World’s Largest Jockey faces tough employment market1

Today’s guest blogger comes from the Sports Desk, where a late-breaking story reveals Charlie’s nascent horse racing career isn’t all fun and games. But please, no pity, folks. This athlete will prevail.

Stymied by a recovering economy and a disadvantageous physical stature, the man known as the World’s Largest Jockey is disappointed to find potential employers inhospitable to his job search.

The 6’9″ aspiring jockey decided to turn his love of sports from basketball to horse racing upon graduation from Bellarmine University. The equine industry, however, has not embraced Charlie Gonzalez’s radical paradigm shift from boy-size riders to a hulking giant. Thus far, no trainer has agreed to allow Gonzalez to mount a horse for even an exercise lap.

Gonzalez believes that despite his Goliath-like size, he is David in this face-off.

“I just want a chance,” said Gonzalez.  “My size is an advantage. Due to my size I believe thoroughbreds regard me as a peer and will run much harder with me on their back.”

One trainer, who asked to remain anonymous, disagreed: “Peer my @#$, you put that tall guy on a horse and it’ll be like dragging a sleigh around the track.”

Gonzalez is working as an intern at videobred, a Louisville-based video production facility, while he continues to push against the barn door between industry bigotry and his career aspiration.

At a recent Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau (LCVB) function, Charlie donned brilliant orange racing silks after videobred offered to sponsor him and help raise awareness of this tragic injustice.

“It was nice of them to try and help me,” he said, “but I kind of felt like a circus freak with the  whole ‘World’s Largest Jockey’ theme. People were taking pictures with me like I was one of those cats crossbred with a rabbit. And a couple of the ladies got a little frisky.”

Most attendees responded with words of encouragement. One woman, a mother of three, summed up of the consensus of the crowd.

“We tell our kids they can grow up to be anything they want, President of the United States, a race car driver, even a video producer,” she said. “Let’s follow through and show that those aren’t just empty words. I mean, for pete’s sake, we have white rappers, why not a 6’9” jockey? “

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