Last weekend, trainer Eric Guillot's horse 'Moreno' won the Whitney Handicap, just hours after another one of his horses collapsed and died on the track. Marisa Jacques reports, since that whirlwind day Guillot's become something of a celebrity at the Spa.
SARATOGA RACE COURSE -- Eric Guillot doesn't look or act like you're typical trainer, but he's risen to rock start status recently in Saratoga winning the Whitney with his horse Moreno.
"Oh it's been crazy its been crazy. I can't go anywhere lately it's been crazy, but it's been fun, can't get my voice back cause I been yapping yapping yapping to every fan," said Guillot.
"Oh it's been crazy its been crazy. I can't go anywhere lately it's been crazy, but it's been fun, can't get my voice back cause I been yapping yapping yapping to every fan," said Guillot.
The Spa is getting to see what a character Guillot is, the self-proclaimed crazy man said it all began when he uncle bought him a horse when he was a kid and he starred out his classroom window at that horse all day long.
"Here I am in first grade I got my pony I'm dreaming of going and riding this afternoon. I got the catechism I go on Friday to pray and then I got the bar that shared the parking lot with the chaticism where my dad would stay and have me in the back with these big Dolly Parton waitresses giving me peanuts until two in the morning. And you wonder why I'm crazy," said Guillot.
Guillot's career began around 15, but that one had nothing to do with horses.
"By the time I was 21 I was a general contractor in California, by the time I was 23 I was pretty connected with all the contractors things were booming people are coming from all over the country, I would have been building strip malls and five-story buildings if I really loved it, I was good at it," said Guillot.
Guillot said the money was good, but he didn't love it, it wasn't until he was around 35 when he realized true happiness was going to be training horses.
The Lousiana native said he understands he may not fit into the norm of racing and maybe his style is unorthodox, but he knows what he's doing.
"Everybody was at the football games on Friday night or in the library I was reading about the horses, tissue, soft tissue trauma tissue, I can tell you the difference between them all, I can tell you anatomy how it works. I am pretty sharp when it comes to anatomy of a horse," said Guillot.
"I spend a lot of time with my horses, my horses my partner and I that's why I don't try to go out there and get a stable of 100 horses, you know let's go breeze stall 122 at 8 o'clock in the morning, that's not what I want to do that's not what I like I want to have fun. I know every pimple om my horses at all times," said Guillot.
Guillot's most famous horses so far is named after his partner Mike Moreno, but he had a two-year-old go this weekend in Saratoga named after him.
"I figured if Moreno can get one after him I should name one Da Jenius with a J right," said Guillot.
Da Jenius with a J finished in the money in his first start. Jenius is a nickname that come about when Eric. J. Guillot was playing a trick on a reporter who asked him what the J stood for, he said genius and it's stuck that's just one of the many stories Guillot tells.
"I didn't know until I was about 30, but Uncle Bob always droves nice cars apparently he was a house burglar," said Guillot. "My great aunts, I remember when I was a kid Sister Barbara that red the cards and read your palms and the big billboard in the little town where my moms family came from."
And even thought he may break tradition with things from shorts and T-shirts to voodoo dolls, Guillot said only one thing really matters to him.
"People who don't know me don't know me, people who do know me know I'm a good man," said Guillot.
