Gulfstream: Natalie Fawkes Makes Training Debut Friday at Gulfstream

By David Joseph —-

Natalie Fawkes Makes Training Debut Friday at Gulfstream

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Natalie Fawkes, the 20-year-old daughter of highly successful South Florida trainer David Fawkes, is scheduled to make her training debut at Gulfstream Park Friday.

“He’s more excited than I am,” said Fawkes, who will saddle 5-2 morning-line favorite Jezebel Jones for a start in the ninth race, a $12.500 maiden claimer for fillies and mares at five furlongs on turf.

Although born into racing, Fawkes wasn’t always focused on following in the footsteps of her father.

“I’ve done more with show horses than anything. I was actually back and forth with the horses. I was back and forth with horses and dance. I danced more than I was with the horses growing up,” Fawkes said. “I really only got involved with horses when I was 12, 13. I’d always come to the races, but actual hands-on, riding show horses came when I was 12, 13.”

The Davie, FL native eventually gravitated to the racetrack, taking out her exercise rider’s license on her 16th birthday.

“After galloping my first horse, that was it,” she said.

Among the many quality horses Fawkes galloped for her father was Sheer Drama, a multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire.

Fawkes, who returned to Gulfstream Park in the spring after wintering at Santa Anita with trainer Robert Falcone Jr., currently trains six horses, including four for Hot Scot Racing, and gallops and breezes all of them.

“It’s a huge advantage,” said Fawkes, who also regards her show horse experience as an invaluable resource to call upon while training Thoroughbreds. “You can see something from the ground that you can pinpoint, but when you’re on them you can feel exactly where it is. I can also tell how the horse is doing.”

Fawkes trains Jezebel Jones for Larry Fugate, a long-time client of her father. The 4-year-old daughter of Kantharos enters Friday’s race off a troubled debut for her father July 6, when she was bumped and steadied at the start.

“Mr. Fugate gave me my first show horse, a horse my dad trained named Little Bit Foolish,” Fawkes said. “After the race, Larry called my dad and said, ‘Hey, give the horse to Natalie.’

“She’s doing really, really good. I couldn’t be happier with her. Her coat looks great.
She’s jumping out of her skin. Hopefully, she puts all the pieces together,” she added. “I like that it’s her second time out. I think she picked up a lot, learned a lot first time. I worked her last week and she was perfect for me.”

While she picked up a client from her father, she doesn’t see much of him during training hours.

“He’s actually not there as much as I thought he would be. He’s been good with help whenever I’ve needed it, but, really, it’s been me, myself and I, which is perfect,” she said. “But he’s excited; he’s proud.”

While she couldn’t have gained a more solid foundation than the one she received from her father, Natalie Fawkes has always been open to the training techniques of others.

“I’ve learned a lot in my four year – it feels like it’s been 30. You learn a lot from everybody. I don’t know everything from my dad. I don’t know everything from working with Robert (Falcone Jr.),” she said. “I’ve picked up different things from trainers we’ve been in the barns with.
We were stabled with Christophe Clement in Belmont. I’ve picked things from him. In California were stabled with George Weaver – I’ve picked up a lot of things from different people.”