By Katie Merritt
Chad Lindsay, a new addition to the Canterbury Park riding colony, is a 24-year-old native of Fort Worth, Texas. He began his riding career at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida before riding the prestigious southern California circuit for the last year.
Lindsay stumbled on to horse racing, almost by accident, when he saw a random horse race on television. “I was riding bulls, then. You gotta have a certain body build and a certain leg length to wrap around those bulls and I just wasn’t made for it,” Lindsay said. “But I saw horse racing on TV and I was like, ‘Hey! That looks easy! They’re making a lot of money! I’m the perfect size!’ and I liked horses. So I moved to Kentucky when I was 19.”
When Lindsay got to Kentucky, he quickly discovered that riding racehorses, something he had never done before in his life, was not quite as easy as it looked. “I fell off a lot! But I learned. And I loved it!” Lindsay said with a smile. He eventually landed a job galloping for Ian Wilkes, who gave him a great deal of support and helped him get started as a jockey.
“Ian put a lot of time into me and helped me a lot,” said Lindsay. “He taught me to have a good clock in my head, and he taught me that you have to play your hand when the gates open. You can have a plan before the race, but once those gates open it’s a whole different story, you have to read the race as it unfolds.”
The horses, of course, have also taught Lindsay a lot. “They’ve taught me to be humble. Very much so. That’s the greatest lesson they probably teach you.”
Chad has enjoyed success everywhere he has ridden, and hopes to continue that success at Canterbury Park this summer.
