In the loosest use of horse-racing terminology, they have been a coupled entry.
Since last fall, jockeys Mike Smith and Chantal Sutherland have gotten up together, gone to work together and, sometimes, raced down the home stretch at Santa Anita together.
"I've never beaten him in one of those head-to-heads," Sutherland says.
She is 33, a rising rider with movie-star looks. He is 43, an established veteran with a place in the Hall of Fame.
They have dated since the summer of 2005 and have lived together in Sierra Madre since last fall. In a scene from one of the first episodes of the reality TV show "Jockeys," Sutherland moves in and immediately starts to squeeze Smith out of most of his closet space.
"It got even worse," he says.
Sadly, for him and for horse gamblers who love how Sutherland brings in the longshots, he is getting back some of that closet space. Sutherland is moving out. She won two races over the weekend at Santa Anita, including Sunday's first aboard Bullybullybully, and will ride one horse today in the last race before boarding an airplane and flying away.
Smith won an $800,000 race in El Paso on Sunday, but he will keep Southern California as his headquarters.
It is not what is seems. No breakup. No nasty fights -- other than a couple that are now ancient history.
Sutherland is going back to where she had her greatest success, where she gets a better pick of horses, where she's not standing in line at Santa Anita behind a wall of legends the likes of Garrett Gomez, Aaron Gryder, Alex Solis, David Flores, Corey Nakatani, Rafael Bejarano, Victor Espinoza and, yes, Mike Smith.
Sutherland is going home to Woodbine in Toronto. There, she is among the track's leading riders. There, she has twice won five races in one day. There, the purses are huge because of the revenue produced from the adjacent slot machine casino.
There, she can put to work all that she has learned from her instructor and partner.
"Mike has taught me so much," she says. "Watching what he does out there, and then being able to sit down with him later and have him explain is invaluable."
Smith says he understands, says he is proud of the jockey Sutherland has become and says, "She's gonna do really well. I've got a good feeling about it."
He also says he'll miss her, despite his newfound closet space.
