Posts Tagged ‘j.j. graci’

Everyone should have a mother like Jeremy Rose’s mom.

Cynthia Robinson is the sometimes meddling mother of the 29-year-old rider who has been in the news for whipping a horse in the face at Delaware Park and receiving a six-month suspension that was reduced this week by the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission to three months.

Robinson apparently sought out reporters to give "her" version of the events that transpired when Rose whipped Appeal to the City in the left eye near the finish of the third race June 23 at Delaware Park. The 5-year-old mare was sent to the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania for treatment following the injury. She spent a week at the equine hospital, though according to published reports, her trainer, Howard Wolfendale, said she now is in good condition.

Jack Ireland, writing in the News Journal of Delaware, said Robinson suspects someone at the racetrack leaked news of the whipping incident to the media intentionally. "He ends up getting turned in by the SPCA, and I feel abused at times by the media over this," Robinson said. "He has lost $70,000 in earnings the past month and is being portrayed as an animal abuser. This is something now my son will have to live with for the rest of his life." 

Excuse me…you feel abused? 

To quote Benjamin Braddock from The Graduate: "Mrs. Robinson, if you don’t mind my saying so, this conversation is getting a little strange."

She wasn’t done. She also got the ear of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Craig Donnelly, telling him: "We watched a son we are proud of [condemned] through the media and muddied and turned into the SPCA. The price he has paid is greater than the six months’ suspension. He has been portrayed as an animal abuser."

Robinson then told Donnelly a story of how Rose helped bring a retired gelding to the family farm and that he refused to have the horse euthanized even though he was blind.

Again, quoting Benjamin from The Graduate: "For god’s sake, Mrs. Robinson. Here we are. You got me into your house. You give me a drink. You… put on music. Now you start opening up your personal life to me…"

Aside from this unfortunate whipping incident (which Rose claims was an accident, but for which he will attend anger management classes), the jockey is best known as the rider of 2005 Preakness and Belmont winner Afleet Alex. Maybe it’s only right that Cynthia Robinson was given so much credit for her son’s achievements that year in an article that appeared on ESPN.com under the headline: "Preakness Winner Rose Has Mom to Thank." The story detailed her pushing him along on his career path as a jockey.

She also served as Jeremy’s unofficial publicist during his Triple Crown whirl. When I was editor of Bloodhorse magazine in 2005, I received a telephone call from a woman following the Belmont Stakes. The caller didn’t want to give me her name, but said she was a subscriber who was upset the magazine hadn’t profiled Afleet Alex’s winning jockey as it had done three weeks earlier after Afleet Alex won the Preakness.

I explained that when the same horse wins back-to-back Triple Crown races, the Bloodhorse mixed up the editorial package and tried to avoid repeating the same stories from the previous race. That didn’t slow the woman down. She then complained that the magazine had a profile on J.J. Graci, a former trainer and then radio host who was acting as a spokesman and publicist for the Afleet Alex team. Finally, the caller went on to tell me wonderful things about Jeremy Rose and that the magazine’s readers deserved to know them.

"Wow," I recall saying to her. "How do you know so much about Jeremy? You sound like his mother or something."

There was a long pause, followed by, "Well…I am his mother." 

It’s good to see Jeremy’s mom hasn’t changed much these last few years. Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson!

By Ray Paulick

Copyright ©2008, The Paulick Report

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