54-year-old rookie rider gives herself a birthday present

On Sunday night, Carolyn Mendes celebrated her 54th birthday by eating salmon rigatoni, lots of French bread (with butter!), and dessert.

Mendes earned her dinner: Earlier on Sunday, she had made her debut as a jockey, riding the 6-year-old Mount Zion in a $6,250 claiming race at Golden Gate Fields.

Bred by Mendes, Mount Zion finished last in the six-furlong race. Mendes had hoped to do better, but she felt a sense of satisfaction in accomplishing a goal she had set for herself last year.

Mendes is no racetrack rookie. She operates the Carolyn Mendes Training Center in the California Central Valley town of Lemoore. For about 20 years, she has helped foal and break horses at the training center as well as help her friend Rhoda March, the owner and trainer of Mount Zion, at her barn in Pleasanton.

Mendes said that last year she began to think about race-riding.

“They’re not going to let a 53-year-old woman do this,” was her first thought.

She worked horses out of the gate at last fall’s Big Fresno Fair. “The weight started melting away,” she said, making riding a real possibility.

Golden Gate Fields steward Darrel McHargue, an Eclipse Award-winning jockey, said Mendes had to go through the licensing process just like any rider.

Other jockeys had to vouch for her ability to ride safely by signing her license application.

“They’re the best barometer that someone’s qualified,” McHargue said. “This is a dangerous profession, this path they’re attempting to go down.”

March watched as Mendes went from jockey-wanna-be to a rider she felt comfortable putting up on her horse.

“She’s progressed tremendously,” March said after Sunday’s race. “The gate guys and [jockey] Abel Cedillo helped her working from the gate.”

Mendes and March had been seeking an appropriate spot for her first race. That it came on Mendes’s birthday was a bonus.

“The fact of riding on my birthday never entered my mind, but when we saw the condition book, this looked like the spot,” Mendes said. “What an amazing gift. It was such a blessing for me to have an opportunity to do it. I want to get better. I’ve got a lot to learn, but everyone’s been so helpful and encouraging me.”

Mendes said she was more excited than nervous on Sunday until she looked at the clock and realized it was time to go to the paddock. “Then I tried to stay calm, cool and collected,” she said.

Mendes broke Mount Zion well and they settled into a stalking position. Mount Zion, sent off at 10-1, was a bit wide, and he tired in the lane.

“I wanted to finish better,” Mendes said.

Said March: “She handled herself very well.”

Though she described riding in a race as the “ultimate high,” Mendes was not simply ticking something off her bucket list. It was neither a publicity stunt nor one-shot deal, she said, and she hopes to improve her riding skills with more experience.