Jody Petty never meant to be a jockey–he sort of fell into the job–no pun intended.

Becoming a jump jockey was the result of circumstance for the Maryland native, but 2005, his best year ever, proved it was a fortuitous circumstance.

After 13 years of riding over fences in National Steeplechase Association races, Petty earned his first leading jockey title and won two of the NSA’s most prestigious and lucrative races, the Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase (N.J.) and the Colonial Cup (S.C.).

Petty won both those races on Michael Moran’s McDynamo, the former champion who was stuck in a four-race losing streak before Petty took up the reins. By winning the two stakes races in back-to-back fashion, Petty gave McDynamo his second National Steeple-chase Association Horse of the Year title and his second Eclipse Award.

His own title was a long-time coming for Petty, a jockey who has seemed to be perpetually on the fringe of the NSA’s small world.

While he’s certainly ridden winners for years–in 1996 he rode Where’s Pepo to the Timber Horse of the Year title, and in 1998 he rode Clearance Code to win the inaugural Royal Chase (Ky.) Grade I stakes–Petty has never been the hot jockey on the scene.

“So much of a rider’s success [in the NSA] is tied to their fashionability, and Jody’s never been in fashion,” said Arch Kingsley, Petty’s friend who’s a former leading jockey and now a trainer. “Because he won the title this year, it’s like he’s just been ‘discovered,’ but in my opinion, Jody’s been the most overlooked and underrated rider on the circuit for a long time. He’s always ridden well.”

Mused Petty, “People do seem to love me or hate me as a jockey. They either have faith that I am a good jockey and will give their horse a good ride, or they have absolutely no faith in my ability at all.”

Kingsley thinks that the reason has much to do with Petty’s personality.

“The main reason Jody’s ‘success’ took this long to come around is his lack of assertiveness and aggressiveness in the hustling-rides department. He’s never been one to go out there and make rides happen for him,” he said.

And, Kingsley said, Petty’s self-confidence has waxed and waned over the years, which doesn’t translate well to trainers and owners.

“A rider’s confidence is very tied into the horses he’s sitting on. At times Jody’s lacked the horses to give him confidence. It’s a vicious cycle that can be hard to break,” he said.

Petty agreed. “My biggest downfall is that I’m not a salesman. I don’t have that person-ality or the ability to sell my talent to people. I can’t walk up to a trainer and say, ‘I’m the best man for the job; put me on your horse, and I can win.’ People take that as insecurity.

“The only time I feel I can do my job is when I’m out there on the horse. I’m just not cocky. I don’t have it in me to hustle rides; it’s just not me,” said Petty.

Even though he works for Sanna Hendriks, trainer of McDynamo, and he regularly gallops and schools McDynamo from Hendriks’ Pennsylvania training operation, Petty never hustled the ride on the “big horse.” And Hendriks didn’t offer it to him either. Hendriks admitted that last spring she had other jockeys ride McDynamo because she just wasn’t sure Petty could handle the pressure.

“To be honest, I gave Jody a shot on Praise The Prince [a former stakes horse] a couple years ago, and he didn’t step up to the plate for me then, so I wasn’t sure of him,” said Hendriks.

But things changed for her as the year progressed.

“Jody was on fire this fall. The biggest change I saw in him this year was that he had a new confidence in himself, a real determination, which I hadn’t seen before,” she said.

“When I took other jockeys off my horses and gave them to Jody to ride, he rode the hair off of them. He rode like he had something to prove–whether it was to himself or to someone else I don’t know, but the determination is the biggest change I saw in him. He rode to win!

“When I put him up on McDynamo, it was a huge pressure situation, and he was honestly really excited to ride the horse, not nervous. He had confidence he could get the job done,” she said.

Seriously, He’s Serious
Petty’s cheerful and zany character may be a small obstacle too.

He breezes through life under a cover of fast-coming wisecracks, an irrepressible cheerfulness, and a constant smile that causes many to mistake him as purely a jokester.

“I’m not really a serious person. I joke around a lot, and I think that some owners and trainers have a hard time taking me seriously. What they don’t know is that as soon as my butt hits the saddle, I’m dead serious,” said Petty.

Hendriks laughed, “Yes, he’s different than all the other jockeys, but for me it’s all part of his charm. He makes racing a little more fun for all of us.”

Petty, 34, rode ponies with his seven sisters and two brothers as a youth, but never sat in a saddle until he was 15.

“We used to hop up on the backs of these ponies that lived down the road from us with nothing but halters and baling twine for reins,” he said. “If I rode a horse three times a year, it was a lot.”

