The day after he graduated from high school in 2006 in Independence, Kentucky, Caleb Hays started working on the starting gate at River Downs, just outside Cincinnati. Call it a dream job.
“I had a fascination with the starting gates from a very early age, and that’s all I wanted to do from when I was a little kid,” Hays said. “So, I got on at River Downs when I was 18 years old, and I never looked back.”
Look at him now.
As the eyes of the racing world and beyond focus on the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby Saturday night, the start of the race will be in Hays’ hands, literally. The head starter at Churchill Downs, Hays will spring the latch on the special starting gate that Churchill uses for the Derby, sending 20 horses forward in search of racing immortality.
Hays has been preparing for 364 days.
“(Former head starter) Scott Jordan told me last year at the Derby he thought he was going to take the job in New York,” Hays said Friday outside the Churchill paddock. “I told him he wouldn’t leave Churchill Downs for New York. So, we worked the Derby and the very next day he called me to tell me he took the job (at NYRA).”
Jordan worked one more week, then Hays was named interim starter. Two months later, Churchill Downs removed the “interim” label and that boy who grew up wanting nothing other than to work on the starting gate – anywhere, let alone one of the world’s iconic racetracks – had reached the pinnacle.
“And ever since then, I started recruiting for the Derby,” said Hays. “I was ready for it. I mean, I’ve been thinking and dreaming about this job for a very long time.”
Hays, 38, who loaded Derby winners Nyquist and Mystik Dan, decided which horse the assistants will handle in the Derby, but they won’t find out until just before the race.
“My program’s been filled out for days now,” he said. “I love it. I just can’t wait to watch. I’ve made the plan. I just want to watch my boys execute now.”
Hays knows what it’s like to be in that position, including one traumatic incident at the 2022 Breeders’ Cup.
Hays, who was one of Keeneland starter Jeff Powell’s go-to guys, was assigned Golden Pal in the Turf Sprint that year. The Wesley Ward trainee went off as the odds-on favorite, but he jerked his head a split second before the gate opened and hopped at the start, breaking dead last and effectively eliminating his chances of winning. Hays was distraught.
“He just got me at the last second,” said Hays. “I was ready for him, and he got me at the last second and it cost him the race. I was beating myself up badly over that one.”
He didn’t have much time to feel bad for himself and the Golden Pal connections, because the next race was the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Powell told him he would be loading Cody’s Wish – a horse that came with a heartwarming story and a history of bad behavior in the gate.
“It’s like you’re the quarterback, and right after you throw an interception they call another pass play,” he said.
Hays managed to keep Cody’s Wish and jockey Junior Alvarado straight enough for him to get a decent start. He broke second-last, but rallied in the stretch to win the first of back-to-back Dirt Miles, the latter of which capped a Horse of the Year campaign. Hays went on to handle Flightline in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2022, and the load was as stress-free as the race, an 8-length win.
Saturday at Churchill Downs, the shoe is on the other foot, as Hays relies on an all-star crew he recruited to work the Derby.
What makes someone a good assistant starter?
“Good horsemen, nerves of steel, toughness, everything that I like,” Hays said. “I don’t want a guy singing too loud in church. I want tough guys that want to be in there. I want my guys to be quick. I want them to be efficient. I want them to be ready. I want to be communicating. I don’t want to pack my parachute on the way down, so I’ve made the plan and the boys are going to execute it perfectly.”
Hays comes from a horse racing family. His late father, Dan, was a trainer and his mother, Carol, worked as a groom and ponied horses. One brother, Chris Herrell, was a jockey and another, John Hays, works on the gate crew at Churchill.
Hays remembers calling his brother after a few days on the job at River Downs and telling him, “This is the greatest job of all time.”
And today promises to be the best day yet for a guy who is genuinely happy with his job and his life.
“I got married, bought a dog, bought a house, did everything,” said Hays, who lives in the Irish Hill section of Louisville. “I love it. My life is blessed.”
