SEATTLE _ Arturo Arboleda is really getting the hang of this training gig, after having by far the best season of his career last year at Emerald Downs, and is looking forward to the next few seasons.
And by the way, Arboleda is 94.
Retirement? Not with nine horses to tend to, and not with the thrill of victory just as great as it has ever been.
Arboleda has had horses run in six races this season and has had two second-place finishes, two thirds and a fourth after winning 10 races last season, double his previous career high.
His younger buddy, 91-year-old H.R. "Pat" Mullens, has seven horses this season and has bragging rights over his friend, with one win from three starters.
For Arboleda and Mullens, who overcame a life-threatening scare over the offseason, it's the horses that keep them going and give them purpose. The trainers are at the track every morning and stay for hours, devising workout plans and keeping close eyes on their horses. It's their job and their passion.
"The horses keep me young, man," Arboleda said. "I love the horses. I do it the best I can."
For Mullens, the horses serve a much bigger purpose.
"If it weren't for the horses, I would have been dead a long time ago," he said. "No doubt about it."
Good genes run in Arboleda's family. He said his maternal grandmother lived to 105 and an uncle recently died at age 100. Arturo looks much younger than his age, still drives and is doing well with the exception of a bum leg. He is able to get around to each stall to check his horses, then out to the track to watch them train.
"From here on up, I am fine," he said pointing to his waist. "But I've got my electric cart. It's my best friend."
Arboleda rode and took care of horses while growing up in Panama, where he also was an accomplished welterweight boxer, competing in the Central America and Caribbean Games in 1946.
Arboleda served in the Army and worked as a longshoreman after moving to the United States. He said his love for horses led him to begin assisting trainers at Longacres in Renton, beginning in the 1950s. Longacres closed in 1992.
He became a head trainer in 1991 and had limited success until last year. He has 52 career wins from 802 starters for a below-average win rate of 6 percent.
But something seemed to click last year when he was 93, with 10 winners and a win rate of 15 percent. Many of the winners were big longshots.
"I've got good help," Arboleda said humbly, deflecting any credit. "And I had better horses."
But assistant trainer Matt Johnson, 48 years younger than Arboleda, said his boss is being modest.
"When we won all those races last year, I would think he was not making the right choice, but I was wrong and he ended up being right," Johnson said, praising Arboleda's training techniques and his selection of which races to run their horses in. "Last year, he was making the right decisions. It was pretty amazing."
Mullens grew up with horses in Tennessee and said, "I could ride before I could walk."
Mullens was a career military man, serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, then in the Air Force during the Korean War and the Vietnam War before retiring at age 44.
While at McChord Air Force Base, he began going to Longacres and spent time helping trainer Leonard Roberts as a way to learn the trade. About a week after Mullens left the military in 1971, Roberts had a temporary opening for a groom when someone got hurt.
That job became full-time, and a year later Mullens became a trainer. For decades, he has been a highly respected trainer in the Northwest, with 563 wins in 4,479 starts (13 percent win rate) according to Equibase. He trained She's All Silk, the Emerald Downs champion 3-year-old filly in 2006.
After a tough 2016 season in which Mullens won just twice, he had five wins last year after turning 90. For a while, he thought it might be his last season after suffering an aortic aneurysm.
"I went to Madigan (Army Medical Center), and they wouldn't operate because it was so bad, so they flew me by helicopter to Harborview," he said. "They kicked it around for a couple of days before they decided to do surgery. They needed to get a stent from Australia because they didn't have one in the States. For 25 days we waited."
Mullens said things still "are touch and go," but last week he got his first win of the year with a horse named Ryan Walt. Mullens' spirits are up.
"This is just a dream come true for me, to get to train," said Mullens, adding that he learns something new almost every day. "This is what has kept me going, and what I love. I have never even entertained the idea of retiring. I want to keep going until it's time to go to the next level."
Jerry Bozzo set the U.S. record for the oldest trainer to win a race last year at age 96. Arboleda laughs when asked if he's shooting for that mark, but he's not thinking of retiring anytime soon.
Like all trainers, he's hoping for the next great horse, and he's particularly excited about Cats Champ, who raced last season in the top race of the year at Emerald Downs for 2-year-olds.
"I don't have a wife, so I have to do something," Arboleda said. "I can't stay home and watch TV. I have to keep moving, and I love the horses. It's thrilling to see a horse win. It makes you feel very good."
Johnson, his assistant, says working with Arboleda is a gift.
"Horse racing is kind of a link to the past. To learn from him, you're really learning from the past. The way they did it in the old days. And there is no telling how far back he can go," Johnson said. "To learn from him is pretty amazing."
.png?w=600)
