Rudy! Rudy! Rudy
We all know the movie. The undersized walk-on at Notre Dame, the kid who never gives up, the guy who finally gets his moment, and the crowd goes crazy. Rudy Rudy Rudy! Roll the credits, cue the music, and pass the Kleenex.
Yeah, that's a great story. But that's not MY Rudy.
My Rudy is Rudy Delguidice. My brother from another mother and father. And if Hollywood ever got around to making this movie, they'd have a hard time writing a script that could do justice to the real thing.
Rudy grew up around the racetrack with his family. His father was an old-time horseman who worked as an assistant in Florida and New York. Rudy was raised on the game, the horses, the people, and the numbers. He knew the statistics from yesteryear, the horses who made history, and the riders who made the sport what it was.
He eventually became a jockey himself, riding against some of the best in the business. Cordero, MacBeth, Baeza, Velazquez, and a few others I'm probably forgetting. This wasn't some guy who read a book about horses and decided he knew something. Rudy lived it. He rode them. He felt them. He learned the business from the back of a horse, where you find out pretty quickly that the animal underneath you has a whole lot more to say than the people standing around the paddock.
Yeah, like anything else there was some bullshit along the way, and another story, a chapter, to be discussed at a later time,but.....
When his weight became an issue, Rudy moved into another part of the game. He became a bloodstock agent, trainer, and rider during the infancy of the two-year-old-in-training sales with Becky Thomas, now Sequel Bloodstock.
And here's a little piece of history for you.
Rudy was the first to breeze a horse in 20 and change during a sales preview.
Yup, all his fault!
His explanation?
"I never touched the horse, just let him do his thing."
That's Rudy. No theatrics. No unnecessary interference. No trying to make a horse do something it wasn't ready to do. He understood movement, athleticism, and the importance of letting a horse show you what it has.
Some people look at a horse and see a price tag. Rudy looks at a horse and sees, wait for it, the horse.
There's a difference, and it's a pretty damn important one.
Rudy's life was horses. It still is.
We've been friends for 16 years, and I can tell you that friendship feels more like a lifetime of brotherhood. He's taught me an awful lot about horses. Hell, sometimes I hear myself talking, and I sound just like him. I suppose when you spend enough time with somebody you admire, a little of them rubs off on you. You hope.
And if I'm going to sound like anybody in this business, I'm happy it's Rudy.
Then came 2022.
Rudy was working with a two-year-old at Classic Mile Park when he was thrown from the horse. The force of the ejection was devastating. He suffered a fracture at the base of his neck, and the injury left him a quadriplegic.
He told me afterward, "It was the softest landing I have ever had."
Then he added that he knew immediately something was terribly wrong.
Think about that for a minute. A man who spent his life around horses, who understood the risks better than most, suddenly found himself lying on the track, unable to move.
He remained there for quite some time.
The diagnosis was devastating. A severe neck injury, a spinal cord injury, and a life that would never look the same again. He has a steel rod in his neck, and the consequences of that accident have been life-altering.
Four years have passed. Four years of rehabilitation, work, adjustments, and challenges that most of us can't begin to comprehend.
But here's the thing about Rudy.
The accident changed what his body could do. It didn't change who he is.
And that, my friends, is where the real Rudy story begins.
I've watched his determination, his resolve, and his absolute refusal to surrender the things that make life meaningful to him. He's determined to enjoy life, and he works at it. Every day.
HE.IS.INSPIRING.
He has caregivers around the clock, and I want to give a special mention to Gary, his main man, who loves Rudy to death and takes extraordinary care of him. Delroy handles the night shift, and together they help provide the support Rudy needs. God bless them.
These are the people who make a difference when the cameras are gone, when the inspirational quotes stop circulating, and when real life demands real commitment. They deserve recognition, too.
And now, Rudy has finally returned to his beloved Ocala.
He's back among the horses.
Let that sink in.
After everything he's been through, after the injury, near death experiences, the rehabilitation, and the enormous changes to his life, Rudy is back where his heart has always been.
And here's the part that gets me.
The man's eye for a horse is still extraordinary.
At the sales, Its Rudy and I, I feed him horses, send him videos, I might send him ten videos at a time with the (1) horse I love and lo and behold, 99.99% of the time, he will mirror his thoughts on the one I hid among the group as my favorite one.
He sits in his chair and watches a horse move, and he'll tell you what he sees. He can assess the athleticism, the balance, the mechanics, and the potential. He can recognize what a horse is carrying underneath that exterior.
