He is an ordained minister who shared a joint with Bob Marley back in the day. He is a black belt in Karate and sports a six pack. He doesn’t drink alcohol or soda or eat fried food. He is a loving husband to Eleanor and father to five children, Danist, Marcus, Tamara, Domanick and Lance. He has 13 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Danny Ramsey was born in Nassau in the Bahamas, and that is where he encountered his first racehorse.
It might seem like he has led a charmed life, but not really. He is just indomitable.
His father died when he was just 7, and his mother passed within a year of her husband. He said it hit him very hard, his mother’s death.
He was sent to live with his older brother, who was mean to him and beat the small boy.
He introduced him to horses, though, and gave him a harsh tuition. But tuition it was nonetheless, and young Danny took his lessons seriously.
‘The deal is off’
He rode his first race age 16 and soon became leading apprentice in his native country. He was riding out in the post parade one day when he saw a young girl standing under a tree. He asked the outrider who she was and was told she was the sister of the owner of the horse he was riding. That was a problem, as the ‘deal’ was on, and he was supposed to let some 10/1 shot win.
“The deal’s off!” he exclaimed to the consternation of the outrider. One of the conspirators approached him behind the gate and pleaded with him, but Danny said, “No, the deal is off!" And he won the race. In the winner’s enclosure, he said, “Tell your sister I’m in love with her.”
At the age of 19 he moved to the States with his young wife.
He race-rode for a while, but then took a bad fall and became a full-time exercise rider for Albert Winick, until Winick passed 26 years later. He said he became like a father to him and was heartbroken at his death.
After a brief stint training a small string of cheap horses, Danny joined John Ward and stayed with him until Ward’s retirement. He still tells stories of riding the truculent and temperamental Fusaichi Pegasus, who was with Ward initially before joining Neil Drysdale, who trained him to win the 2000 Kentucky Derby.
In 2012, Danny was headhunted by Kenny McPeek. Just three employers over all those years. A testament to his skill and loyalty.
That is where I met him, when I worked as Kenny’s assistant for the best part of two years. Danny was the person who made me laugh again, made me start to love life again.
His positivity and humor are infectious. I would be leading one of his horses to the track, and he would pass riders and they would ask him how he was. “I’m good. I’m better than good!” he would exclaim. “if you’re doing better than me I must be dead, so put me in the ground!” And he would start laughing to himself and so would I. And he said this most days, and still every day we laughed together.
We stood together and hugged in the winner’s enclosure at Saratoga as Eskimo Kisses flew past the wire in front in the G1 Alabama Stakes in 2018. That race is still one of my best memories in racing. A lot of people leave racing with little, but those memories, what price could you put on them though?
‘The outrider thought he was dead’
Ramsey was Eskimo Kisses’ regular rider, as he had been with Restless Rider when she won the G1 Alcibiades at Keeneland that spring.
He was breezing a horse at Gulfstream one morning in March 2020. A big heavy horse. Its bandage came undone, the big heavy horse tripped on it and came down. They were both fired into the dirt. The outrider thought Danny was dead when he reached him. He obviously didn’t know Danny very well.
He was badly hurt, though, a broken collarbone, broken jaw, cracked spine and severe concussion. I spoke to him weeks later. And then again months later and found he was not back at work yet. He had played down the seriousness of his injuries to me initially. I hoped he would be okay, wouldn’t get sick with anything else while recuperating. That wouldn’t be good. I hoped for his wife’s sake that he could be mobile and alright in his retirement.
When I heard a few months later that he was riding out again, I thought my ears might fall off.
Muhammed Ali, one of my other heroes, made one of the greatest comebacks in history in the Rumble In the Jungle, in what was known as Zaire in 1974 against the heavy hitting, seemingly invincible George Foremen.
Professional commentators worried about Ali, the hopeless outsider, that he could get seriously hurt. But Ali’s charm, his wit, his humanity won over the people of the what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The children would run with him and he would stop and play-spar with them and they would all be laughing, amazed at the giant man.
The man who became one of the great icons of human history would stop to play with children when training for his greatest battle. And all the while the people looked on and would cheer in the Bantu language Lingala, “Ali Boom Ba Ye! Ali Boom Ba Ye!” (Ali, kill him! Ali kill him! – see video above). Sixty thousand people were there that night and watched Ali ‘kill’ him.
Danny’s comeback was greater than that, though.
He is 70 years of age, Danny Ramsey, and each morning now he goes to the track and he gallops Swiss Skydiver.
He’s been killing it for years.
Danny, Boom Ba Ye. Danny, Boom Ba Ye.