amaty asked Gallegos to join his Amaty Racing Stables operation as an assistant to Sandino Hernandez, Jr., at Del Mar in southern California.
As tempting as the offer may have sounded, Gallegos wasn’t ready to take the plunge.
“I had six or seven horses with (owner Frank DeLuca) and four of my own, and I wanted to keep things fairly simple,” Gallegos said.
But Amaty, who had shared the Oldsmar Owners title with Midwest Thoroughbreds in 2014-2015, believed Gallegos would be a strong addition to his operation. Gallegos had been a consistent winner at Parx Racing and throughout the mid-Atlantic from the late 1990s until he got out of the business in 2014 for personal reasons, and he’d spent enough time with Amaty to know their philosophies on preparing horses closely aligned.
“We’re both easy-going and we both love the horses,” said the 56-year-old Gallegos, who has climbed to sixth in the Tampa Bay Downs trainer standings with 12 winners while helping Amaty – who owns Broward Aviation Services – reach second in the owner standings with 12, two behind three-time reigning champion Juan Arriagada.
Gallegos saddled six Oldsmar winners from 11 starters (plus a winner at Gulfstream Park) from Feb. 8-21, earning the Martin’s Italian Trainer of the Month Award.
Of course, stable areas across the Thoroughbred racing landscape are filled with horsemen who are easy-going and love the horses. But the values shared by Gallegos and Amaty go a little deeper. Communication is a key, with both men striving to agree – or, at worst, find a common middle ground – about each horse’s potential.
“Dennis has a lot of patience, and he tells me to enter the horses when they are ready. Don’t rush anything,” Gallegos said. “He’s been in the game for a long time, and he knows what it takes to win races. We’ll discuss where to enter a horse and aim for that race. One thing he enjoys a lot is claiming horses. He’ll ask me to look at video and tell him what I think, but he makes the final decision.
“He has given me the right horses and the tools to be successful, and he lets me train them.”
“Way back when,” as the saying goes, Gallegos trained such nice horses as multiple-stakes winner Holiday Music, an outstanding sprinter, as well as Presque Isle Downs standout Night Stand and Hostility, a multiple stakes-winning mare. All set track records while in his barn. Those accomplishments are fun to recall, but Gallegos is happy to live in the present as he and Amaty make an impact in Oldsmar.
“I’m the kind of guy who tries to learn something new about my craft every day. I didn’t have this kind of mentality in my 30s,” Gallegos said. “I’m older and wiser, and I feel rejuvenated.”
Gallegos and Amaty – who is tied for second in the owner standings at Gulfstream Park, where Nick Tomlinson trains his horses – basically sealed their joint path forward on the track last year, shortly after Amaty sent Gallegos a couple of horses. Gallegos saddled then-7-year-old gelding Santos to Wilson and 4-year-old gelding Foxtrot Harry for victories at Gulfstream, and soon after Gallegos went to Colonial Downs in Virginia with a string of Amaty Racing Stables runners.
“We didn’t really have the right horses, but we made it work,” Gallegos said of their 5-for-25 meet, with six seconds.
They are making it work quite well in Oldsmar. Most of their 25 horses here are blue-collar types who are showing a keen interest in competing. Last week, a 6-year-old gelding named Swaggish was impressive in capturing a mile-and-40-yard allowance/optional claiming race, and the previous week 5-year-old mare Tennesseehoneybee won a 6-furlong allowance/optional claimer in 1:09.93.
Gallegos, whose late father Gerardo Gallegos was a jockey and exercise rider who worked for Hall of Fame trainer Laz Barrera and galloped such superstars as 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed and multiple-Grade I winner J. O. Tobin, knows success is much more than a one or two-person show.
“Our crew (consisting of 15 employees) is like a family. Those guys get here at 4 in the morning, and every night they’re cooking together and eating together. Dennis sees the work we do and the hours we put in, and he appreciates what it takes because he loves the game and the animals,” Gallegos said.
“It’s definitely about the horses – if they’re happy, I’m happy. They all have different personalities, and I love looking down the shedrow and seeing all the happy horses (requesting) ‘Come and pet me, come feed me.’ ”
“Hearts Reaching Out” Golf Tournament upcoming. The 34th annual “Hearts Reaching Out” Golf Tournament to benefit the Tampa Bay Downs Division of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America is scheduled for Monday, March 23 at Lansbrook Golf Club in Palm Harbor with a 1 p.m. shotgun start. The cost is $125, which includes golf, range balls, contests, a boxed lunch, beverages on course and a goody bag.
The format is a four-person scramble.
Various sponsorships are available to further aid the Chaplaincy, which provides for the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of Tampa Bay Downs’s backside workers. For a $2,500 donation, a Triple Crown Golf Sponsorship includes a foursome, a sign of recognition at the tournament and the donor’s name (or company name) on every hole sign.
A $500 donation covers the donor’s name or company name on the roving beverage cart. Individual hole sponsorships feature a name or company name or logo on hole signs and are $150 each, four for $500.
The chaplaincy gladly accepts monetary donations and gift certificates and other items that can be used as prizes.
Backstretch workers are the beating heart of most racetracks – unseen, but vital to the continued operation. For details and to enter the event, contact Leslie Devitz at (727) 421-6069 or lesliedevitz@gmail.com or Chaplain Alex DeLima at (727) 473-6153.
