The kids are all right, sure. But there seems to be something in the water, or the air, during this professional sports year of 2021 that has inspired a host of outstanding senior athletes to glorious heights.
Last February, in Super Bowl LV, Tom Brady engineered a rout of the Kansas City Chiefs at the end of his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go along with the six titles he won with the New England Patriots. He turns 44 in August.
Last month, at the Kiawah Island Ocean Course in South Carolina, Phil Mickelson outplayed 155 of his fellow professionals to win the PGA Championship. At one month shy of his 51st birthday, he was the oldest player to win a major title in the 161 years since the first one was contested.
One week after Mickelson's dramatic final round, Helio Castroneves drove a Honda powered by a 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged, V-6 engine to a record-tying fourth victory in the Indianapolis 500. Castroneves, who had just turned 46, won his first Indy 500 in 2001.
Not to be outdone, Thoroughbred racing offered its own geriatric headliner on June 4 when Frankie Dettori, 50 years young, accompanied Deep Impact's daughter Snowfall to a 16-length tour de force in the Cazoo Oaks Stakes (G1) at Epsom, Europe's premier event for 3-year-old fillies. Dettori was 23 when he won the Oaks for the first time.
Which brings us to Jose Ferrer, who celebrated his 57th birthday last March 31 by riding three winners at Tampa Bay Downs and has entered the third weekend of the current Monmouth Park season on top of the standings, pursued by a crowd of hungry jockeys who were not even born when Ferrer won his first U.S. race on New Year's Day, 1983.
A total of 4,567 winners later, Ferrer is competing with an intensity that belies not only his age, but a miraculous recovery from injuries sustained in an accident at Delaware Park in September of 2017, when the native of Puerto Rico suffered eight cracked ribs, two fractured vertebrae, and a punctured lung that required surgery. He returned that December, then responded in 2018 with his best season in 20 years, raking up 166 winners and purse earnings by his mounts of $3.2 million.
Marquee riders like Ferrer are venturing deeper and deeper into their careers, sometimes with sparkling results. Earlier this year, Ferrer snagged the mount on Helium in a one-shot opportunity he made the most of to win the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G2) and the jockey's share of $210,000. However, the challenge of taking the title at a long haul meet like Monmouth Park, which runs through Sept. 26, is something different. Ferrer was asked if he could see himself being able to parlay his hot start into a summer crown.
"I don't see why not," Ferrer replied. "I always go out there and give my one hundred percent. I have my knowledge, my experience, and now with no whip I think that will help me out more than anything."
New Jersey is racing under a new commission rule this year that restricts the use of the whip—or crop, if you will—to be applied to the horse for safety measures only. The traditional application of the whip—or stick, as it is also called—to urge a horse forward is forbidden, on penalty of potential fine and suspension. Some riders have taken their Monmouth business elsewhere, while those who are competing at the meet (there were 41 individuals with mounts through the first seven racing days) are in the midst of making the transition.
"Back in the '80s, when the young kids were learning, there was not too much stick," Ferrer said. "We learned to hand ride. We watched guys like Pat Day hit them two or three times and that was it, then hand ride.
"It was a sign of a good rider," Ferrer said. "You look over in the lane and say, 'Oh, you think you're gonna beat me with the stick down? Here we go!' There was prestige to win with a hand ride. You need the stick, that's weak, man! But then into the '90s, we saw a next generation come along using more and more stick. Whip and whip and whip, when you know hitting the horse two or three times they either respond, or they don't."
As the third decade of the 21st century unfolds, and horse racing tries to retain its corner of the sports landscape, the game finds itself faced with a debate over the proper use of the crop, in all its permutations, from modest restrictions to the landmark New Jersey rules. Ferrer shakes his head in frustration that it did not have to be this way.
"Stewards let it go too far, over-hitting the horses," Ferrer said. "We should have never had this problem. Fifteen, twenty years ago they should have been saying, 'Hey you guys, calm down with the whip.' When I saw somebody hit a horse 20, 30 times, I'd call the stewards up and say, 'Come on, say something. This isn't right.'"
But nothing would happen, said Ferrer, or at least nothing in the way of penalties that made a difference, which has led to the wave of crop reform, an imposition of behaviors that should have been ingrained long ago.
"How I learned is that the stick is a good communication tool," Ferrer said. "It should be a signal. 'Time to go!' But how you really help the horse is with a hand ride. And now a lot of guys have to learn how."
The champion British jump jockey John Francome estimates that a rider expends some 20% more energy hand-riding a contending horse to the finish than they would simply laying on the whip. Ferrer is here to tell you the number might be low, but he presents himself as fit as any 20-something you want to throw his way. Like tough guy actor Jack Palance famously did in accepting his Academy Award, Ferrer is liable to drop and bang out a couple dozen pushups just to celebrate a winner.
"I get up at 5:30, work out, then go to the track for my horses every morning," Ferrer said. "After that I will go for a bike ride, then work out on the equipment in the jocks' room, or I will go to Monmouth University and use their gym in the athletic department. My father-in-law is the equipment manager there."
Nice to have friends in high places. Ferrer sees himself blessed with a family that dotes on dad and understands the sacrifices of his dangerous career. Steffi, his wife, is also a herbalist who helps nourish her athlete husband, while their sons, Derek, 7, and Joseph, 5, are the ultimate fanboys.
"They keep me going, those three," Ferrer said. "When the boys are at the races, they're always running up and down along the stretch, yelling for me. When the race starts in front of the stands and I'm in the gate, I'll hear them call, 'Daddy, are you ready to go?'"
And that's not just a little distracting?
"No, no," he said with a laugh. "They get me all fired up."