But growing up in Elkton, Md., put Petty right in the midst of steeplechase country. It’s near the NSA office, the Fair Hill Training Center, smack in the middle of Maryland and Pennsylvania foxhunting country, and just down the road from the Delaware Park racecourse.

So as a teenager looking for a job, it wasn’t surprising Petty went to work for trainer Taylor Jackson at the Fair Hill Training Center as a hot walker. He worked his way up to riding exercise for Jackson, but he never considered what he was doing to be anything more than just a job.

Soon, though, he developed a fondness for a horse named Holy Matrimony, and when Jackson deemed him an off-the-track giveaway, Petty jumped at the chance to take the horse home.

With no formal training and just two dressage lessons under his saddle, Petty and Holy Matrimony learned to event together and made it all the way up to the intermediate level.

“To this day I have never had a jump lesson,” he said, with a grin. “But I’m sure there are people out there who think I should probably get a couple!”

Actually, putting his horses right to a fence is the most often repeated praise of Petty’s riding ability. “Jody’s strength is getting horses to jump well for him,” said Hendriks. “He has great timing and a great eye.”

Jockey Matt McCarron, twice-leading NSA jockey, agreed. “I think what he’s really good at is that he stays out of his horses’ way,” said McCarron. “He allows horses to be comfortable, happy and to find their own rhythm in a race. Too often you see jockeys wanting too much control, and Jody’s strength is that he’s relaxed enough to step back.”

Fancied Foxhunting
With no plans to go to college, Petty kept riding and moved on to work for steeplechase trainer Bruce Miller. He said he had no desire to ride races at all, that working for Miller, like Jackson, was a job, not a career move.

But working for Miller introduced him to foxhunting, which Petty grew to love with a passion. He hunted with Mr. Stewart’s Cheshire Hounds (Pa.), and jumping the stout timber fences in Cheshire country stirred up an interest in steeplechasing.

“Basically I got talked into becoming a jump jockey,” said Petty. “People kept telling me I should because of my weight being easy to keep down,” he said.
Petty is 5’5″ and at his “fattest” weighs 140 pounds, so he easily can make weight.

“It’s funny to me when I tell people I’ve been riding for 13 years,” said Petty with a laugh, “because that first year I rode two races, and then the second year it was three, and then maybe nine or 10 the next year.

So you can see I didn’t really take it very seriously.”

It wasn’t until 1995 when Petty went to work for trainer Ricky Hendriks, now Sanna’s husband and himself an ex-top NSA jockey, that he “got serious” about being a jockey. Ricky had a large barn full of prospects that gave Petty much needed time on the race course and pushed him to make jump racing a career.

“This year, winning the leading jockey title was something I relished and was extremely proud to have accomplished. But even though it didn’t receive near the attention that leading jockey did, I was also the leading timber rider [for the NSA], and I’m really proud of that title too. I just want people to know I can do both, that’s all,” he said.

Eventing Too
Petty doesn’t restrict his riding to chasers and foxhunters either. For the last two years, while riding on the NSA circuit, Petty was a frequent competitor on the U.S. Eventing Association’s circuit too.

His friend, amateur event rider Julia Steinberg, had a horse in her barn that needed riding. “This horse [New York, New York] is a sentimental favorite of Julia’s, but she and he didn’t really get along, so she asked me to ride him. We had a great time this year competing,” he said.

Petty completed Morven Park CCI* (Va.) on New York, New York in October 2004 and moved up to intermediate in the spring of 2005. They completed three intermediate horse trials, finishing third at Millbrook (N.Y.) in August.

The double schedule made some weekends a bit hectic, forcing Petty to ride dressage and show jumping at an event the morning before a race meet’s mid-day start, scramble to get to the meet, and then turn right around to drive back to the event to ride cross-country the next day.

Eventing is not likely to become Petty’s No. 1 ambition on horseback, but he said he enjoys it. And New York, New York’s personality–quirky and a little difficult for most to handle–is right up Petty’s alley.

In Sanna’s barn, McDynamo is an obvious choice for best horse to ride, but Petty’s favorite personality in the barn right now is Albert’s Crossing. A leggy, dark-bay gelding, “Albert” runs over timber, and he’s a horse “who’s just a little bit of a freak,” said Petty, with a grin.

“At the start of a race, he’s a neurotic fool, wheeling around and wiping out the crowd. Then he runs down to the first fence like he’s never seen a fence before and doesn’t even know it’s coming up. It’s like he’s running blind, but he always ends up jumping the fence perfectly.”