He used to put his hands on a horse's back and feel it. Today, he watches with his eyes.
The knowledge is still there. The experience is still there. The instincts that took a lifetime to develop are still there.
You can take a man out of the saddle, but you cannot erase a lifetime of horsemanship.
And Rudy is living proof.
I'm blessed to have him as a brother, a friend, in this crazy horse-racing business. We talk about horses all day long. Sometimes three to five times a day, maybe more. There are days when I think we talk more about horses than some people actually spend looking at them.
Rudy is heavily involved with all our stock at Racingwithbruno. He advises me, coaches me, and, when necessary, demands that I send him updates and videos.
'And don't you forget the videos!' he says to me all the time.
He has an unquenchable thirst to see horses move. He wants to watch them walk, turn, carry themselves, and show what they're made of. He wants to see the details other people might overlook.
He's helped instill that same appreciation in me.
Movement.
I keep coming back to that word because Rudy has taught me how important it is.
A horse isn't just a pedigree on paper, a pretty photograph, or a number in an auction catalogue. A horse is an athlete. You have to watch it move. You have to pay attention. You have to understand what you're looking at.
Movement matters. Period.
Conformation at a stand still means nothing, comformation in motion is the KEY.
And bringing Rudy's expertise into our own operation is very special to me.
We've got our Amazon fillies down in Florida, and Rudy will be helping oversee their development. He'll be offering his expertise to our trainer in Ocala as we prepare these fillies for the next stage of their careers.
These aren't just horses on a spreadsheet to us. They're part of what we're building, and we want them handled by people who understand them.
Who better than Rudy?
Nobody!
He'll be watching them, advising us, and helping us make the decisions that matter. His knowledge is something you can't purchase at a sale, download onto a computer, or learn by watching a few videos on the internet.
It's earned through a lifetime around horses.
And that brings me to the photograph accompanying this post.
Here is Rudy with our Daredevil yearling filly at the farm in Ocala.
Rudy told me something about that encounter that stopped me in my tracks.
"She is so intelligent she walked over to my chair and smelled me and put her head in my lap."
I'm going to be honest with you. That choked me up.
Maybe it's because I know what horses have meant to Rudy his entire life. Maybe it's because I know what he's endured since 2022. Or maybe it's because there's something extraordinarily moving about watching a horse reach out to a man whose entire life has been devoted to understanding them.
The filly didn't know about his accident. She didn't know about the rehabilitation, the challenges, or the years of work. She wasn't responding to a story or a diagnosis.
She simply walked over and responded to Rudy.
She smelled him and put her head in his lap! OMG! 'Niagara falls!
And for a moment, the horseman and the horse were together, just as they were always meant to be.
I don't need Hollywood to explain that scene to me.
I've got my own, Rudy.
We have two Amazon fillies with him in Florida, and he's going to help us with them in every way he can. I know he'll give them his time, his attention, and everything he knows about horses.
Because that's who Rudy is.
He'd give the shirt off his back to help a horse that needed his expertise. Always has. Always will.
He has already a plan on how to shoe the Violence filly behind to help that massive hind end.
And I think that's something worth remembering about the people who make this business special. The real horsemen, like Rudy, don't stop being horsemen when circumstances change. Their knowledge, their passion, and their connection to these animals remain part of who they are.
Rudy has given me more than I could ever put into this post. He's taught me about horses, about evaluating them, about watching them, and about the little things that separate a good horse from one that might become something special.
He's also shown me what determination looks like when life throws you a punch that would knock most people flat.
He doesn't spend his days asking what he has lost. He's focused on what he can still do, what he can still contribute, and how he can continue doing what he loves.
That's my brother.
That's my friend.
That's Rudy Delguidice.
So, yes, let's hear it.
RUDY! RUDY! RUDY!
Only this time, we're not cheering for a fictional walk-on running onto a football field.
We're cheering for a real horseman who has found his way back to the horses he loves, who continues to share his extraordinary knowledge, and who is helping us chase a dream of our own.
Rudy, I'm grateful to have you in my life. I'm grateful for your friendship, your guidance, and your belief in what we're trying to accomplish.
Your belief in ME!
We've got two Amazon fillies waiting for you in Ocala, Florida, along with our string in Kentucky, and we've got some work to do.
Let's put that lifetime of knowledge to work.
Let's watch them move. Let's make the right decisions. Let's give our boys and girls every chance to become the horses we believe they can be.
And let's go make ourselves a nice horse or two, or three, together.
Love you, brother. We're in this together, as always.
Rudy, you da man!
