Unsung Heroes: “Manny” Solis

[Wandering Eyes]

“Manny” Solis has been working at the stable office at Santa Anita for over 10 years now, and was a groom for different trainers, including Mike Mitchell, during 20 years before that.

Manny’s duties range from clerical work in the office to bedding down stalls for trainers that ship in. No job is too small or too big for Manny and he can be seen everyday through the antique backside of Santa Anita Park making sure that the place is run smoothly.

Anybody that has worked on a racetrack’s backside through the U.S. knows that those are like small villages, with its daily amount of loose horses, broken pipes, flooded wash racks, electricity malfunctions and all kinds of carpentry work that needs to be ordered.

Last month, before a rain storm, I witnessed Manny consolidating a roof of an outside pen at a trainer’s barn. The trainer’s help was already gone after hours, but Manny took the time to fix the roof to avoid horses getting hurt and/or soaked.

During the recent fires that swept through the Southern California mountains, Manny would work overtime to have stalls ready to welcome relocated horses.

Manny is a very humble man but I consider him a “backstretch hero” for not only doing his job in admirable manner, but also to act beyond that, for the welfare of the horses and the humans living in the stable area. –Submitted by Leonard Powell, trainer

 

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