And then “he acts like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He would scare your pants off if you didn’t know what he was like,” added Petty.

Petty’s dog, Shaggy, is his constant companion. Petty swears his dog is a black-and-tan Jack Russell terrier, but Shaggy looks more like the canine version of Bob Marley. With his curly, shaggy coat that resembles, on a good day, dreadlocks and on a bad day dreadlocks dragged backwards through a gorse bush, Shaggy is “a Rastafarian Jack Russell. His mother was purebred black-and-tan from Ireland, I swear!” said Petty, stoutly sticking to his pedigree story.

Shaggy even broke into broadcasting in 2005 when the ESPN cameras caught him licking Petty’s face in the winner’s circle at the Breeders’ Cup.

Although Petty may not have always dreamed of being a jump jockey, he’s now perfectly content. Were he to become an instant millionaire and the need for a job to disappear overnight, he said he’d still do what he’s doing right now.

“I wouldn’t want to stop riding races or stop riding horses. I’m lucky with my weight, so it will never stop me from riding races. But I don’t see myself retiring. I’ll ride races for a while, and even as I get older I can see myself riding over timber for a long time.”

As for taking life a little more seriously or trying to be a little more assertive in hustling rides, Petty waxed philosophical.

“Life is full of enough bad and serious moments. I want to be happy, and it’s my choice to go through life with a smile on my face,” he said.

Phone Calls And More
When Jody Petty earned the National Steeplechase Association’s leading jockey title in 2005, he was showered with more congratulations and accolades than he ever expected.

“Going into the Colonial Cup [the last meet of the season], I was just one race ahead of Matt [McCarron], and we had six races to go before I knew the [leading jockey] title was mine. I was amazed at how many people wished me luck that morning and how they made it clear they were behind me and rooting for me.

“And at the end of the day after winning the Colonial Cup and the jockey’s title, I had so many phone calls and text messages expressing congratulations. And then all the nice letters and notes and cards started coming, and I was blown away by how nice people are. It made me realize why I love this steeplechasing community,” he said.

Petty said he also really appreciates the camaraderie at trainer Sanna Hendriks’ barn, where he works.

“Steeplechasing is such a tight-knit family. Flat racing seems a little more sterile to me. When I won [the big graded stakes races] on McDynamo, I won for a team, and I’m part of that team. From Brianna [Grumbling] his groom, to the amigos at the barn, to Ann and Mike Moran [McDynamo’s owners], and Sanna, we’re all there to take care of the horse and to try and win races with the horse. It’s a team effort, and we did it together. We all got the horse there, and that’s what I like.”

“The Best Jumping Horse I’ve Ridden”
Without a doubt, the two Grade I stakes wins on McDynamo in 2005 rank at the top of his “best-rides-ever” list, said Jody Petty, the National Steeplechase Association’s 2005 leading jockey.

He said that winning the $250,000 Grade I Breeders’ Cup Steeplechase at Far Hills (N.J.) in October was an almost surreal experience.

“The horse was on a losing streak, it was my first time on him in a race, and both of us had nothing to lose and everything to gain. It was his day, and it was a fantastic race to win,” he said.

But Petty said McDynamo’s Colonial Cup (S.C.) win three weeks later is the one that gives him goose bumps.

“I think for McDynamo to come back and win the Colonial Cup like he did–to jump the way he jumped that day–makes that race the best race I’ve ever had the privilege to ride. It was Hirapour’s [McDynamo’s No. 1 rival] race to win, and he almost got to us in the stretch, but McDynamo won. At the end to dig in like he did, to show such an unwillingness not to lose–the horse just blew me away,” said Petty.

“He’s the best jumping horse I’ve ridden over hurdles. He’s unbelievable. I could not stop smiling after that race. Usually when a jockey wins a big race, they’re serious and quietly proud back in the jock’s room, but I just couldn’t stop smiling. My cheeks hurt at the end of the day.”

Winning those two races gave McDynamo his second NSA Horse of the Year title and his second Eclipse Award. It also gave him something else.

“Before winning the Breeders’ Cup, McDynamo looked like, well, like McDynamo,” said Petty. “But after he won the Breeders’ Cup, and especially since he won the Colonial Cup too, he now has a sparkle in his eye and this look about him that wasn’t there before. He didn’t seem to care that he lost the races before that, but I guess he did, because he has this look now that he knows what he did and what a special horse he is.”