When, at 11 years of age, Héctor Soler traveled from his native Vega Baja to settle with his parents and three younger brothers in the city of Philadelphia, he never imagined that fate would have in store for him the opportunity to gradually build what it would be their future livelihood in equestrian sport.
It was a while since they settled there when their parents separated. Soler, as a teenager, decided to help his mother by combining his middle school studies with summer jobs.
That is how he learned “to gain weight” while facing the language and racial barrier in the mid-1980s. Until he had his first contact with horse racing in the United States.
Prior to his trip to Philadelphia, Soler had visited the then El Comandante racetrack in Canóvanas for the first time with his father, after having had the opportunity to watch the races on television at his home in the Los Naranjos sector, in the Cabo Caribe neighborhood.
“I loved the colors of the shirts and the gargoyles that the horses wore. It caught my attention,” recalled Soler, who from that moment fell in love with horse racing.
While in Philadelphia, an approach to equestrianism emerged that would start the way for Soler to be related even more to the sport. “I had a neighbor who worked with coach Joe Orseno. They took me once to his block that was near the track and I saw the moment when they started a race,” he recalled.
“There, when I saw that, I wanted to work at the starter. I left school when I was in the tenth grade, I filled out the papers to work at 17 and I started working with Orseno at the racetrack,” said Soler, who also came to practice boxing with a view to going professional, but gave up continuing for financial reasons.
“I worked with Orseno as a horse walker and then I was one of his assistants. I worked with horses like Golden Missile, Red Bullet and Tap To Music, among others like the Collect The Cash mare, who participated in a Breeders’ Cup race”, said.
But, Soler had made it his goal to work at the starter, which was his greatest wish. That began to be accomplished in 1999 when Orseno gave him clearance to combine his job as an assistant with part-time clerk at the departure gate during the mornings while he was in New York.
“I spoke with friend Frankie Delgado who at that time was a galloper in the morning and a safety officer at the racetrack in the afternoon and he introduced me to Bobby Duncan, who was the starter. Then they gave me part-time work in the morning to learn before starting in the afternoon during the races, “said Soler.
“Two weeks after starting in the morning they called me to work in the afternoon. So I was as a substitute for a year until in 2001 they gave me a permanent job as a groom,” he added.
Soler indicated that two years after starting as a groom Duncan gave him the first opportunity to order a start in an official race in New York. “That motivated me a lot. At that time I was one of the youngest in the group. Duncan always advised me. He told me that one day I would become someone here,” he recalled.
He began doing jobs that others were not interested in doing and was given the confidence to be the starter assistant when Duncan retired. They entrusted him with good horses to balance. Among them he remembers the champions Rachel Alexandra, Curlin, Rock Hard Ten and the exemplary Justify when he won the Belmont Stakes to conquer the Triple Crown.
“There I felt fulfilled until I found out that I was being considered to be appointed start judge. I never thought that opportunity would come. I thank the company and coaches who supported me a lot, especially Duncan and Delgado,” he said.
Duncan, who worked at the starter since the mid-1960s, retired in 2004 after 11 years as a starter. His position was filled by three people before the opportunity came to Soler, who replaces Michael McMullen, who retired from the position two weeks ago.
Thus, after 19 years occupying the positions between equerry, assistant and substitute start judge, Soler was officially appointed to the position of proprietary start judge, becoming the first Puerto Rican to exercise that function in the history of horse racing in New York and according to verified data, also in the US horse racing.
“I feel very fortunate and grateful. It is a great honor that the New York Racing Association has considered me. It is a dream come true, to be the first Puerto Rican and the first black person to occupy this position. The pride is twofold,” he said Soler, who five years ago was invited to Panama where he guided the starter workers and the students of the Laffit Pincay, Jr. School riders’ course.
“I want to do the same in Puerto Rico. To travel there and spend an afternoon with the comrades from the starter, see how they work, the way they do it to adopt methods and help them on the techniques that we work here,” confided the father with three children and who has two grandchildren.
“I am proud to be Puerto Rican and to represent my country with the greatest humility,” said Soler, 46, who will officially begin this weekend as the new starter for the New York equestrian race at the Aqueduct racetrack.
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