Where is inez karlsson

Kid Chic. Silver Rock Star. Mister Bernstein. Autumn Splendor. Eyema Delight. Thepower Of Belief. Special Lover. Officer Mcneal.

W Catalano. Summer's Empire. Roy L. Proud Osceola. S Fridley. Run Mama Beare Run. Joy Filled. Baby Wildcat. Cherishd Obsession. Lefty's Legacy. Prima Donna Pirate. Point Your Finger. Three Rivers. Bluegrass Type. Sing Me Away. Mistymoon Lake. Marvelous Mia. Wonder Country. Misty Eyed. Long Draw. Run Right At It. Total Immersion. Say Sonny. T Padilla. Smokin Silver. Repent N Receive. I was pretty much in the barn every day from the time I was ten. FOTH: What were your thoughts the 1st time you saw a live horse race and if you can remember were was it?

I thought it looked really cool and when the jocks came back I realized they were my size. I didn't think it looked that hard so I told myself after the races that I wanted to become a jockey. Are there any racetracks over in Sweden and if so, is it a place where being a jockey at you could make a decent living?

It's not a place a want to be a professional jockey. The opportunities are so much bigger here in the US. The Swedish jockeys pretty much has to travel all over the country to ride and even go to Denmark or Norway. It's just way too much work for not as much money plus that they have contracts instead of agents and they have to gallop horses in the morning too.

FOTH: I heard that you boxed before becoming a jockey. How long did you do that for and did you box in any actual boxing matches? IK: I boxed for 4 years in Sweden went 20 fights and I win 14 and was ranked 2 in the lightweight division. I was 3rd in the Swedish championship in the same year I left for Canada. FOTH: In your opinion, what is harder, boxing or being a jockey and why? IK: It's just as hard.

The training hours a boxer puts in is at least 2 hours a day. For a while I fought every weekend. It's a sport where you have to diet and keep your weight low. Mentally it's really tough. I used to be scared to death every time I jumped into the ring. You have to have a really fast reaction and be able to read the other boxer in a fight without thinking. The only difference between boxing and race riding is that you don't ask to get hurt.

You going to go down and get hurt riding races it's just a matter of time but you don't know when it's going to happen. FOTH: How did you become involved in the sport of horse racing and what was your 1st job on the track. The job didn't work out and I got fired after three weeks. I met a couple that had thoroughbreds on a farm and I start helping around in the barn and with the exercise of the horses. In the fall all the horses where moving to Woodbine and the ones I worked for had contacts so I got my first exercise riding job there.

It was for Stronach Stables and in the beginning I got to do everything from walking to grooming and of course riding. I stayed with them for a year before moving on. FOTH: At what point in your life did you know you wanted to become a jockey and did you have anybody help teach you how to ride or did you do a lot of it on your own or was it a combination of both?

IK: I was very fortunate to work for good outfits like Stronach to learn how to ride on horses bred by awesome again and such was really good. They were well broke and well behaved. The trainer Justin J. Nixon also helped me out. He let me work horses and tried to put me in spots so I could move forward with my desire to become a jockey. I didn't start riding in Maryland. He knew I wanted to become a jockey and he help me out. He was the man who got me up to Chicago and he helped me when I was starting off.

I'm pretty much self taught I realized I wasn't strong enough to hold a racehorse and I had to find other ways to make them do what I wanted them to. Finesse them, getting along with them or getting them relaxed to make them do what I wanted them to do. FOTH: Tell me what you remember about your 1st race and what track was it at? IK: Chris Block had a maiden that couldn't win.

She rode one or two races each day. When business was especially good, her agent, Penny Ffitch-Heyes, was able to line up three. Ffitch-Heyes, a tough, no-nonsense Englishwoman who rode steeplechase horses before she turned to managing jockeys, recognized Karlsson's potential. In a colony where there were no other female riders, it would take an exceptionally gutsy woman to survive, let alone succeed.

Also, she's always been very forthright, very up-front and clear about what she's wanted. There's never been anything wishy-washy about her. A lot of girls aren't like that. Even through the hard times, Karlsson persisted. She studied films of past races and learned to improve her style. She worked out every day until she was as strong as a guy.

She braided her long blonde hair and tucked it up beneath her helmet. She focused on getting those mounts. On Sept. The 3-year-old gelding had a string of four previous starts but just couldn't break his maiden.

Every time the gates opened he bolted like a bullet, expending all of his energy in a panicked rush down the racetrack. Block had been watching Karlsson in the mornings and at the races.

He'd noticed the longshots she'd been riding horses without much chance to win. She seemed to be getting quite a bit of run out of them, and they were finishing better than they had in other races. He also figured the weight allowance he'd get because of her apprentice status might play into getting Death Valley into the winner's circle. So he asked Karlsson to breeze the horse, get to know him.

With her in the saddle, Death Valley went better than he'd ever gone before. That's how I won the race on him, just a little Swedish song -- he seemed to like it, and relax.

She wound up winning not only her first career victory aboard the gelding, but seven additional races as well. She seems to ride an intelligent race and puts horses in good positions to win. She's strong enough to ride with the male riders on any given day and she has a very good work ethic, which goes a long way in our industry.

Other trainers picked up on this, and in , Karlsson's career took off. She brought home leading apprentice honors at the Arlington meet and finished fifth in the overall standings. It had been seven years since Zoe Cadman became the first woman in history to win a riding title at Hawthorne Race Course; at the end of the fall-winter meet of , Karlsson became the second.

Twice, she rode four winners in a day -- a feat never before accomplished at Arlington by a female rider. In , she actually led the Arlington standings -- the first female rider to do so -- before she wound up sixth.

That's because her health was declining again. The pain was constant and medication brought little relief. A fever that came on after one painful episode lingered for two months. She could almost feel the infection spreading inside her, and for days she would ride, go home, and collapse into bed. She'd competed with broken ribs, a broken toe, a broken thumb, a contusion to her pelvis. She'd fought through the pain of a separated shoulder. She was used to shaking off various concussions.

She just couldn't tough this illness out. But to walk away from racing, just when her career was becoming solid, just when things were getting good, was one of the toughest decisions of her life.

Of course, nobody knows what someone else feels inside, what they're going through. When she made her mind up to do that, she immediately followed through on it, and I commend her for that. People still ask about Karlsson, how she's doing, and why exactly did she take time off again.

In the grandstand, on the backside, they come up to Kirby, "Frank, how's Inez? We hope she comes back riding, we really liked her. He remembers the days when she'd walk from the winner's circle to the jocks' room, signing autographs all the way. He's seen some awfully good riders come and go, and he counts her among them.

Heck, he'll even call her the best female jockey in the nation. I think that sooner or later now, she'll come back to ride. She won't be off too long, and she'll do just fine when she does come back. People really like her, trainers and owners and everybody. They have great respect for her. This Friday, Hawthorne Race Course begins its nd year of operation and Karlsson begins her first year in a new position -- as a co-host for the track's in-house simulcast show.