After 30 years of traveling the country to present camel and ostrich races, you'd figure that Joe Hedrick would be burned out. But that's not so, said the one-time rodeo clown who returns to Ellis Park with his show for the fourth consecutive year today. For one thing, he never tires of seeing the enjoyment of the crowds. For another, he's never quite certain what he might see.
"It's racing, but it's mostly entertainment," Hedrick said Friday, sitting at a picnic table while watching his racing stock in two nearby pens. "Just tell me where else you can go and see an ostrich race or a camel race with the actual track jockeys riding them, even someone famous like (three-time Kentucky Derby winner) Calvin Borel."
The answer is not many. Hedrick, who is based out of Nickerson, Kan., puts on only seven shows a year at race tracks and another four or so at county or state fairs. This year he made a big trip, boating the animals across the Pacific Ocean for a five-week stint of daily shows in Hawaii.
They were as popular there as they always have been at Ellis, where owner Ron Geary credits them for attracting some of the largest crowds of each meet. Today's races are scheduled for after the fifth and seventh horse races, pushing 3 and 4 p.m.
"If you haven't ever seen them you want to at least once," Geary said. "You just never know what might happen out there."
That's why Hedrick is an interested spectator for every show, too.
"It's unpredictable, which makes it exciting," he said. "Sometimes the animals will do something very unnatural, like one of the birds getting halfway down the track and then turning around and going back to the starting gate. And the jockeys definitely have to hold on."
Hedrick's father was a rodeo clown, and he also dabbled in trick horses, mules, brahma bulls and llamas. Hedrick then began training buffalo, chimpanzees and zebras, and started to display the animals. Next came camels used in Nativity displays, then ostriches for petting zoos. Three decades ago it was off to the races.
The ostriches, which live to be 50 to 60 years old, are saddled for the first time at 2, and race by 3 or 4. "By the time they're 5," he said, "you know if they're runners or not." They can race 20 years.
Camels, which live to be about 30, also begin racing at 3 and are retired by 20. Hedrick keeps 40 ostriches and 70 camels, rotating the runners and using the rest in petting zoos.
In a race, the animals cover about 100 yards, running up to 35 mph. The jockeys, in general, hold on for dear life on the four camels or five ostriches.
"Riding an ostrich is like trying to ride a football," said Hedrick. "You lean too far forward, you go over the top. Too far back, you slide off. Too much to one side or the other, you lose your balance. Some jockeys say it's the hardest thing they've ever ridden."
Last year, at Ellis, Corey Lanerie slipped off his ostrich at the start but ran it down and jumped back on. Two years ago, after the race, Larry Melancon got his boot caught in a camel's stirrup and hung perilously upside down for a couple of minutes.
But both said they'd do it again. "It's just all good fun, which is why people like it so much," said Hedrick, who stressed how much care the animals receive. "If you can watch one of these races without smiling, you're definitely not a very happy person."
Next year, he said, might bring more laughs. "We're training some zebras now."
Jon Court moved atop the jockey standings with two victories on Friday, winning aboard Bet the Power ($7 to win) in the seventh and Fantastique ($8.40) in the eighth.
Court now has 14 wins, one more than Corey Lanerie, who is spending the weekend riding at Penn National. Oriana Rossi won once on Friday, aboard Tap Tap Tapping ($5.80) in the sixth, and is third with 12 wins, two more than Calvin Borel and Marlon St. Julien.
The first disqualification of the meet came in the fifth race when winner He's Sultry, a 9-to-1 shot ridden by Ruben Rojas, was dropped from first to third for interfering with third-place Roman Dictator.
Stewards pushed Fifth Avenue South ($9.60) to the top, giving Borel one of his two wins on the day. Roman Dictator was moved up to second.
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