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Family ties Chavez to ride Hugh Hefner in Belmont
Posted: Wednesday June 07, 2000 10:39 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Jorge Chavez smiles a lot these days, when he walks into the jockey's room at Belmont Park, or when he hugs his wife, Margarita, at the end of another day at the races. At 38, Chavez is on top of his game and loving every minute of it. For the past six years, he has been New York's leading rider. In 1999, he won the Eclipse Award as the nation's top jockey and on Memorial Day was presented with the Mike Venezia Award for sportsmanship and citizenship. On Saturday, the rider known as "Chop Chop" for his seemingly fierce use of the whip, will be aboard long-shot Hugh Hefner in the $1 million Belmont Stakes. Chavez is one big long shot himself. Rejected from his family when he was a boy, he roamed the streets of Lima, Peru, sleeping in cars and scrounging for food, eventually finding refuge at the race track. "Always when I ride, I remember how it was," Chavez said last week, sitting at a table in the jockey's room at Belmont. "Where I came from. I will never forget that." When he was 8 years old, Chavez left home, or what was supposed to be home. He was the youngest and smallest child, living with his father and a woman who was not his mother in cramped quarters. Too often, he said, he was taunted and physically abused by the other boys and girls. "I was the black sheep, not part of anything," Chavez said. "Finally, I left." Chavez worked odd jobs, washing cars one day, working at a bakery another. He worked for money or food and somehow made it through each day. At night, he'd find a car he had washed and crawl into the back seat to sleep. Or, if he was lucky, he'd get to sleep at a friend's house. This went on for years, he said, before he decided to find the natural mother he never knew. When he did, she had a new husband and new family in another part of Lima. "Same thing all over again," Chavez said. But this time, even with as many as 20 people under the same roof, he was willing to give it a chance. However, one of his sisters took her own life, and when the "family" came together to grieve, Chavez wasn't included. "I was made to feel like the outsider," he said. "They said, `What are you doing here?'" So it was back to the streets. But in 1981, when he was 20, racing entered his life. A friend suggested that based on his size -- 4-foot-10 -- perhaps he could find work as a jockey. Chavez went to the track in Lima and applied for a job. First he cleaned stalls, then exercised horses, and two years later earned his riding license. Juan Suarez, one of Peru's top trainers, gave him a chance to ride. "July 15, 1982," Chavez answered immediately when asked to recall his first race. "The horse's name was Marta. I won." Over the next six years, he won 645 races, and more important, met Margarita Chavez, a journalist who would become his friend and later his wife. "I liked him the first time I saw him," she said. "We had the same last name, although when I told him he asked if we were related. I told him we weren't." By 1988, Chavez was looking to leave Lima. He wound up in Miami, a city with a strong Hispanic and international mix that made him feel comfortable. He moved gear to Calder Race Course, and talked his way into a chance to ride. His first two days produced two winners and $5,000. "A lot of money," Chavez said, smiling. "And I never went back. I wanted a chance to prove myself again." It took time. Because of his inexperience and aggressive style, his first year racing in Florida saw him serve 85 days worth of suspensions. "He's called `Chop Chop' for the way he hits, but because of his size, he has to reach back to whip the horse," his agent, Richard DePass, said. "The way he whips a horse looks different because he is so short." Chavez's work ethic won over trainers. James Bond, who put Chavez aboard such top horses as Behrens and Will's Way, was among the first to give Chavez a shot at the big time. "He has a strong will to win," Bond said. Adds DePass: "I think he is aggressive and tenacious because his background instills this in him. He knows what it is not to have, and I don't think he's ever forgotten." Jorge Chavez never forgot about Margarita Chavez, either. One winter, when Chavez was riding in New York, he invited her to visit and promised to pick her up at the airport. "It was the winter and I didn't have warm clothes," she said. "I didn't speak any English, and when my plane was late, Jorge couldn't come and get me because he was riding. He sent someone to pick me up. I was crying because I wanted to see Jorge." When she arrived at the track, Chavez told her: "You will stay at my house." The relationship blossomed. Each had children from previous marriages, and now they are a family of seven -- two from Margarita's first marriage, one from Jorge's first, and 22-month old twins from their marriage. Last year was the best of Chavez's career. At the Breeders' Cup at Gulfstream Park, he won the Distaff aboard Beautiful Pleasure and the Sprint with Artax. "I've never seen him happier after that," Margarita Chavez said. "He was jumping up and down like a little boy. I was so proud of him." Last week, the family was together on the day he received the Venezia award. "I never knew this," he said, pointing to his clan. "I never knew what it was like to have a home. To have the love and warmth of a family." He does now.
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