Behind Belmont Long Shot, a Quirky and Bold Trainer
“Dood!” cried the former jockey Jerry Bailey, shaking the hand of Doodnauth Shivmangal.
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<h6>·“Dood!” yelled the reporters chasing down Mr. Shivmangal in the backstretch of Belmont Park on Thursday to ask him if he really thought his horse Guyana Star Dweej had a real shot in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
His colt has the longest odds in the field, but Mr. Shivmangal — whose nickname is not to be confused with the ubiquitous casual greeting “Dude,” but rather a shortening of his first name — vowed that his horse would “show you what a cheap horse can do.”
He boasted that he bought Guyana Star Dweej for $5,500 last year and only recently turned down the chance to resell him for $300,000.
“The horse doesn’t know his odds — he doesn’t know how much you paid for him,” said Mr. Shivmangal, the owner and trainer of Guyana Star Dweej. “Besides, the Belmont Stakes is known for long shots.”
Mr. Bailey agreed, saying, “There are so many upsets in the Belmont that you can’t discount anybody.”
Mr. Shivmangal, who is of Indian descent and emigrated from Guyana in 1984, settled in Far Rockaway, Queens, and went from working low-paying delivery jobs to building a cargo delivery company, from which he retired several years ago. He now trains horses full time out of his stables in Barn 59 at Belmont.
Although he is known as Dood to racetrack regulars, he goes by another nickname, Shook, among his fellow immigrants along Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, Queens, an area known as Little Guyana. The nickname is emblazoned in diamonds on a bracelet on his left hand made of Guyanese gold.
All along the avenue on Thursday, Guyanese immigrant racing fans buzzed about their countryman’s long-shot bid on Saturday.
“This is Shook’s big shot,” said Robert Reynaurd, 70, who was watching a cricket match at the St. John’s Express bar and restaurant. He said he hoped the colt would do well but admitted, “Realistically, he doesn’t belong in the race.”
A few blocks down the avenue, at the New Thriving restaurant, several men at the bar were more hopeful. Roopnarain Ramdayal, 62, said he would bet on Guyana Star Dweej because “he represents our country — how could I not want him to win?”
He said he would go to the track on Saturday because “my country is in the Belmont Stakes.”
Next to him, Mark Ramrattan, 33, nodded and boasted that he hailed from the same village, Guava Bush, that produced Guyana Star, a winning horse that Mr. Shivmangal trained years ago in Guyana.
After coming to New York, Mr. Shivmangal worked as a deliveryman and gradually built a small business delivering cargo from Kennedy International Airport, with a fleet of 30 trucks and vans. He got back into training horses in the early 1990s, but had limited success and left horse racing for a spell. Now retired, he devotes his time to buying and training racehorses.
“I buy cheap horses and make them into racehorses,” he said.
Mr. Shivmangal said that simply getting Star entered into the Stakes set him back $26,000 — $6,000 to nominate him for a Triple Crown race and $20,000 to enter him in Saturday’s race.
On Thursday, he was savoring every minute of his fame. He wheeled around the backstretch in a courtesy car provided to trainers this week, and watched Guyana Star Dweej practice on the main track.
“This horse could be a stealer in the race because he’s got speed,” he said in his thick Caribbean, singsong accent.
He said that he learned about horse training from his father, a prominent trainer in Guyana, and that racing rookie horses in competitive fields is something he took from him. He named the horse after Guyana Star, who he said tallied more than 50 victories in Guyana.
Mr. Shivmangal, a Hindu, fingered his necklace with its gold pendant of Krishna playing a flute, and said, “I hope it will bring me victory on Saturday.”
“I’ve come here and made good use of this country, despite having many hurdles,” he said. “I’m a New Yorker, I went through 9/11, and I’m a Mets fan from Queens. I want a New York-trained horse to win a Triple Crown race.”
His accent and affable, quirky personality help him stand out from, and have endeared him to, the American trainers. Speaking to several of them on Thursday, he put his hands together and offered a mock prayer to the heavens to help these men’s horses stay with Guyana Star Dweej on Saturday. They laughed as he walked away, and he said to them, “I’ll get big one day, don’t worry about it.”
“You’re already big, Dood,” one yelled back. “You’re in the Belmont.”
