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As executive director of equine programming at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Remi Bellocq is as likely to be leading students on a two-mile run across a pasture on Paris Pike (to build stamina and strength for these future professional athletes) as he is teaching a course, sitting in a faculty meeting, keeping in touch with industry professionals or working on fundraising efforts.
“I’m at the barn, teaching a kid how to shovel manure,” he said, “and a half hour later, I’m in a curriculum meeting, with people saying, ‘What’s that smell?’”
Bellocq is comfortable wearing these different hats — and tennis shoes and boots — but especially enjoys passing on his knowledge of Thoroughbreds and horse racing to college students.
“It’s my way of paying back the industry that’s given me a lot,” he said. “If I didn’t have to pay a mortgage like everybody else, I’d do it for free.”
He comes from a long line of European horsemen. His dad, Pierre “Peb” Bellocq, the equine cartoonist for the Daily Racing Form, moved the family to the United States from France in 1954. Three of the children, including Remi, were later born in New York, with dual citizenship. Growing up on Long Island, Bellocq’s high school was so close to Belmont Park that he would often go to the track after school.
“I wanted to be a professional jockey,” he said. He wasn’t able to get below 118 pounds, though (“I walked by too many track kitchens,” he said), and wound up studying racetrack management at the University of Arizona. A couple of years after earning a bachelor of science degree at the UA in 1984, Remi and Peb Bellocq formed the Amateur Riders Club of America. Amateur races were quite popular in Europe, and the Bellocqs wanted to bring the sport for “gentlemen riders and lady riders” to the States. The major difference between professional and amateur riders is that amateur jockeys can weigh about 125 pounds or so.
Remi Bellocq worked in various management positions at racetracks across the country for 15 years, including Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park in California, and Belmont Park in his native New York. In 2001, he was named CEO of the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association in Lexington.
Bellocq was quite happy at HBPA and had no intentions of leaving.
“I love working with horsemen,” he said.
But he did accept the BCTC position in October 2011. The North American Racing Academy (NARA) is part of the college’s equine studies.
“To date, this is the only vocational equine workforce training program,” he said.
Bellocq has been on NARA’s advisory board since the program’s inception in 2006. In his full-time capacity, one of his goals for next year is to develop distance learning for NARA so community colleges in other cities can participate. He wants to see a certification program in place called Equine Industry Workforce. Lectures would be offered online for the first half of the semester, then a six-week mentorship would have students receiving hands-on training at a local track or training center.
In an effort to raise worldwide awareness about NARA, Bellocq is pursuing international exchange internships. Through his connection with the president of the European Association of Racing Schools, he has been invited to a global racing conference in Abu Dhabi in November. Bellocq and NARA graduate Andrew Wolfsont will be spreading the word about NARA in the UAE’s capital city.
Fundraising is any executive director’s middle name. The nonprofit BCTC Foundation accepts donations for NARA. Bellocq is also working on sponsorship opportunities.
“If someone is willing to sponsor a horse for a year at $5,000 to $7,000, I’ll help them design their own silks, put their name on the stall, and they can spend time with the horse,” he said. Short of putting them on it, that is.
The school leases a 20-stall barn and buildings for classroom and office space from the Thoroughbred Center on Paris Pike. The barn is filled to capacity with former racehorses. It costs BCTC $28 to $30 per horse, per day, for care and feeding, but Bellocq doesn’t want to raise funds by raising tuition.
“Not all students have the ability to get a four-year degree,” he said. “There needs to be vocational education. That’s where we fit in.”
Because of his passion for Thoroughbreds, the sport of racing and equine students, Bellocq hopes this is his lifetime job.
“This is what I want to do until they cart me away in a horse van.”
For more information about the North American Racing Academy, visit www.bluegrass.kctcs.edu/NARA.
Kathie Stamps posts grammar tips at www.facebook.com/GrammarTips.