Leslie McCall was honored last weekend with a Godolphin Thoroughbred Industry Employee Award in the category “Dedication to Racing,” and trainer Ron Moquett believes there couldn’t be a more accurate description of his eight-year employee.
“I have to have people to depend on who will do the right thing by the horse,” Moquett said. “Leslie doesn’t believe in cell phones or computers or any of that stuff. She’s old school racetracker, but not old! She is just 100 percent horses and animals first, which is something that you don’t find very often.”
A year and a half ago, Moquett had to lean on McCall and his entire stable crew when he was hospitalized for 45 days after several episodes of shortness of breath. Eventually he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease.
Even when he was released from the hospital, doctors recommended that Moquett stay away from the barn due to the risk of infection. His wife and top assistant, Laura, spent as much time as possible at his side, so it was comforting to know that McCall had things managed at the barn.
McCall is officially the stable pony rider and partners with Sherman, the stable pony, leading racehorses to and from the track and going alongside those who need it. Her job hardly stops there, however.
“I’ve known Leslie for probably 20 years,” said Laura Moquett. “She’s always the first one to the barn in the morning, the last one to leave. She’s always doing something, she’s never waiting for something to do. She always sees and then fills in the holes, wherever they happen to be, no matter if it’s her job or not.”
This year, Ron Moquett is back on his feet and in the barn, but he said he really relies on McCall’s 20-plus years of racing experience to help him keep an eye on the horses.
“Her job is to tell me things,” Moquett explained. “She likes to say she’s ‘making noise.’ She’ll come up to me and say, ‘I need to make a little noise for this one, he took a couple steps that weren’t quite right when he pulled up from his gallop,’ or, ‘he just didn’t jump into his feed tub right away.’ That kind of feedback is invaluable for a trainer.”
McCall is certainly close to the stable’s flag-bearer, Breeders’ Cup contender Whitmore; Moquett believes she has ponied the 6-year-old gelding for nearly every workout of his 29-race career.
She was a part of the decision to give Whitmore a break away from the races this summer, following a perplexing eighth-place finish in the G2 True North in June. After a four-month layoff, with the gelding acting more like his usual self, Whitmore returned to run a close second in Keeneland’s G2 Phoenix in his final prep for the Breeders’ Cup.
On Friday morning, McCall ponied Whitmore before he put in a half-mile breeze in 49 4/5 seconds at the stable’s Churchill Downs base. Moquett will use McCall’s feedback to help him make a final decision about whether to enter the $2.6 million-earner in the Sprint or the Dirt Mile.
McCall probably won’t make the trip out to Southern California; she’ll be busy keeping the rest of the stable on track at home in Louisville. She’ll have Whitmore’s stall ready and a few peppermints set aside for the chestnut when he gets back, of course.
“I’m very happy that Leslie is setting a precedent for the young people in the barn,” Moquett said. “Even if I’m not there, I don’t have to worry that somebody will short a horse or that the animals’ needs won’t get put first… I’d hate to see what she’d do if somebody messed with our barn cats!”
As for McCall, she was surprised and honored when she found out Laura Moquett had nominated her for the TIEA award. She said she got a little teary-eyed at the awards ceremony at Keeneland last weekend.
“I’m blessed,” McCall summarized. “My boss lady, she’s the one who nominated me, and it means a lot because you just go and you do… I didn’t know that I was even in the contest until she told me, and that’s appreciation… I looked around and I was like, ‘Wow, she must appreciate me or else she wouldn’t have nominated me.’ It feels good to be appreciated.”
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